goldfish pond?

[Lil_Chickadee]

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Our land was on a slope so we started at the top and dug a small sludge pond or natural filter at the top and the water is recirculated by 2 pumps. Use rubber liner material to cover all the area that will be your waterfall and cover complely with rock to make sure the liner is not subjected to a lot of sunlight. It can be done on a smaller scale. Our waterfall is like 20 foot high and about 4 foot wide.

 

[Judy]

Had a small one for about 20 years, with a pump and a small waterfall, then a small fountain. Would have been a whole lot less work if we had skipped the pump. One year a great blue heron took up residence and ate every one of the fish (we had a lot by then; the had reproduced; started with about 6 tiny ones from WalMart.) There were so many frogs the tadpoles clogged up the filter. But the goldfish did eat the mosquito larvae, which is why I bought them in the first place; we were originally after a waterfall, not a goldfish pond.

After the heron left, I spent another $5 or so and restocked the goldfish. They grew up, and we gave them away when we moved. Now we have a large pond, being stocked with eating fish. No pump.

 

[agnes_day]

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did you use any paticular shape? that sounds like a good idea.

 

[agnes_day]

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herons are so pretty though!

 

[Judy]

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herons are so pretty though!

Oh, yes, gorgeous; I did not try to stop him/her! Everybody has to eat.... He perched on the roof of an old house on the property and came down now and then to eat. Caught him/her in the pond a few times.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
did you use any paticular shape? that sounds like a good idea.

Nothing wrong with this, it has advantages, but the preformed ones are easier to clean. Every few years we would empty it and pull the liner out and kill the fire ants underneath. They also don't have folds to catch algae so badly.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I've had green herons in the yard twice to steal fish, but the chickies have chased them off. My boss hen wanted to know what this strange bird was doing in HER yard.

My pond is small, about 4 X 6 with a flexible plastic liner. If I was going to do it over again (and I'm thinking about it) I would build it bigger, and deeper. I think it is easier to keep the water good in a large pond. I also built mine under large live oaks. It was a huge job to dig it with all the tree roots. I have mine stocked with feeder goldfish. After mauraders made off with the expensive fish, the feeder fish looked like a good option. Now I have two 6 inch goldfish, lots of breeding mosquito fish and tadpoles whenever the season is appropriate.

 

[Lil_Chickadee]

Mine needs a UV sterilizer. Where I don't have shade the water gets algae blooms. The algae blooms don't hurt the fish but the water goes through funky stages of green. One of my next big goals is to add the UV steralizer.

 

[Judy]

The sun/shade thing is a problem. You get to choose between leaves and trash in the pond, and algae from the sun. I finally decided I would rather net out leaves every few days than deal with algae.

 

[shelleyd2008]

We get some kind of heron/crane/whatever, big 3-4' tall bird that hangs out by the pond, eating the bluegills. He's here all year-round, scaring the stuffing out of the ducks. He brought his girl and their baby here this year, pretty neat. I'm sure if I had put my goldfish in a tank or whatever outside, that bird would make a quick meal of it. Either him or the ducks