Introducing fish to Your Garden Pond

Before spending all kinds of money on Koi, shubunkins, fantails and other fancy fish, you should go to Wal-Mart or Meijer and buy feeder goldfish from their pet department. These are cheap. They cost 10¢ to 20¢ per fish. These fish are the canaries in the mine. Sure some of them will die, but on the whole if the majority survive, it is safe to introduce other fish. One thing to remember with feeder fish, especially from Wal-Mart, they might have diseases. Some of the fish diseases can be contagious and infect the whole pond.

Big Box stores usually do not maintain their aquariums good enough and some fungal or bacterial infections, such as ick or fin and tail rot are common among their fish. As a precautionary measure, when introducing the feeder gold fish, add and anti-bacterial and anti-fungal treatment into your whole pond. This will solve the problem. The healthier feeder fish will get stronger and over the years, you will see them actually get bigger. A good treatment, made by Pondcare is PimaFix. This takes care of both fungal and bacterial infections. This treatment will also kill good bacteria, essential for keeping your water clear, you will see your water get murky for a couple of weeks. This will clear up after the treatment is over.

What are Goldfish and Their Species

Goldfish are simply put, fancy carp. Goldfish and Koi both belong to the carp family. But they differ from each other in that goldfish don’t have any barbels around their mouth. This characteristic allows them to be distinguished at a glance from koi.. They can get as big as carp too. This is why they are cold hardy. Over the centuries carp have been hybridized to be decorative fish in ponds. Especially in Southeast Asia.

The Chinese and the Japanese are the masters at hybridizing goldfish, especially Koi. Koi were originally bred in Japan for their temple ponds. Even today, though there are Koi breeders in the United States, many Koi wholesalers import their Koi from Japan. This is one of the reasons that Koi can be so expensive.

Different kinds of goldfish breeds are listed below:

• Comet:

The comet is your basic goldfish. Its body is streamline shape and has the conventional “fish” shape. The feeder fish you buy to test the water for your fish survivability are baby comets and pet shops sell them as food for piranas. Comets can get to be seven to eight inches long. They get big fast. They also spawn prolifically. Comets can range from a different variety of colors. Comets come in bright reds, oranges, reds and whites, yellows. Some are even black, brown or even purple.

• Fantail Goldfish:

The Fantail goldfish is another common breed of goldfish. The fantail is more fancy than the comet. The fantail goldfish is does not have the streamline body that the comet has. Its body is more round or ovular in shape and has a long fan like tail. Fantail goldfish can also be a variety of different colors ranging from reds and oranges to blacks and purples. Some fantails are even calico.

• Shubunkins:

Shubunkins are not really goldfish. Like goldfish, they are in the carp family, but they do not come in reds or oranges. Subunkins have a body that is like a cross between a fantail and a comet. They have the comet’s streamline body and the fantail’s tail. Shubunkins are only calico. Shubunkins can get to about a foot long.

• Koi:

Koi are the king of the pond fish. Koi are the most beautiful and the largest of all the domesticated pond fish. Koi come in a variety of different colors. Koi can get up to three feet long in a large enough pond. The difference between Koi and conventional goldfish is that Koi have whiskers on the sides of its mouth.

• Butterfly Koi:

The butterfly Koi is a hybrid of the Japanese Koi and the Indonesian butterfly carp. It was hybridized by a German exploring Asia. The butterfly Koi is popular in Europe and America, but not in Japan. The butterfly Koi has a very long tail and side fins.

Fish Diseases

There are some fish diseases that you need to be on the look out for. Two of the most common are the following:

Ick: Ick is a bacterial infection that will eventually kill the fish and can infect the whole pond. The common symptom of ick is that the goldfish or Koi will start to develop little white spots on its tail and fins. This will eventually spread all over the fishes body and inside as well. The recommended treatment for ick is to isolate the stricken fish and keep it in a separate fish tank. Use the PimaFix for two weeks. That should treat the disease. Keep the fish isolated for at least three weeks after treatment.

Fin and Tail Rot: Fin and tail rot is a fungal infection that will eat away at the fishes fins and tails. This fungus will cause the fins and the tail to rot away. It will also affect the fish’s internal organs, killing it. A fish with this illness should be taken out of the pond and allowed to die. There is no treatment for this disease and the fungus can infect the other fish as well.

Biological Pond Treatments Versus Chemical Treatments

Biological treatments are by far the best for your pond. Bacteria are a major part of the pond’s ecosystem. There are different bacteria in the pond’s water that serve different functions. One bacteria eats away the particles in the water, such as fish waste, decaying plant matter, etc. keeping the water clear. Other bacteria eat away at the decaying leaf litter, sludge and much that builds up in your pond.

Microbelift is one of the best suppliers of biological solutions out there for your pond. By looking at Microbelift’s website at www.microbelift.com, you can see a whole line of products that are available to maintain a healthy pond ecosystem. The Microblift products I personally use and what they do are listed below.

1. Microbelift PL is your basic biological solution that is used in the summer months from May to September to keep the water clear and the filters from clogging up with muck.
2. Microbelift SA also known as “SludgeAway is great in the spring and in the fall. This is a bacteria that eats away at the muck, sludge and decaying leafe litter and plant matter that builds up your pond.
3. Microbelift BMC is a bacillus strain of bacteria that kills mosquito larvae before they develop into a full grown mosquitos.
4. Microbelift Spring & Summer Prep is not a liquid like the other Microbelift products mentioned above. These are enzymes in water soluble packets. These work best in combination with Microbelift SA.
5. Microbelift Fall/Winter Prep is a combination of the water soluble enzyme packs along with a special strain of PL bacteria that can handle cold temperatures. This used in combination helps decompose fresh leaf litter falling from the trees in autumn.

Winterizing Your Pond

There are a few things you need to do to get your pond ready for the winter. First you need to turn off the pumps that run the water features. If you have fish you need a floating heater that will keep a hole in the ice to allow toxic gasses to escape out of the water. Also you should have an aerator. This is an air pump connected to a small hose with an aerating stone that will continuously provide your fish with an ample supply of oxygen in the winter. When it gets colder, the fish become less active and will consume less oxygen.

Feeding the Fish

Fish should be fed modestly. Once or twice a day. Never feed the fish more than they can eat. The fish food can prompt rapid algae growth if it is not consumed. Feed fish a spring/fall diet in the spring and fall, when the temperature falls below 65 degrees. Do not feed the fish in the winter when the water is below 50 degrees.

Now that you have built your pond and have stocked it with fish, you are ready to sit back and enjoy. The tranquility of a water garden of a fishpond also has health benefits. Enjoy.

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