General Fish Information

General Fish Information

There are various types of fish that you can purchase for your water garden, and in general, many of these fish are going to have similar needs in order to ensure their success in living in your water garden environment. You really should limit the number of fish that you are putting in the water garden when you first are filling it, and working on balancing the environment in the water garden. This means that if you stress out too many fish, you are not going to lose a huge investment in your fish, but you are going to be able to work with the fish that you have and then you can add additional fish later after your garden is more stabilized.

Because fish are going to eat bugs, pests, and naturally occurring ‘things’ in your water garden, you don’t have to feed them every day and you don’t have to feed them a lot. Feeding your fish is more to make sure that they have the nutrients that they need, so you can train them to welcome you to the water garden, and so that you can inspect them for any other diseases or problems that they might have.

The fish in your water garden are going to eat the mosquitoes, larvae, flies, pests, bugs, worms, moths, leaf miners, aphids, and they are going to munch on some of your submerged plants in the water. The fish in your water garden will have a lot of food to meet their needs as you balance the water garden with plants. If you want to keep the process as natural as possible, you could purchase the insects and bugs that you can release into the water for the fish to eat instead of buying other types of processed fish foods.

Most all fish are going to be able to survive the winter where the top of the water garden does not freeze. If you are just creating a water garden, a depth of at least 24 inches is going to help the most delicate fish find warmer waters as your winter months get colder. Fish are a hardy species, and if you find that, your entire water garden does freeze over the winter months (and you have a small area) you can bring the fish in an aquarium over the winter months. If your water garden is on the larger side, the fish will ‘hibernate’ towards the bottom of the pond during the winter months even if the top is frozen solid.

During the spring months, you will have to take a look in the water garden and see how much debris is in the water. Too many leaves, sticks, and other types of debris can be too much for the fish to eat and live with. Small amounts of decaying leaves and such in the water is fine, but you will need to be on the look out for the water turning murky or dark, or green when you have too much debris in the water. Debris in the water can unbalance your water garden, putting your fish and your plants under stress. Cleaning out the water garden by pulling the bigger pieces of debris out of the water would be needed. Scooping the big piles of leaves and debris from the bottom of the pool is always a good idea as this is going to help your water balance again during the spring months.

After pulling the largest debris from the water garden, you will need to add a bit more water to the water garden because some does evaporate over the months. Be sure that you are not adding water that has chlorine in it so you don’t stress out your fish more. Add water from the garden hose that is from a well, or if you live in town, be sure that you know how much chlorine is in the water that you are using for your fish.