I am thinking of getting a small pond made for for my back garden next year and I am weighing up whether to have it as a frog spawning pond or have it be dedicated to some fish. The catch is however is that I live in the area of the UK where herons and ergets lurk and I have known peoples koi getting poached by them. While the pond will be planned to be situated under a very large bunch of yucca trees I still think that it will be exposed enough to cause issues (and the fact that neighbors cats wander around too) so I am wondering if there is any fish bulky enough to not be easily poached by birds but hardy enough to survive in a pond within UK weather? Pond size will be limited as my back garden is around 8-9ft wide but I am happy with only having a few or maybe just one or two large fish if necessary. As long as I can shovel feed into it's maw everyday that's more than enough for me.
>>5064795Kept koi for about 20 years in an area with raccoons, blue herons and eagles. So here’s my suggestion. You go deep and keep an overhang. You’ll want the water at least 24-36, though I tended towards 48 inches deep with a shear side. Then you rim the pond with rocks that overhang the water an inch or two. You’re putting it under a bush so that will discourage something flying down to try and grab a fish. Other nice thing about deeper water is that even if your pond surface area is small, you’ll have good water volume. It may also help to get a small water feature of some kind like a fountain or a waterfall. That lets you circulate the water with a pump on the bottom. You may also want a filter box with the pump but either way. This also helps moderate temperature changes and will do more to protect your fish in winter.
>>5064807An overhang will also discourage cats and the like. Just don’t leave anywhere that anything that wants to eat your fish can wade or easily reach down from. As for what to keep in it? At that point you can keep almost anything that the climate where you are allows. Hell, if you heat it you can ignore that too.
>>5064807>>5064808Thank you for the advice anon. Depth shouldn't be much of a concern as a lot of the garden ground is going to be cleared anyway, so I think a depth like 48 is doable. I will bookmark your stuff when I get round to planning and it seems like frogs and large koi can mostly cohabitate from what I can see. In terms of koi though are "jumbo koi" a legit variety or is it mostly just marketing? I see them here and there for sale and I have heard ordinary koy naturally get big anyway but these have peaked my interest.
>>5064795What frogs and newts need is a shallow area with a lot of plants. 1 ft deep would be perfect and let it overgrow with stuff like hydrilla or whatever equivalent plant. Large koi and goldfish and whatever are not an issue for tadpoles, it's actually small predatory fish like gambusia and sticklebacks that attack them.Another fish I would recommend are pond loaches. Get albinos so you can actually see them during the day. Though a bunch of places have been banning them in recent years.
>>5064820The bigger they are, the more expensive they get. The market for koi is crazy, especially koi from japan. They can get really pricey
>>5064820Oh. It’s marketing. They’re just brightly colored somewhat inbred carp. The ones I had started off about finger length and more than 15 years later the biggest (big fat female that was a beautiful bright butter yellow and would eat from my hand) was about two feet long. Make sure you look into the variety of koi you’re getting more than the size though. Since some of the more exotic colors come in metallic oranges, yellows, and even white (I had a fan tail that was a platinum white with partially reflective scales, stunning fish for example. He was a baby from a big blue fan tail female and a platinum metallic), and my personal favorite, blue. However if you want a big, showy fish and you want it now? Nothing wrong with just buying a big girl. Which is another thing. Females tend to be larger than males by a good bit. They’re a lot wider as well. So most of the bigger fish will be girls (which might be what they’re calling jumbo). As for amphibians? I had northern red legged frogs here in oregon that did ok in my pond. Just make sure they have stuff to hide in like pots of reeds or cat tails. Koi will eat amphib eggs. Same with a lot of water plants but sturdy stuff in a large pot like cat tails tend to weather them fine. Random blog link I searched out btw has some examples of the kind of colors I used to raise. For some reason blue koi returns tons of AI slop and no pictures.http://koitotheworld.blogspot.com/2012/02/blue-koi.html
>>5064849Once again thanks anon, I will definitely checkout what reeds and pots I can source. I also might get some young koi in that case if it's mostly down to age or sex. The blues do look really nice, but would you say certain colored varities are healthier than others? I know koi are basically just ornamental carp but is it kind of the case you can get koi where I suppose they are like non-distinct mutts or are they all roughly about the same in terms of health?
>>5064863Sorry, was out doing repairs on a barn and just got back. Anyhow. You can also look into stuff like sacred lotus and other such plants. Some of the marsh irises or even bog orchids can be good. The trick is to just make it hard for your fish to get into the pots. As carp, they love their salad. You can elevate your pots with stuff like cinder blocks on the bottom of the pond to lift the lip of the pot close enough to the water line so the fish aren’t getting over it. Conversely you can also set up ‘marsh’ areas in the same pond with rocks, or bricks hidden by rocks forming a water permeable barrier that still keeps fish out and maintains the sheer drop off to the fish area you want to discourage predators from wading in. If you want an idea for how this looks, on my old pond system I cribbed the idea for what they call a ‘natural swimming pool’ so I had a place to plant some of my pitcher plants. It also helps filter the water. As for health? That’s a really good question. Koi tend to be pretty durable and I’ve never had one type seem to be more sickly than any other. Their genetics are weird that way though. Like I said, I had a blue one with long fins lay eggs and my favorite was a little male that got mom’s fins but mostly dad’s colors. I think the big issue is make sure you’re getting them from a reputable dealer, or at least a private fish keeper you think you can trust since while they’re really disease resistant, there are a couple of pathogens you don’t want. I’ve been lucky in that I never had the problem, but it does happen. Lastly, while of course your fish selection is totally up to you obviously? I personally think younger fish are a better bet. They cost a LOT less, tend to be less stressed by moves, are easier to handle, will probably adapt better to your pond, and you’re more likely to get an even balance of sexes.
