Hello everybody; first post here from new member.
My wife and I bought a house that included a cute little pond. Nobody had taken care of it for about 3 years so it was pea-green. I just assumed that there was nothing living in it so I was going to just drain it and start from scratch. But then I began to clean it out, and I quickly found two little fish (2-3 inches long)! I only saw them for a couple seconds, but I'd say they're probably goldfish, although I didn't really see any gold color. I have no idea how many there really are because I can only see a couple inches into the water. So now I have to clean it around the fish, without hurting them, and since I have no idea how many there are it's really tricky!
The pond is approximately 4 feet long and it's about 18" from the surface to some spongy matter that I assume is tree debris. It's in full sun from about noon on. I've been skimming the surface because it gets tree leaves in it, but then I thought maybe the fish need the shade from the floating leaves. I was going to get some floating plants but I have no idea what I'm doing so that seems kind of absurd.
We'd like to make the pond into something nice but my first concern is to make it livable for the fish. So what's the most important thing to do first? Plants? Pump & filter? How big for the pump and filter? What kind of plants? Aggghhh!!! (Oh, and I do have electricity at the pond; it's behind the irises.)
If you folks can help me help my fish I'd really appreciate it.
My wife and I bought a house that included a cute little pond. Nobody had taken care of it for about 3 years so it was pea-green. I just assumed that there was nothing living in it so I was going to just drain it and start from scratch. But then I began to clean it out, and I quickly found two little fish (2-3 inches long)! I only saw them for a couple seconds, but I'd say they're probably goldfish, although I didn't really see any gold color. I have no idea how many there really are because I can only see a couple inches into the water. So now I have to clean it around the fish, without hurting them, and since I have no idea how many there are it's really tricky!
The pond is approximately 4 feet long and it's about 18" from the surface to some spongy matter that I assume is tree debris. It's in full sun from about noon on. I've been skimming the surface because it gets tree leaves in it, but then I thought maybe the fish need the shade from the floating leaves. I was going to get some floating plants but I have no idea what I'm doing so that seems kind of absurd.
We'd like to make the pond into something nice but my first concern is to make it livable for the fish. So what's the most important thing to do first? Plants? Pump & filter? How big for the pump and filter? What kind of plants? Aggghhh!!! (Oh, and I do have electricity at the pond; it's behind the irises.)
If you folks can help me help my fish I'd really appreciate it.