Hi all!
I just moved from the bayfront to the country. Along with the house came a 750 gallon above ground fish pond filled with lily pads, 20 fish and a nifty waterfall.
3 koi
2 very spooky black bottom feeders
all the rest - gold fish of all sizes
I got a little book, read it cover to cover. Talked to people at fish stores. And have read several websites about pond-keeping.
The pond is about 10 years old and has a physical water strainer/filter (as opposed to biological) - the lingo ... I'm not too up on yet.
The previous owners have always fed them a combination of floating pond sticks and goldfish-koi flakes once/day. They said they never changed the water, but add new water whenever necessary ... due to evaporation.
We clean the filter every few weeks and it seems to be doing a pretty amazing job. The water is very clear. I also clean the waterfall every couple weeks.
We added salt (instant ocean) in the amounts of 1 tsp/gallon over a 24 hour period - and it seemed to clear up two problems: a popeye on a gold fish and white things sticking out of the upper eye area of one of our koi.
With regard to the salt treatment, should we be adding salt periodically.? And if so, should it be again the full amount or a percentage of what we added the first time?
I'm starting to train them to eat out of my hand ... it's really a treat for me and the fish seem to like it too.
This is turning into a really cool hobby (I'm not calling it an obsession quite yet). And we're trying to bring ourselves up to speed on pond management. Found this website this morning (someone in USENET mentioned it) and am hoping you all will be able to help educate me.
A general question: what advice would you have for a newbie like me?
I just moved from the bayfront to the country. Along with the house came a 750 gallon above ground fish pond filled with lily pads, 20 fish and a nifty waterfall.
3 koi
2 very spooky black bottom feeders
all the rest - gold fish of all sizes
I got a little book, read it cover to cover. Talked to people at fish stores. And have read several websites about pond-keeping.
The pond is about 10 years old and has a physical water strainer/filter (as opposed to biological) - the lingo ... I'm not too up on yet.
The previous owners have always fed them a combination of floating pond sticks and goldfish-koi flakes once/day. They said they never changed the water, but add new water whenever necessary ... due to evaporation.
We clean the filter every few weeks and it seems to be doing a pretty amazing job. The water is very clear. I also clean the waterfall every couple weeks.
We added salt (instant ocean) in the amounts of 1 tsp/gallon over a 24 hour period - and it seemed to clear up two problems: a popeye on a gold fish and white things sticking out of the upper eye area of one of our koi.
With regard to the salt treatment, should we be adding salt periodically.? And if so, should it be again the full amount or a percentage of what we added the first time?
I'm starting to train them to eat out of my hand ... it's really a treat for me and the fish seem to like it too.
This is turning into a really cool hobby (I'm not calling it an obsession quite yet). And we're trying to bring ourselves up to speed on pond management. Found this website this morning (someone in USENET mentioned it) and am hoping you all will be able to help educate me.
A general question: what advice would you have for a newbie like me?
you'll find that they will help you with any questions you might have. I don't know much about ponds but like guppy said post you questions in the pond forum and someone will be gald to help you out.
