Fish Ponds

1.  What Kind of Pond? There are many choices. The pond can be made of plastic, or half of an old wooden barrel with a plastic liner, or a concrete pond with or without an epoxy or tile coating. Some pond keepers put dirt in the bottom of their plastic or concrete ponds to make their ponds more organic. Ponds also vary greatly in size from a few gallons to many thousands of gallons.

Lets suppose that you have a plastic pond holding 40 or 50 gallons of water, or maybe half a wooden barrel with a plastic liner like the one shown above. Ponds like this can be bought in the spring at local Pet Stores.

2.  How to Start a Pond. Your pond probably comes with some instructions about how to install it. Carefully read and follow those instructions. The instructions may recommend that you add a water conditioner to neutralize some of the chemicals that your local water department adds to the tap water. Don't be impatient. Fill the pond with tap water from the faucet, add some water conditioner, and wait at least three days before adding any fish.

You’ll also need some floating goldfish food such as TetraFin Flake Fish Food for small fish or Tetra Pond Floating Food Sticks for large fish. Get an 8-inch fish net with a handle long enough to reach everywhere in your pond.

3.  Pick a Good Place for Your Fish Pond. You can put your pond almost anywhere, but not where a lot of leaves or other debris will fall into it. Or you could cover your pond with lath or screen probably available at Home Depot.

Ponds use quite a bit of water, so it's convenient to put your pond near the plants in your yard and pump the old water from your pond on to those plants.

4.  Good Fish for Ponds. You have three choices 

• Fantails and Orandas
   
• Pond Comets
   
• Koi and Butterfly Koi
   

Fantails are less aggressive than Pond Comets and Koi. If you prefer Fantails, do not mix them with Pond Comets or Koi. You can mix the Pond Comets with Koi, but a good many Koi keepers decline to do so because their Koi are often worth much more than Pond Comets. We've never felt that way, but then we've never owned a $10,000 Kohaku Koi.

5.  How to Change Water in your fish pond. Change 20% of the water in your pond twice each week. Remove some old water from your pond and replace it with fresh tap water from the faucet. In most areas of the country you don't need to add conditioner to the water when you change 20% or less. But changing more than 20% can be risky even when you add conditioner.

How much is 20%? In my barrel pond, shown in the photo at the top of this page, the sides are almost vertical. so 20% of the volume of the water in my pond is 20% of the depth of the water in my pond. This method won't work unless the side are nearly vertical.

I measured the water in my pond at 13" deep, and 20% of 13" is 0.20 x 13" = 2.6". So I remove 2.5" of water twice a week.

The water coming out of a pond is better for plants than the water going into a pond. So your pond won't really use much water; it will just borrow the water for a while, before it goes on your plants.

If you have a pond that is below ground level, you should get a water pump and use it to remove the water from your pond. The inlet to your pump should have a screen, so it won't suck up the fish. After you've removed 20% of the water, refill your pond with tap water.

6.  How to Clean Your Fish Pond. You should have a 8" wide net with a handle long enough to reach all parts of your pond. Use the net to remove debris from the surface of the water and the bottom of your pond.

Part of the natural cycle of your pond will be for organic matter to decompose, dissolve into the water, and be removed when you change water. So changing water is a very important part of the process of cleaning your pond. Change 20% of the water in your pond twice a week.

7.  How to Feed Fish in Ponds. Feed only floating food that is specifically made to be eaten by fish in ponds. Food that sinks may cause problems. Start by giving your fish a small three finger pinch. After they've eaten all the floating particles, give them a little more.

Continue giving them small pinches and watching them eat. Avoid leaving uneaten food in your pond. Any food that is uneaten after 10 minutes should be removed with your net.

We have read advice elsewhere that all goldfish should be fed sinking food, because when they take food off the surface, they will swallow air bubbles that will cause problems. This is contrary to our experience.

I just watched my goldfish eat off the surface. After most mouthfuls of food, he burped a bubble or two of air out through his gill. The ancestors of this fish have been eating food off the surface of the water for a very long time. Of course they also ate off the bottom and at all levels of the water between the top and bottom too.

So don't worry about your goldfish swallowing air while eating. Feeding food that floats is a good practice. If your fish don't eat all of the food in 10 minutes, get a net and remove the uneaten food.

If you have trouble with your pond, don't overreact and make too many changes too fast. This is a good way to turn a small problem into a much bigger problem. So if your fish don't look right, or show unusual behavior, or you have a fish or two die, don't tear your pond apart.

Just start making a 20% water change each day. You may want to add Aquarium Salt to your water and perhaps add Quick Cure. Click here to read about a Recommended Treatment that can be used in Ponds.