Thinking of introducing a few fish...

[lamby]

Hi all. I have a pond (about 60,000 gallons) which is doing very well with just plants--lots of hardy water lilies, floating hearts and some marginals plus a bog area at the back with bullrushes. We haven't added fish because the racoons tend to go after them and tear up the plants in the process, but for the past two years we haven't seen any racoons around at all. I'm toying with the idea of adding a few fish, just for interest sake. We have another pond on-site which tried goldfish, and they lived for about two years but are all gone now. I suspect the herons got them, as I didn't see any bodies!

I'm keen to hear what advice you could offer about this. What would be the best fish to try? Goldfish, shubunkins? My pond has no filtration system, so I don't think that I could handle carp. It's a natural pond with just a small pump to service the fountain. For cleaning, I manually scoop out any algae and fallen leaves when they accumulate.

 

[Tula]

It's a lovely pond !!!! If you have predators, it would be wise to net the pond or hang fishing line over it.

 

[poconojoe]

Beautiful pond!
As stated, if you have a predator problem, add netting. For heron, I've read here to suspend the net so they can't stab the fish through the net.
Some people have actually ran electrified fence around their pond for those low to the ground predators.

 

[rubyduby]

Wow, your pond is spectacular...Are you sure there are no fish that have naturally inhabited it? Personally I would leave well enough alone. But that's just my opinion

 

[addy1]

Just beautiful!
If you add fish go for shubunkins, to me very pretty great colors.

Our raccoons don't bother my ponds at all. The only thing I fight are the herons.

 

[Tula]

Wow, your pond is spectacular...Are you sure there are no fish that have naturally inhabited it? Personally I would leave well enough alone. But that's just my opinion

I really agree with @rubyduby , your pond is so lovely...it's perfect as it is

 

[sissy]

I agree and fish have babies ,tons of babies .You may upset the system that seems to work and if you have predators a net may take away from the beauty you have now .Raccoons will probably destroy plants trying to get to fish .You are doing something right so changing it may not be for the good .

 

[AlyssaFish]

You could always get some kind of fish that is too small to interest predators or damage your plants, but would still be able to munch on mosquito larvae and be spotted occasionally schooling around. Red rosies or mosquito fish, for example.

 

[lamby]

Thanks for all your thoughts, and compliments! Yes, it's a really pretty spot and all the homeowners really appreciate the pond. I suppose I will hold off on adding fish for now. I'd really hate to see my plants torn apart. Shubunkins are tempting, though...

 

[sissy]

you could get butt wigglers or so called fat fantails .They cme in pretty colors and you could give them a sturdy shelter that will protect them and not be easly moved by critters .

 

[AlyssaFish]

Thanks for all your thoughts, and compliments! Yes, it's a really pretty spot and all the homeowners really appreciate the pond. I suppose I will hold off on adding fish for now. I'd really hate to see my plants torn apart. Shubunkins are tempting, though...

Well, if you want to hear someone play devil's advocate here...

I've got raccoons here. They killed a duck in my pond a couple of weeks ago, and massacred many of my fancy goldfish that I had in a pond a few years ago. But I have only ever lost one single-tailed goldfish to a raccoon, and he'd been showing signs of sickness a couple days earlier. He'd have been easy pickings.

My pond is only a foot and a half deep at the most, and probably only 300 gallons at the most. Despite this, and despite raccoons obviously knowing about the place, I have not had any other attacks. Single-tailed goldfish are incredibly fast, and I don't think raccoons can easily catch them.

Raccoons don't like to swim. They wade in shallow water and use their hands to feel in the muck for food. Their hands are loaded with nerves that tell them lots of information. But when they're swimming, they can't use those hands to fee around--they have to use them to paddle. It really goes against their natural method of searching for food.

I don't think raccoons would be tempted by shubies, and the shubies themselves wouldn't do much damage to your plants.

Of course, you still have to worry about the endless breeding problem.

 

[Crimedog]

60,000 gallons? How deep is it? You’d think fish would swim to the middle to avoid raccoons

 

[lamby]

Yes, I'm actually not worried about losing the fish to racoons, it's more about the damage the racoons will cause to my plants while searching through possible hiding places! The deepest area of the pond is about 2.5 feet, around the bullrushes. The perimeter is very shallow so the racoons don't hesitate to wade right in and I've even seen them swim across. I've not seen any this year though. Maybe they've moved on to another location? Our weather has been so poor this year that none of my lilies have even bloomed yet. I've got many, many buds and I'm hoping that if we ever get some warmth, they will be beautiful. I guess my interest in adding fish is in part due to my disappointment in the lack of blooms.

 

[Faebinder]

Add minnows.... they will multiply no matter how many are eaten. They come gold colored. Herons don't bother with them.

You can add Dojo Loaches, no one will go after them and they are very pretty look at as they hang around the bottom of the pond, sticking out of different things in the bottom.