What variety of fish can be kept?

[Shdwdrgn]

I live in Colorado, so while we don't have extremely harsh Winters, we do tend to freeze over for a few months of the year. I see a lot of folks talking about the types of fish they keep in more Southern climates, but there are a lot of us who have to deal with Winter freezes and do not have the option of bringing fish inside.

I've been discovering there are apparently quite a variety of fish native to North America which are quite interesting, and able to tolerate the Winter conditions. One of our recent discoveries is the Iowa Darter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etheostoma_exile). We ordered some online for an aquarium, and while these guys are typically bottom-dwellers, they are a lot of fun to watch. They are fairly small fish, but apparently do not get eaten because of their speed. They will eat insect larvae they find in the plants, and pick up uneaten food from the bottom. I am curious about acquiring some for my pond next year and see how they fare.

I have also mentioned Rosy Reds here before. Typically sold in pets stores as feeder fish, these guys are native to streams and rivers. I've had some in the pond for the past three years, and while they seem to spawn frequently through the Summer, there have been no surviving babies. I am hoping as the iris roots grow down through the rocks, this will give the babies the cover they need to grow.

Dragonflies of course can't just be caught and caged around the pond, but you can certainly attract them to your habitat. I've found that tall grasses seems to catch their attention. I do my best to bring in the dragonflies, because we have bad problems with mosquitoes due to living in the middle of town (not a lot of open wind to drive them away).

And finally, leopard frogs... I'm hoping to get some tadpoles this Spring and had a small handful of frogs around the pond.

So what else have you found that can tolerate Northern Winters? I really enjoy having a variety of creatures around my pond and would love to have a handful of different breeds of smaller fish that can survive along with the koi.

 

[Waterbug]

I ran into another pond forum recently where they were into keeping all kinds of native type fish in their ponds. Bluegills, bass, trout, catfish, sturgeon, the exotic the better.

Golden Orfe are a possible. Not considered fin biters but do have higher O2 needs than Koi.

I've seen white catfish in with Koi. Some people consider them too aggressive for Koi.

A lot of different fish have different needs. Can't really put a bunch of different fish together and expect a good outcome.

I don't know how you could keep dragonflies away. Once building a pond I had a Flame Skimmer show up everyday at 10am and leave at 4pm. He'd follow me around. Walk down the driveway, there he'd be. It was strange because there was no water in the pond yet, I was just digging it. When I did have the liner in I was filling it and a female Flame Skimmer shows up and the two started laying eggs within 20 minutes of the fill starting. I know it doesn't sound believable, I hardly believe it myself.

 

[addy1]

The dragon flies do love to have grass stalks, tall stems to land on. We had a ton of them this summer.

I think my 3 rosy reds got snatched by the heron, they were in the lotus pond, have not seen them since.

We had a pickerel frog show up, it looks a lot like a leopard frog, the spots are just slightly different. Anything that shows up is welcome to stay...........well except the heron.

 

[ididntdoit99]

I do have a bluegill in my pond, it was the first fish my son had caught all by himself, so it went into the pond and was saved from becoming dinner. Pretty skiddish still, but seems to do fine with the goldfish and koi, I think he was the one that did a lot of thinning of my fry this summer too.

A long time ago, I had a 75 gallon aquarium setup with a bluegill in it, and the bluegill became very social. So i'm hoping by next spring the bluegill in my pond will follow in the goldfish and koi's footsteps and become a little more social when we feed them.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I've heard of people keeping the larger native fish in their ponds with good luck. I would imagine native fish in general would be more hardy than koi. In my case, the koi and goldfish will be the dominant species in my pond, but I think its also fun to have a lot of little fish as well. The little guys will get into the rocks around the edges (preventing much waste from settling there), and they will have completely different personalities and activities from what the koi show. Besides which, I just feel its more natural to have a variety of species in the pond.

I'm still waiting to see how my weather loaches do over the Winter. I saw one down in the small pond after the first freeze melted off, and I moved him up to the larger pond so he could get into the deeper water. I think that guy has doubled or even tripled in size since he was released into the pond this year, so he was obviously eating well over the Summer.

 

[HARO]

The Mudminnow is one that would do well in a pond, but like most smaller natives, you'd never see it. Google Umbra limi (Eastern Mudminnow) and if I remember correctly there is a western variety as well. Very hardy, tenacious fish. John

 

[Mmathis]

SHDWDRGN -- like that name, BTW! You mentioned leopard frogs. A little off-topic, but a fun story: 2 years ago we had an extremely WET fall/winter. Lots of river, pond, bayou, & lake overflows. Where I ride horses, it was literally swamped! But the frogs took advantage of the water: gazillions of tadpoles everywhere. I felt it was my duty to rescue as many as I could. I adapted my huge aquarium and we raised Spotted Southern Leopard Frogs during the winter months, then released them in the spring. It was so much fun researching to identify the tadpoles and watching them morph into frogs! I used the filter set-up I'd used when my boxies were babie, changing the water-to-land ratio (more water, less land) and added some plants & goldfish. For those few months we had a mini pond in the den, and we've all commented that we miss watching the froggies -- but know they are happier back in their natural habitat.

Hope we get frogs when I get my pond built. Of course, they'll compete for turtle bugs, but....

 

[neptunesgardener]

I put a Yellow Perch into a pond to control the spring Goldfish population explosion. They're highly predatory but not as territorial as many other similar fish such as Bass and Sunfish and ignore the Goldies too big to swallow.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

It's funny what you find out when you do some research. It turns out the Iowa Darters that I was interested in have been classified as an invasive non-native species in my state. They have been found in two rivers, one of which happens to be the river running through my town!!! I think I'll grab a net and do some fishing this Spring, see if I can't help out my state with their 'invasive species' problem.

@neptunesgardener - I've run across a lot of people who enjoy the local fish stock rather than koi and goldfish. Perch and sunfish seem to be a favorite, probably because most of them stay smaller. Of course they sure do a number on the mosquito population too!

 

[sissy]

LOL but what would happen if it overpopulated your pond

 

[Shdwdrgn]

LOL but what would happen if it overpopulated your pond

They are fairly small, only getting to a couple inches at most. And if they spawn well, we wanted more for one of our aquariums as well. Beyond that, people are asking $3-$5 each when selling them online, I'm sure I could take care of any overpopulations.

 

[neptunesgardener]

If you're going to have an invasive Darter species it should have been one of the prettier ones like Greensides, Orangethroats, or Rainbows!

 

[Shdwdrgn]

From what I can tell, the Iowa darters seem to get colors similar to the rainbows. I do like the looks of the orange throats, never run across those before. Maybe if I can find a place to get them, we might try some in an aquarium. However in my case, the Iowas are ideal because I don't have to get them shipped across the country and acclimated to my climate. Thanks for the suggestions though, didn't know the darters were so pervasive.

 

[adavisus]

Shubunkins are gettin high in my estimation. Pretty enough to be eyecatching, but not so gaudy herons are going to spot them from a height, grow to a size more suitable for ponds than koi, tough as boots...

Regards, andy
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21940871@N06/
http://swglist.wordpress.com/

 

[sissy]

I had 1 shubunkin that jumped out of my pond this past spring and when I posted about it here I heard they do that during spawning and never knew .Never had a fish jump out in all these years and have had the shubunkins for a long time and is that common just for them or for any fish in your pond .I wondered if come spring I should take extra precautions so it does not happen again .