Pond Mythbusters

[Lisak1]

A recent discussion here has made me wonder how many of us have had to be our own "Pond Mythbusters". How many of you have been told or heard or read that some particular thing wouldn't work and yet you did it anyway and found FOR YOU it worked great?

Two things come to mind for me right off the bat:

1. When we were in the design phase with our pond, we were talking to the owner of a local pond store and explained our concept of a negative edge flowing into the rain exchange. He got very animated and told us "that will NEVER WORK! Your fish will constantly swim over the edge!" He insisted the only way we could carry on with that plan was to come up with some kind of barrier to keep the fish from going overboard. We knew that wouldn't work because this was designed to take the place of a skimmer in the pond, and if we had a barrier it would catch debris and get clogged up constantly. Not cool. But we liked our idea so much for other reasons that we decided to go with it and deal with the problem later if it developed. Guess what? The only fish we've had intentionally swim over was when a dog jumped in the pond and the fish was fleeing for it's life - or so it thought! Now we sit and watch them swim RIIIIIIIGHT up to the edge and then pull themselves back, like it's a game of chicken they play to amuse themselves.

2. Again while designing our pond we started hearing about and seeing this "bog" or plant filtration idea. But every pond person we talked to either said it would never work as the only biofilter or it would never work with koi in the pond. (I hadn't yet found this forum and seen @addy1 and her beautiful bog! I would have had so much more confidence if I had.) But we figured we would give it a try and if it didn't work we could always add another form of filtration later. Once again, I'm happy to say - myth busted! Happy fish, happy plants, happy pond!

How about you - busted any pond myths?

(Not looking for debate here - fully aware that what worked for me may not work for you. Just looking for ways that you challenged a pond myth and were happy with the outcome!)

 

[brokensword]

Maybe not a myth, but lots of people warn off trying to have turtles with fish. So far, no issues in 7 years, with several 'batches' of turtles. Though, I did see some tail damage when I had a large wild male in the pond; took him back soon thereafter (I'd found him trying to cross the road and thought he'd be okay in my pond but apparently not! The big pond down the road was glad to have him back!)

I think it's better/easier to start out with small ones that learn to eat the pellets and plants and don't get used to making the fish into snacks. As they grow, I'll have to monitor more closely.

To this end (of keeping turtles and fish), I originally had my pond divided; half for turtles, half for the fish. Worked fine until the turtles learned to climb up and over. Freaked me out at first and I fished them back but over time, decided either they'd cohabit peacefully or I'd not have turtles. Found out the few weeks I didn't have them (some learned how to escape) that they really liven up the pond!

 

[MitchM]

One myth I seem to keep coming up against is that koi ponds are different from goldfish ponds, which are different from garden ponds, which are different from aquariums.
They are all aquatic environments that contain water, have similar bacteria and each one has it's own considerations, just like each of our ponds.

Also:

-Algae is bad. (No, it's part of a healthy aquatic environment)

-Bacteria needs to be added to a pond. (No, only if you are trying to make a profit out of constructing as many ponds as you can in a short amount of time)

There are plenty of winter pond myths that need to be busted as well.
-Ice cover is bad. (No, it's good because it reduces evaporation and protects water from rapid changes in temperature. Bad because it restricts light and gas exchange.)
-Don't feed fish below certain temperatures. (Yes feed them, but the appropriate food.)
-I need to heat my pond. (No, only if you have money to burn or specific species that require minimum temperatures.)

 

[JBtheExplorer]

Are goldfish gold fish?

 

[Jhn]

Agree with brokensword, on the cant keep turtles with fish myth. My turtles completely ignore the fish in the pond, and they are terrapins, their primary natural food is fish, shellfish, snails.

When I first started keeping ponds over twenty years ago, was always told don't leave your pumps running year round. Told the fish can't handle it, but I have never turned my pumps off and lost fish because the pumps were running. Now i do qualify it by saying my waterfalls are designed so I don't need to worry about ice damming.