Stocking the garden Fish pond

Your correctly sited fishpond is now ready to receive its occupants. It has been filled with water and every suspected leak seen to. The surrounds have been paved, grassed or ground covered. Pond plants are installed and growing, some in large pots in deep water (the aquatics) and some in shallow water planted in smaller pots or trays, and some simply rooting into the mud at the edge or planted into the shallow ledge especially built for them.

Oxygenators are at their work beneath the water surface. If you have left the water long enough it would have turned green and then begun to clear. On close examination you may observe myriads of tiny 'water fleas' proliferating happily amidst the algae. Certainly, various water bugs would have appeared, 'water boatman', backswimmers' and perhaps even mosquitoes!

At this point your pond is ready for the fish to be introduced. The two common garden fish are of course goldfish and Japanese coloured carp, known as koi. They are closely related but differ widely in their response to the pool environment.

Koi keeping and the acquisition of expensive specimen fish is another subject altogether. Ordinary local coloured carp, however, are available at reasonable prices and are lumped with goldfish in our comments that follow using our formula as discussed in the chapter on ecology, a useful stocking rate is 15"(37cm) of fish per sq. metre (10 sq. feet) of pond surface or 3x5"to equal the 15".

This presumes a pond depth of 35cm to 60cm ( 1 to 2 ft) and some form of falls or fountain, although oxygenating plants if sufficient can supply all the O2 fish need.

As goldfish procreate alarmingly in a well-planted pond, control this stocking rate by disposing of the less attractive babies. Too many fish upset the carefully achieved balance and the pond will turn green again.

Feeding is required mainly to train and tame the fish to recognise their owner. Overfeeding can seriously upset the balance of a pond and will quickly foul the water. Feed only enough so that the fish clean up everything, leaving no piles of rotting food.

Generally fish can exist happily on the food provided by the pond itself, mosquito larva and with only a little supplemented by the pond keeper.

Maintenance of the pond ...

The finished, planted pond matured and balanced to the point that the water is clear and healthy, is very forgiving. No major works need be undertaken, no annual pruning, no staking or tying. As it is a living ecological unit your main function is to guide and direct to prevent a disturbance of this balance.

During the first exuberant flush of spring growth, many aquatics will grow alarmingly wider or bigger than anticipated. Suddenly the ratio of plant to water is reversed and the fish are crowded out. The first step, is to always carry a secateur and a small net with elongated handle with you whenever you wander down to the pond. Another useful tool consists of a small chopping hoe back to back with a three-pronged fork, attached to an extension handle. You can use this for almost anything including door-to-door salespersons, cleaning pond edges and scooping out excess ceratophyllum (hortwort).

Replanting waterlilies out of their old impoverished soil is about the major job - and even this is unnecessary if the original potting was properly seen to and the container sufficiently large.

The pond itself should not need clearing out or perhaps once every three ears, provided the following maintenance steps are adhered to, and in particular the cleaning of deciduous leaves.

Spring

Relax and enjoy your pond. Don't overfeed fish. Add soil to pots when needed, incorporating lillipills, bone meal and topped with crushed stone. Scoop up leaves picked by weavers. Remove hair algae using a notched stick.

Summer

Remove old yellowing waterlily leaves and flowers. Control excess growth of marginals, oxygen plants and floating plants. Scoop up leaves from late dropping trees, flowers from all sorts of trees, e.g. Tipuana. Control aphids, suck up debris from pond floor by siphoning, using a 3/4"hose.

Watch for chemical inflow from hail, wash from fertilized lawns, dogs, boys and birds. Feed lilies in mid-summer.

Autumn

Important now to meticulously remove leaves and other debris from the pond. Cut off all yellowing and decaying leaves. Tropicals will continue blooming well into winter while the water is warm enough. Reduce fish feeding and keep the pond topped up.

Winter

In warmer areas the whole pond keeps on growing while properly deciduous plants such as caltha, iris and hardy waterlilies are dormant. Now is the time (August) to replant and divide if needed and to clean out the pond. Sort out any pond leaks or cracks.

Many thanks to an unknown dedicated aquatic plant enthusiast and expert.

The contents of much of this book were discovered in a Johannesburg bookshop on sale at R8.95 some years ago. The book which I bought had been printed in A5 saddle-stitched format using a font size of about 8 points on plain paper with a yellowing cover of thinnish board.

The book was called . Waterlilies and Pond Aquatics

Does anyone recognise this booklet's author?