My goldfish pond

[callingcolleen1]

I am also glad to hear you are going to remove the sludge. Nest year I would start gently netting a bit at a time as soon as the ice melts, and on a nice warm day. I do this every year, and if you do it very gently, just a little at a time, you will stay ahead of the mess.
I am also very happy to hear you have found a frog, you are lucky, I never get frogs and would be so happy to have some! Who knows for sure what happened to your green frogs, maybe they found some mud elsewhere to winter, as I hear the green frogs like to winter deep in the mud. They may just show up again, from where ever they went, so not to worry, as if you had them last year, they will most likely find you again this year.

 

[addy1]

My green frogs just started showing up, they sit still you can walk right up on them. Bull frogs are gone the second they sense you. I would prefer no bull frogs, but that is an impossibility. I would have to kill off the ponds, all the tads all the frogs and fish and start over, and the suckers would still show up from somewhere.

This guy was sunning yesterday in the lotus tub, surrounded by tads

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, that would be me, saying I wasn't going to remove any stuff from the bottom of my ponds this year until the plants started growing. Sorry if you took me up on that suggestion, Keith. I said from the get go that I was doing it as an experiment, not sure if removing it was what caused my koi pond last spring to go murky brown for over a month. I have very little leaf and sludge down there, less than 1" in depth. I put in my first dose of beneficial bacteria product I like to use, and will do it again in another week. It will help break everything down, and then tends to make the stuff become a large "matt" that is easily removed completely. I have netted some of the algae out that the very warm days this week (mid 80's) caused to seem to "grow to the surface". I also noticed my goldfish swimming into the netting looking green stuff, I think maybe to spawn, so didn't remove it all. Today, cooler temps, no green foaming stuff on the surface, and skimmers are not clogged either. I am learning as I go, and reading about the foaming stuff being bad stuff so will keep that in mind and remove more and more as the days warm up again. As I said, though, I do not have much leaf and muck down there, very minimal, I removed it last fall, and have very few trees in my yard that dump into the ponds. :blueflower:

 

[CometKeith]

Colleen, All the frogs were imported (store bought or given to me by friends). Unfortunately where we live they don't just show up. I am hoping the green ones will show back up at some point! Great picture of a bullfrog Addy! Your pictures are always amazing. So that's a female right? The first time I had a bullfrog I was worried it would eat all the small fish because I had watched some dumb video on youtube where they starve a frog and then they eat almost anything. Well I have had a few bullfrogs and so far and none of my fish have ever gone MIA. Someone did tell me last summer when I went on the pond tour that their bullfrog caught and ate a bird so they got rid of it. CE, Sorry it wasn't you that I was thinking of. Its this person that likes to write really long narratives and acts like he is expert on everything. I think he probably does know a lot, but obviously I don't like his style. He never told me what to do, but I read his advice not to touch your pond between 42-62 degrees on someone else's thread and I adopted his strategy for my pond. Maybe it was wrong, but my fish generally have been doing better this year than past Springs and this was one of the things I had changed. I also increased waterflow greatly and maybe that is what really helped. CE Where did you buy this stuff? I would like to try it.

 

[addy1]

Green frog Keith, look at the ridge going down its back, a bull frog does not have that.

not my bull frog, but you can see how the ridge goes around the membrane



I net my pond off and on during the summer, totally murks up the water, but it clears in a day. Just dumped in crushed oyster shells into the bog, pond turned white from the dust, but gone about 6 hours later.

The worse part of netting the bottom is sorting out the hundreds of trap door snails I have. Can't just dump and kill them or anything else I find in the muck. Do wear gloves for sorting through the muck!

I have tons of second year tads, bull frog or green, green tend to be a little smaller than the bull frog tad. If you want I can try and ship you some. They will morph this year.

 

[callingcolleen1]

The bottom pond that has only goldfish, still has some muck and guck mixed up with the hornwort, as well as wild snails too. I wait to take that out till last, as the hornwort is coming back to to life and I don't want to disturb that just yet. The middle pond has bigger goldfish and medium size koi, and the really big Koi are in the top pond. Their are no snails in the upper ponds except in the marsh. The koi would stir up the sludge if I left it, and then their is never much sludge in the upper ponds to begin with as the fast flowing water carries it mostly away.

CE I too strongly believe in using benificial bacteria as I have used this in the past with good results. It does not work immediately, but once it gets going, it can break the sludge down quite nice and get rid of the smell. Their are different types of bacteria that you can buy, and you can get bacteria that targets the sludge effectively. You can never go wrong using too much bacteria, as it does not hurt the fish. The warmer the water the faster the bacteria will work. You can still continue to net out excess sludge and still use the bacteria as well.

I do get lots of stuff falling in my ponds as their is many trees in my yard that drop things all the time in my ponds, so I try to stay on top of the leaf litter all the time.
Some larger ponds that have just goldfish can handle more sludge build up as the goldfish do not stir up the sludge like the koi do. Then if you have more fish this year, or bigger koi, the waste load does increase, so you will have to sometimes use your own judgement, as what may work for some, may not work for all.

Increasing the water flow in the spring is aways good in my opinion. It is natural, as most creeks and rivers will get an increased flow of water in the spring that will naturally wash excess nutrients away. I have additional pumps that I use for spring and summer, and then in the fall, I reduce the flow for the winter.

Keith I too tired to have pretty green frogs, but I they all hopped away and never came back. I think if we lived in the country or wooded areas we might have had more luck with keeping green frogs. At least you got a toad, which is more that I got!

