Ponds in Canada

[callingcolleen1]

Tonights clue; (cold fish in the tropics) if any one can guess it tonight, will let you know who is right!

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

HMMmmmm. As my Dad would say "You've got me flumoxed!" :question:

:goldfish:

 

[callingcolleen1]

Today's featured plant Eichhornia crassipes. Water Hyacinth

The GOOD ... A lovely little floating plant, many are lured into the easy peasy planting, just float in the water, no potting required!
I like to have just one or two floating in with the goldfish because the gold fish love to lay their eggs in the long feathery roots. I can then collect the odd plant for the eggs as my husband likes to have "baby" fish to "overfeed" in the house sometimes. (Husband always overfeeds, must watch him like a hawk!) If the water is very hot they perform very well, spreading quite fast. It can help provide shelter for fish from preditory birds and from the sun. The plant also performs well in a vegetative filter. Overwintering is possible indoors with enough light and temperatures above 70 F (21 C). Some people say if your "Lucky" you may see a very lovely flower!

The BAD.... this plant can grow very very fast and quickly take over the pond. New and unsuspecting pond people relish in their quick success, not realizing that the plant may be starting to "smother" the pond! This plant is outlawed in some southern parts of the states, as it can take over lakes and ponds, like the weed that is really is!

The UGLY... this plant is found in very tropical zones, getting it to bloom can be very easy but not a good thing for koi and goldfish, which are really "cold fish" as they are NOT tropical, and tend to do poorly if the water is too warm. All that is required to make this plant bloom is full sun, very very warm water and pack the floating plant into the pond until it is nearly falling out of the pond! Good for the plant, really bad for the fish. The plant will grow to every inch of your pond if you let it, acting like a blanket and smothering the pond. In small ponds this can be a killer! Gases build up, pond quickly overheats and the oxygen levels begin to really drop off and DEAD fish are the result. If you have seen this plant bloom, your water is way to warm and you have way too many and you should be pulling them out like the weed that they really are and chucking large amounts!

Been there, done that, killed some of my fish off, long time ago! Hoping some people will learn from my past mistake, plant sedges instead, they grow tall and will shade the pond better without smothering the surface!

Below is an old picture from 1996 that year I had a small pond by itself where my bottom pond now is. It was a very hot year and the pond was in a very hot spot and couldn't get the fish to live in that pond, I had even hooked up a whisky barrel with a liner and had that drop into the pond and still the water was too hot and smothered the pond. Had really nice blooms though later that year. This old pond is now in the front yard.

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

Interesting and enlightening@ :lamp5: 2 seasons ago, we had about 90% coverage of our pond with hyacinth and water lettuce. All of a sudden, we would find a dead fish here and a dead fish there. Did not know why they were dying. We had also floated hoola hoops to give ut a chance to see the fish...at least 4 to give us a "window to their world." Initially I thought maybe it was the food we were feeding at a local farm-type store had catfish food you could weigh out and it was way less expensive then regular pond food....you have to also remember, DH was still laid off as he was laid off for 22 mos. At any rate, we took samples in to have them tested and other than them saying, you have tannens in your water due to leaves, twigs etc. the readings were good. Never did find out what the problem was, but as we got closer to Fall when we started to remove some of the waterlettuce and that opened up more space and I ws unable to get the CF Food and went back to pond food, the deaths stopped. I think we lost close to 2 dozen fish that season. We did have mighty clear water though! I did not connect the hyacinths and water lettuce's coverage was the contributing factor until I read your post. :neutral: Maybe it was both factors? I guess I will never fully know. This year we have about 3 dzn. Hyacinth and some are doing well and others not so much. The first batch was stressed by being delivered to the wrong address and we received them 2 days after they were supposed to have been delivered. The company sent a second order out and those are doing well. I will certainly watch and keep them from taking over out pond. :redface: Thanks for this useful information, Colleen!

:goldfish:

 

[j.w]

They (water hyacinth or water lettuce) won't grow here and I have enough coverage and sure don't want to smother my fish!

 

[callingcolleen1]

All floaters can smother the pond. I would not have more than 50 percent coverage of these floaters and I only buy a couple now cause I really don't need them, but like a few by the marsh for babies to run and hide in.

