A Beginning of Fish and Plants

I knew nothing about pond maintenance when we started -- now I know only a little bit. But the only way to really learn is experience, so after reading the books and talking to the nice lady at the pond store, we took the plunge and got 3 gold fish. That worked so well the next day my wife got 8 more. I also added pond salt and have been adding the dry bacteria recommended for the biofilter.

Alas, I'm pretty sure now that I overestimated the size of the pond (I thought it was around 800 gallons -- now I've recalculated and estimate 450), and I'm pretty sure I overdid the salt and the bacteria. At least that's my guess for why the fish started looking very lethargic. 5 ended up in the skimmer the next day (not harmful, but it shows they were just floating with the current).

Eventually I got the water stabilized and 9 of the 11 fish survived and now thrive. At the pond store lady's recommendation we added a shelf in the middle of the pond to give the fish a hiding place and as a place for hosting some water plants, as you can see in the picture below:


This was taken just after the rain storm (two days long, but rarely more than a drizzle) ended. Some of the other things you see in the pond are actually fake aquarium plants and logs that we tried first. The fish seem to like all of these. After the sun comes out you'll often see a school of all nine swim around the pond, but if you come close they will feel the vibrations and move -- either to the other side or under the rock.

The reason the black pipe in the back is in the pond is that a pipe leak was found. I have the repair stuff -- was waiting only for the rain to end to repair it. However, this event suggests that I probably don't want to bury the pipe where I can't inspect it should another leak occur.

The plan is to use stones to make some "shelves" for marginal plans on one of the sides, and to add more plants to the center. Also, of course, we have to scenic the area around the pond, but that is a topic for another post.

I won't go full bore with the pond plants until we've gotten through this summer and next winter to see how things go with 4 seasons. In the meantime, the main focus now is the rest of the front garden.