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Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 10:17 am Post subject: Pondlife

I am not sure which category this should be in.

We have just dug a pond on the lawn. (I am completely thrilled!) I want it to fill up with frogs, dragonflies and newts just like the other ponds I have made. I have never put in fish though because I didn't want the wildlife eaten. This is quite a bit bigger than previous ponds though so I was wondering if fish and wildlife would still be incompatible?

TTouch Homestead

Joined: 13 Oct 2011
Posts: 703
Location: Cardigan, West Wales

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 10:18 am Post subject:
Cathryn, We have tadpoles, newts and other creepy crawlie stuff in various ponds. Just come and grab what you would like!

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 10:23 am Post subject:
I think the creepie crawlies will just turn up but if you have some mainly native pondplants, that would be great. I will go to the next meeting in Cardigan wearing clothes that I can scrabble about in muddy ponds in.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9881
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 10:27 am Post subject:
we inherited gold fish here - and the tadpoles and newts have survived alongside them - lots of plants in there though. do you have ducks? they can gobble a lot of tadpoles

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 10:54 am Post subject:
No, I don't want ducks unless some wild ones happen past (which is unlikely with our roaming dogs). I might pop in a few fish then. It is only a hole currently that the weather is kindly trying to fill with water for me. I am planning where the bench will go and a small area of paving of some kind to facilitate lying on ones stomach for long hours watching things.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 11:30 am Post subject:

We formed a smallish pond about 4 years ago and put in four goldfish. One died, next time we looked there were about 30 fish - some given away, the heron took a few but still have about 16 or so. Dragonflies, damselflies, water snails, water boatmen, frogs and toads have all taken up residence and live side by side with the fish.

I love ponds....do you have a photo?

I've recently written about water in the garden on our blog and you can see some photos on there if interested.

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 12:09 pm Post subject:
Lovely pond and I like the earthenware bird baths. I mean to take photos as it develops. I am always amazed at how quickly wriggly things move in.

Went

Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 6968

Posted: Thu May 23, 13 12:36 pm Post subject:
Two things I wish I had done differently is: Deeper and bigger - depth to allow the algae to sink into cooler water and bigger because I just love it and the wildlife it attracts....one day

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Fri May 24, 13 7:00 am Post subject:

If you wait you may find that wildlife turns up. Our pond seems to have intercepted newts on their journeying and the first year after we had dug it they turned up. We imported some frog spawn; you need to do that or tadpoles as frogs and toads go back to the pond they knew as tadpoles. Sadly we lost the frogs to redleg a few years ago. Had some apparantly healthy ones last year, but nothing this year. Btw, newts eat tadpoles too, but not toadpoles.

Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri May 24, 13 10:27 am Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

We imported some frog spawn; you need to do that or tadpoles as frogs and toads go back to the pond they knew as tadpoles.

I think that's a bit of a myth, we've always had frogs, toads and newts and turn up in ponds we've dug without moving spawn. I think they will try to return to near where they hatched but will happily find another pond, puddle or ditch.

As for fish I think it depends on how big the pond is, how much vegetation there is and how big the fish are. I've certainly seen fish completely hoover up spawn and tadpoles, on the other hand we introduced some small sticklebacks and after a few years I think they fell prey to dragonfly larvae.

jamanda
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 22 Oct 2006
Posts: 35057
Location: Devon

Posted: Fri May 24, 13 9:34 pm Post subject:
Where is the cricket pitch now then? I think the amphibians will just turn up. Dig and they will come...or something.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15967

Posted: Sat May 25, 13 6:40 am Post subject:
With amphibians, if you bring an adult to the pond it will wander off; it has to have been a tadpole there, or ideally spawn. They will though, as you say, and as our newts prove, sometimes be intercepted on the way to their original pond it they like the look of it.

Lorrainelovesplants

Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 6521
Location: Dordogne

Posted: Sat May 25, 13 4:15 pm Post subject:
I moved newts from our swimming pool (dont ask) to our lily pond. This was 3 years ago....and the other day I had the priviledge of watching Mr newt flapping his tail at Ms newt trying to persuade her to do the deed...

gythagirl

Joined: 18 Feb 2010
Posts: 1467
Location: Somerset

Posted: Sat May 25, 13 9:29 pm Post subject:
I'm glad you already have the bench planned; our pond is one of the best things we ever did in our garden, we love love love it. Make sure you have very shallow edge areas for creeping plants to colonise so the local bees can access water safely - they drink huge amounts in warm weather.

Nick

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 34535
Location: Hereford

Posted: Sat May 25, 13 9:34 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose wrote:

With amphibians, if you bring an adult to the pond it will wander off; it has to have been a tadpole there, or ideally spawn. They will though, as you say, and as our newts prove, sometimes be intercepted on the way to their original pond it they like the look of it.

If that was nearly true there would only be one pond in the world with tadpoles in.

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