need advice on ponds

Hey guys, I will moving into a house with this in the back "yard" soon.



Anyone have tips on how to look after a pond? This is about 30 feet in diameter and I don't know yet how deep it is. But I'm so excited with the prospect! I'm assuming I could (depending on depth) have some koi or larger fancy golds....

What about mosquito fish? Could I keep some of them with goldies?

Anyway, I'm a total newbie to ponds so any tips you guys have to share I'd love to hear :mrgreen:

:m17:

 

yea, i think the mosquito fish will go fine with goldfish and koi.....with that size pond you can sure get some nice monster-sized koi out of it.

 

What is growing on it? The water looks stagnant. A fountain may help that. Proper water circulation should be addressed. You are very lucky!!! That pond is huge! I would put some largemouth bass in there and try and raise a state record! But, thats just me. :mrgreen:

 

Hey thanks guys. The owners have said that it is just algae and if we were to run the sprinklers on it it would break up. It is constantly being fed by a irrigation ditch so I'd assumed that acted as a filter.... here's a pic of the ditch.



Anyone else have any tips to share?

 

The first thing you need to check is it a closed system or is there a creek which feeds into it where your fish could cause problems. If it truly is a closed system, at last somebody has enough space to raise a Pacu. Adding a fountain and some water plants will help control the algae that is floating on top. A Victoria water lily would be great. They're the ones that get leaves six feet in diameter that are sturdy enough for a 250 lb man to stand on. The colors of the bloom change in a 24 hour period.

 

P bass! Trout!

 

how cold would u say it gets around there in wintertime?

 

Oooh, that lily sounds pretty!

I'm not sure, I bet it's a closed system because it's really only there in case anything catches on fire. It's in such a rural area that nearly all the houses have ditches/creeks and huge ponds in the yards so that the fire department has easy access to lots of water during the dry summers should something go wrong. But then that ditch does extend into other ditches which might end up in a creek somewhere down the line. Good point you make kc5gvn.

Here's the way it looks to be set up. You have the irrigation ditch which flows around the pond maybe 1/8 of a mile away. Some of this water has been diverted into sort of trickling into the pond to act as a constant replenisher so the pond should never go dry.

There is also a family of wild ducks that call it home in the spring. Would they eat my fishies?

I just have this sudden urge to go save a bunch of pacus and ID sharks :mrgreen: LOl, I know they wouldn't survive the winters. It's just the fact that I could actually have a fish THAT big :m17:

 

Occassionally it drops down to freezing, but never very farther beneath that. Generally on a winter night the average low temp would be in the mid forties. It will also usually be a rather constant 105 degrees during the summer.

Funny you should say that. I've already had lots of offers from guys who want to stock it themselves and then invite themselves over later to have their own private fishing hole. Hands off boys!

 

It's a very good point to check out where the system goes to because it could be a danger to the fish/place where the water goes to. You dont want your fish in danger of going through a disposel (sp?) or it going into a open public place so just watch that. other then that koi fish are nice to have.

 

Try this link for Victoria water lillies: http://www.victoria-adventure.org/victo ... index.html
Having plants with large leaves will help keep the water cool when it's 105. Also a fountain will lower the water temperature. The water will be cooler than the 105 degrees. At 105 the water temperature will probably be close to 95 degrees at the top of the water, but if the pond is relatively deep that temperature will drop the farther down you go. As to freezing temperatures, the water freezes on the top first, then the sides, then the bottom. In other words from the outside to inside. Even at freezing temperatures the water in the middle of the pond at mid depth will be warmer. This is all relative to the size of the pond. The larger the pond is the more stable the temperature will be. Be especially careful during the summer when the water temperature gets above 90 degrees in a non-flowing pond, it will develop an amoebic type bacteria which can cause meningitis.

 

Thanks again. I'm so going to have to get one of those lillies! I've heard through the grapevine that most of the ponds in the area are only about 18" deep. If that is the case with this pond I will just fill it with plants and mosquitofish (they're free here to help stop the spread of West Nile Virus) and call it done.