article: Starting the New Pond

Starting the New Pond

Starting the new water garden you should start out with just a few small feeder fish, like the hardy and inexpensive feeder goldfish. As you are starting to create the water garden using an under supply of fish is going to be a bit more tricky to clean out and balance your water garden, but you are not going to stress out the fish that cost more and that are a bit more delicate to handle, giving you the edge in stocking your water garden at a later date. The first fish that you put in the water garden should be about ½” long for every foot of water that you have. That means if you have fish that are four inches long, they will need four square foot of water. Do this for all the feeder fish that you are stocking with so you leave additional water space for fish at a later date.

Guppies and minnows are going to work well when you are first working with your water garden, balancing the environment. If you are going to purchase minnows for your water garden, be sure to buy minnows with clear skin, clear eyes, and the minnows that are most active, swimming in the water. If you are building the very large water garden, using the Japanese koi in the pond will give you colorful fish that you can enjoy, and feeder fish that will balance out, cleaning the water garden constantly for your other delicate fish.

The fish are going to make the water garden their home. Gardener fish, which is all fish, are going to eat bugs, pets, and they are going to eat algae, larvae, and portions of your submerged plants. Even though you want your water garden submerged plants to be in top condition at all times, there is very little you can do about the fish that are going to eat at your plants that are in the water garden.

As you are buying fish and you are planning on taking them home to put them in the water garden, be sure that you put them in a plastic bag. This keeps their water from spilling and stressing the fish. Setting the bag in the water garden, still tied, for about an hour or two, will benefit the fish. As the water in the bag, meets the temperature of the water in the pond, the fish will be under much less stress as you leave them go in the water. This creates the best atmosphere for the fish and you will find that you will have fewer fish that will die off because of water shock.

Introducing the fish into the water garden is the first step in successfully creating a water garden. The fish that you first put into the water garden will not need a lot of food. Feed your fish sparingly so that you don’t over load the water and put more stress on the fish by giving them too much. Fish will eat more in your water garden than what you might think and this is actually better for your fish, your plants, and to create the clean water that you want to see!