I need help and suggestions!

[sissy]

thats what these are I think all goldies but my water has been above 60 lately .They are about an inch long or so so someone did the dirty deed but not sure who .Some look like they could be from the calico fantails I have because of the shape I'm not sure ,they are up hanging around the waterfall and they hide under the waterfall rocks and dart out of sight so fast I only get a peek

 

[addy1]

Wellllllllllllll head on over lol. My pond is empty! Well except for a few little fish. We are slowly warming up

 

[CometKeith]

I just came across this chart. http://www.koiandponds.com/fishstockingtable.htm I have seen other charts very similar and feel this is probably fairly accurate. It rates ponds as being unfiltered, pump filtered and elaborately filtered. Basically it is suggesting 10 inches of fish per 100 gallons for a pump filtered pond. It also looks at surface area and suggests 10 sq ft of surface area would support 10 inches of fish. I have looked at other charts in the past that also breaks it down by weight because obviously 10 x 1 inch fish weigh a fraction of what a 10" fish weighs. Of course no two ponds are alike and there are always going to be other factors that allow some ponds to support a greater bio-load than other ponds.

 

[addy1]

Very nice cometkeith, thanks for finding that.

Here is a fish load calculator, with slightly different ideas of inches of fish per 100 gallons. But it might help someone trying to figure it out.

http://www.your-garden-ponds-center.com/fish-load-calculator.html

 

[koiguy1969]

myself, i couldnt care less at what "THEY" say my ponds fishload should be.

 

[addy1]

Laughing agree koiguy, but some sure worry about it, and if having issues want to know if that might be the problem.

 

[shakaho]

Agree with koiguy. Who made up these numbers anyway and based on what? What significance is "inch of fish?" A two-foot fish is equivalent to eight three-inchers? Mass increases roughly exponentially with length. Gallons per fish (of a specific species) makes more sense -- little fish grow.

One 5" goldfish (per Addy's link) would get pretty lonely in my 100 gallon pond. Oddly enough, the koi stocking guideline (Cometkeiths link) would allow me to keep 4 fish in the same volume (which is reasonable). And, hey, if I got that preformed at Lowes with 20 square feet of surface area and that elaborate filter that has both filter pads and bioballs, it saysI could put in 40'' of koi. They have some 2 inchers at Petsmart, so I could get 20 of them!

My point is that these calculators and tables are pretty worthless. Beginners need simpler guidelines, like "You need at least a 1000 gallon pond for koi, Baby koi get big fast." Those who know enough to use those tables intelligently already know if they are overstocked.

 

[mgeez]

Wow, alot of opinions on inches per gal. I guess I don't have too many fish after all. I was just hoping to find something definately wrong, so I could "attack" my problem of lackluster plant growth last year. I'll rule out "too many fish". that leaves me with green water, which I now have a ul light to clear it up, and a piss-poor filter design, in which i invested $400 today in parts to try another design. Thank god I found this forum.
But when something isn't working , I feel 100% better if it costs me $100 to fix immediately, rather than $25 to fix after weeks of agrivation!

Mark

 

[koiguy1969]

too many fish isnt the cause of your plant numbers dwindeling unless theyre eating them...the more fish, the more poop.. the more poop, the more food for the plants. as long as the filtration is adequate and the bacterial growth is sufficient to properly process the waste into plant food..in short.. poop= ammonias. ammonia + aerobic bacteria= nitrites. nitrites + aerobic bacteria=nitrates. nitrates = plant food.

that said...it doesnt mean let the fish poop and / or other bio matter build up on the bottom of the pond.

 

[addy1]

gosh think I may sneak over to your house and drop about 10 babies in your pond ,maybe you won't notice lol I'm going up to NJ just pass by and dump them

With the warm night and warm sun the pond went up to 60 today. so bring them on over lol
if you really want to get rid of some, Tell me how you drive to jersey and I could meet you somewhere maybe lol

 

[mouseams]

mgeez,

Last year was our second year and I am in North Jersey. The forst year I did not start ponding until mid-June. I had awesome plants- lotus, watrlily, papyrus grew huge. last year, it was like wet noodles. Nothing my pond looked like I had just started it. I think the northeast was slow to grow last year. Now it is the first week of April and I have leaves on the lilies and arrowheads already. Even the cattails are throwing shoots. Maybe it was a bad growing season last year. My pond is in full sun.

 

[sissy]

29 to 66 to 495 to 95 won't be going until next month as this house closing is holding me up

 

[sissy]

I'm headed for AC then up to Edison .Going to go up hopefully for U.A.W. meeting for retirees

 

[addy1]

Well you never know, maybe we can work something out, give you fishes a new nice home, the temp in the pond will be real stable by then

 

[sissy]

I just hope this closing gets done as I wanted to really go up this month .But all this going on I hope I can make it next month .I tried to catch the new ones but they dart under the waterfall rocks and I can't even get close and can't figure out how to catch them before Agie eats them .Right now they are safe and can hide away .I have some goldies that are around 3 inches long too that made it past Agie's hunger from last year