Newbie from southern US

[Summer]

Thrilled to find this website and forums! Put my garden pond in 6 years ago, enlarged it and added waterfall 2 years ago - love it! Love my fish, frogs and plants! My goldfish are 6 years old and I have fish babies for the first time this summer! Yay!!!! I finally figured out that plants are a must for babies survival. The frogs love them too. My reason for coming here - I put in a baby Pleco back in the spring to eat the algae, figured he had died because I had not seen him since the day I put him in, until yesterday.... and he has grown tremendously! Wow! He is about 6" and beautiful! Just researching more about him.

Great to see so many other pond enthusiasts!!

 

[qclabrat]

Hi Summer, welcome to the madness...
Fish babies a exciting, though I'm glad we don't get more than 10 which survive each year. Otherwise I'd need to dig a new pond.
Why the pleco? The algae helps with the pond biosystem.

 

[Summer]

Thanks! I had a lot of green string algae back in the spring, so thought I would try the Pleco, I guess he did the job cause that stuff disappeared!! By the looks of him he had a feast on it. Also to eat the mosquito larvae.

 

[j.w]

@Summer

 

[JRS]

Welcome! I used to put plecos in my tubs in the summer also to help with algae; they do grow fast outdoors with all that good eating. I know they are established in Florida, not sure how far north their range is. They are typically more nocturnal so I am not surprised you did not see it for a while in your planted pond. Always a pleasant surprise when they reappear.

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum! group of pond lovers!

Post some pictures when you have time

 

[Gemma]

hello and welcome to the forum!