On another note, the last two days have been little warmer and the bigger fish were really active last night in the top two ponds, it even looked like the bigger goldfish in the middle pond were trying to spawn last night!! The water is still only 50 degrees!! They must be desperate!!

 

[CountryEscape]

CE Where did you buy this stuff? I would like to try it.

Keith, it's called Pond Perfect, and I absolutely love it. I'm not trying to promote anyone's product, as I do not sell it, but my local very small pet shop had it 2 years ago, I tried it and have purchased it on-line. Just find the cheapest place that sells it with free shipping. I think it cost me something like $85 on-line last year. I've asked my local pet shop if they have the gallon size (that's what cost that much, BTW, but you only use about 4 oz per 2500 gal of pond water per week when needed), and they are out of the gallon size but will get more in. I just like it as it gives me added bacteria this time of year, once the water warms up, before the other stuff starts growing really well. And, as Colleen says, you can't have too much, and you can't overdose your pond, per se. A gallon lasts me more than a year with both ponds, one 4500 gal, the other 2700 gal.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks CE. i am going to see if I can find a smaller quantity online. It sounds like good stuff. Colleen. I netted the bottom today a little and am going to do a little everyday. That all sounds like good advice. I did see all three frogs today that I had last year.
Addy Yes! if you want to send tadpoles and put together a package like last year if you have extras that would be great! I'll be happy to pay for postage. Thanks!

 

[ponder630]

Have you guys tried the Microblift PL? I picked up a bottle last week and used it to seed my biofilter that I built. After one week of running it, I have crystal clear water. The thin layer of dead leaves and deitrus also vanished, more like broken down and in my filter now, but I just flushed it out this morning. So far so good, but at the same time I'm not sure which one played more of a role of clearing it up, the filter or the Microbelift....I'd like to say both?

I too saw my frogs today, its finally feeling like spring again!

 

[addy1]

Thanks CE. i am going to see if I can find a smaller quantity online. It sounds like good stuff. Colleen. I netted the bottom today a little and am going to do a little everyday. That all sounds like good advice. I did see all three frogs today that I had last year.
Addy Yes! if you want to send tadpoles and put together a package like last year if you have extras that would be great! I'll be happy to pay for postage. Thanks!

extras............how about 1000's I think most of the small tads are tree frogs and toads. The one stream pond has green frog small tads in it. The preforms have a lot of second year tads.

This lil guy morphed last year. Took over the log from the bigger green frog......... bossy lil thing

 

[CountryEscape]

If I had any idea how to ship them, I could go out to my farm pond, where it runs over, and gather all the bull frog tads anyone would want! But, I would guess a person would need one of those styrofoam containers, and then oxygen to fill the bag, or maybe not. Addy, how do you send them? If anyone lives close and wants some, you are welcome to come "fish" some out! Not sure what stage they would be in right now, but remember a couple of years ago there were a bunch in the grassy areas where the pond overflows, dogs were having a good time trying to catch them. Saw the dogs doing that same routine last Monday when I mowed, so assume they are there again. With the rain we have had, it's definitely overflowing in that same area again.

 

[addy1]

The one time I shipped, they were tiny tads, just hatching from the egg stage. I am not sure how well the 2nd year tads will do, I used a large plastic bag, a little water, some plant material, fluffed it with air tied tight and shipped. The second year tads are tough, just found one living in some muck, hardly any water, from a lily I moved and left the muck in a pot.

The hardest part is catching them again, when I emptied the leaking preform I had around 50 collected in a pan while fixing the preform. Full of water they are as bad as a fish to catch.

 

[CountryEscape]

I was going to go out to the pasture to check out the pond, see if any bullfrog tadpoles in the overflow area, but then realized the dogs would want to follow me, and my mule does not like the dogs in HIS pasture! So, instead I started getting the lawn decorations (metal art, etc.) out of the shed, dusted off, sprayed with polyurethane spray, so tomorrow they can be put in the gardens again. Can't wait to get the new "spinner" put back up, too! It can't handle heavy winds, so I'll have to be extra careful not to leave it out if high winds or storms expected.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Addy. Tree frogs,toads, and green frogs are welcome. I do have three that made it from the tiny tadpole stage last year and I think at least two are not bullfrogs because they don't have that little disk on the side of their head. Also it seems like these two are a little less scared of me than bullfrogs. All my fish are doing exceedingly well this year. No sign of disease. The babies are starting to get bigger and I have noticed many of their tails are getting longer too. They are all super friendly and all the mature fish rush over to me whenever i approach the pond probably hoping to get fed. I have been feeding once a day now and I think this has helped them get stronger and build up their resistance rather than waiting to feed them like past years until the pond fully cycles. I have read my posts from last year and I noticed one big difference between this year and previous years. This is the first year I did not introduce anything new into the pond until the temperatures warmed up significantly. No plants, frogs, snails, or new fish at all. I think this might have helped in keeping the fish healthier this spring by not adding something that could have caused an outbreak of bad bacteria. CE, Thanks for the offer of your bullfrogs, but... I am actually trying to avoid them! Ponder630 I'll keep that in mind. Did you check out Lurvey's yet? I stopped there this weekend to pick up a few floaters and they had such nice Koi it almost made me want to add one to my goldfish pond!

 

[ponder630]

CometKeith, I have not made it up to Lurvey's yet, but I plan to stop by next time I head to the northern burbs to visit my wife's sister. I love checking out all the stores that sell ponding stuff. You've got me looking at picking up some Wakins, not quite as pretty as your watonai though...