How do you know if waterfall is too strong for goldfish?

[Laaf]

My parents have a pond they previously kept fish free. They replaced the pump with a stronger one for a faster/harder waterfall a few years ago. It is quite brisk.

Now we have added fish and plants.

I do not think it is too strong because the fish swim under it and jump up along the rock edge it is falling onto. (Only sometimes. they are mostly other places. But one orange fish seems to really like to play in the flow) I do wonder if it makes the water too turbulent for lilies, only time will tell.

It is quite strong. It is gushing not trickling, as you may be able to tell by the white/aeration in the falls. It still has blue in it.

How would we know if the goldfish are bothered by her waterfall flow rate, or enjoying it? We can add a flow regulator.

When we added fish we discovered there is a fish cave in the front left corner I never knew was there when it was fish free.

It is 11 feet by 7 feet. maybe 2 feet at the deepest. It was there when they moved in. They used to add blue before fish, now they are not adding more and will wait for it to fade away.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[CometKeith]

My parents have a pond they previously kept fish free. They replaced the pump with a stronger one for a faster/harder waterfall a few years ago. It is quite brisk.

Now we have added fish and plants.

I do not think it is too strong because the fish swim under it and jump up along the rock edge it is falling onto. (Only sometimes. they are mostly other places. But one orange fish seems to really like to play in the flow) I do wonder if it makes the water too turbulent for lilies, only time will tell.

It is quite strong. It is gushing not trickling, as you may be able to tell by the white/aeration in the falls. It still has blue in it.

How would we know if the goldfish are bothered by her waterfall flow rate, or enjoying it? We can add a flow regulator.

When we added fish we discovered there is a fish cave in the front left corner I never knew was there when it was fish free.

It is 11 feet by 7 feet. maybe 2 feet at the deepest. It was there when they moved in. They used to add blue before fish, now they are not adding more and will wait for it to fade away.

Thanks for any advice.

Hi. Nice pond! I like your Buddha! So my opinion is you can never really have enough water flow and oxygenation for fish. The larger your fish get the more dissolved O2 there needs to be in the water. Most experienced ponders have a lot of water flow. I really think this helps to make a healthy environment for your fish. You may need to move your lily to the quieter part of your pond because they don’t like to have their leaves submerged and will turn yellow. The fish that ”plays” in the waterfall is probably doing that because it is craving more dissolved O2. I’m guessing it may have damage gills or not be able to get the oxygen it needs from the other parts of your pond. Do you always use declor when you add water? That could be a problem if you don’t, but it’s unusual it would affect just one fish.

 

[Lisak1]

Our fish hang out under the waterfall too, especially when there's been any kind of clean up activity. I think they find lots of good snacks coming down the waterfall.

If they were bothered by the rate of flow, they would avoid it, not hang out in it, so I think you're fine there. And it looks like your lily is far enough from the falls that it should be fine, too.