If your pond is shallow, under two feet, I would be very carefully with them. Some people may get away with 80 percent coverage if their pond is much deeper or if the fish are quite small. But as the fish grow they require more room and oxygen, and then there is the heat factor, if it is a hotter than normal year it only adds to the woes.

lillys can also get out of control and if you have pad on pad and not much surface water left then you will need to thin the lillys as well.

Have a very nice relaxing Sunday by the pond everyone!

 

[pondlover]

Colleen your tips are very interesting and helpful. I have hyacinths in my skippy filter and toss a few to my fish as they need thinning. I leave them in my pond for a few days and have been tossing them in garbage now. It is amazing how quickly they grow.

 

[JenH]

I must have started off with a good bunch of goldfish last year then. I had 6 feeders and 3 baby shubunkins from PetSmart and 8 of them made it through our ponding nightmare last summer. But from what I have learned on here it's probably a miracle none of them died. 1 of them dissappeared and I am pretty sure this ginormous bullfrog ate him. We had to relocate that sucker 3 times before he got the message and didn't come back. Anyway, I had WH in my pond last year, and had heard it would flower if kept bunched together tightly. I had about 15 plants and used fishing line to keep them bunched together, got one flower all summer. I was so excited then, but now I guess I'll know better. But that little pond was only 18" deep and much much smaller, shouldn't have that big of a problem with the pond heating up this year!

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

I :heartpump: the Water Hyacinth. I just hope they do as good a job this year in clearing up our pond as they have done in the past. You do need to clear them out if they are overgrowing the pond, but that is not an issue in ours. We also canvas Craigslist and FreeCycle for anyone wanting to weed out their WH and get them for our pond. I cannot afford the amount needed to cover at least 50% of our pond surface. Wish I could. I love their beautiful flowers as well. I can also see how invasive they can be and you just have to be on top of them so that they do not get out of hand.

:goldfish:

 

[callingcolleen1]

I read on one thread about "garden dirt" and Addy I think grows other plants like daylillys and stuff in pond. I know that some plants can grow in pond and dirt, like some types of water iris grow in dirt too.

What is DH and WH? I know I'm kinda computer dumb, still learning all the "langrage"

 

[callingcolleen1]

OMG you have to see these pictures, hurry come quick..... the suns right in my pond!!! the Yellow flag is going to bloom very very soon.... I can't stand it, going to have a coffee, wish you were ALL here with me! (Just don't look at my old house!) Going to play by the pond allll day!!!!!!

 

[j.w]

Colleen love all your nice photos of your pond!
DH is dear husband and WH is water hyacinth. DW would be dear wife and WL would be water lettuce. jw is me,lol!

 

[addy1]

I read on one thread about "garden dirt" and Addy I think grows other plants like daylillys and stuff in pond. I know that some plants can grow in pond and dirt, like some types of water iris grow in dirt too.

What is DH and WH? I know I'm kinda computer dumb, still learning all the "langrage"

I grow mine in kitty clay, no dirt. There is pond dirt you can buy. Great photos colleen!

 

[Shoestring Ponder]

Excellent photos Colleen! I can see why you were excited! Gosh, do you have a better camera that allows such nice pics? Lovely, simply lovely. :luxlove: I would never want to leave the pond it mine looked 1/2 as nice as yours. Someday, when we win the lottery, first purchase will be a ranch style home because of my bad knees, but the second will be such a lovely pond! Gosh. coffee in the morning by the pond must be so restful! :goldfish:

 

[callingcolleen1]

Got a better cell phone that has HD pictures. After Sadie passed I thought I needed a better camera cause the old pictures were so bad quality and my eye sight is not getting any better with age. Got this cool android cell phone for free when my contract came up and it led to getting this tablet for free that I use to post it and pond it here, want to get my hubby one for his birthday in August and he can come play with it when he's out of town working and send me pictures and stuff. At first he was mad that I got this "beast" cause it was "evil" and wouldn't have anything to do with it, but now he's looking up stuff and seems to play with the "beast"' we'll see, maybe... got to go back to doing stuff in the yard now, put the big Tin Foil Barbs in the middle pond, moved one of the Calla's to the small pond to see if it flowers more there.

Addy I was wondering about the day Lilly you put out in your pond, was it a certain kind, or will any daylilly do?