Is it a choice between water lilies and fish?

[stoneydee]

Last summer, I took out my 80 gallon pre-formed pond and put a 160 in its place. The 160 has five goldfish, assorted plants, filtration and a small fountain. So now I have an 80 empty pre-form that I was thinking of devoting to a couple of hardy water lilies and some marginals. I've read that lilies don't like a lot of water movement, but I'd really like to have a couple of fish. Should this be a lily only pond or would the goldfish do all right without water movement? I have fancies in a 40 gallon tank in the house, and have extra aeration in that tank to keep oxygen levels where they should be.

Any thoughts?

[AngelFishFan]

I would stay away from putting fish together with lillies, especially if there will be no water movement. Plus, with all of the lillies growing anyways, how will you be able to see the fish. Also, if there are no fish, that gives you a little room to make errors on fertilizing the lillies. You are also right, lillies will die with too much water movement. They need no water at all on top of their pads, do this, and the pad will die within a day. So I would stay away from the fish in the pond, but the plant idea sounds great!

[tommiejr]

My problem with putting lilies with my kois was the kois ate them. The kois would wait until the leaves were full and start eating away at the edges. I soon had nothing but stalks. They did the same thing with hyacinths. I finally put bulls rush and cattails in. They do not eat these.

[stoneydee]

I hadn't thought of that. Most of the plants I had last season were potted with gravel on top of the soil. They didn't mess with the water hyacinths (that I could tell), and the azolla pretty much took over the top. A little dab of either of those was plenty.

Lililys and Koi, no. They will be uprooted and eaten.

[acronym:51c8edd1e2="In My Experience"]IME[/acronym:51c8edd1e2], lillies ang goldfish, no problem. granted, I have to keep my lillies away from the waterfall about 3 feet, but I have room to do that. Tried one close to the waterfall once, it nearly died before I moved it. I've never killed the fish due to fertilization of my lillies. I think the fish are needed, or the skeeter population would absolutley explode in my area. Chose a variety of lilly that is bred not to spread out too much, or to have large pads, and you'll be fine. Been doing this for 6 years+ now, works like a charm.

[stoneydee]

If I stock it with plants only and don't have moving water, I'm going to have a mosquito problem. Could I stock with tadpoles, and where do I get those? And would the frogs then hang around?

[SquishyFish]

Not to hijack your topic, but i think its related....where can we get plants that are specifically for ponds? Being new to the pond hobby, I was obviously wanting plant life, but was only aware of lillies as an option.

Thanks

Check your yellow pages, squishy. I have no idea about Texas, but the pond hobby is booming in my area. I have at least5 places within 10 miles of me that are either dedicated pond supply places, or landscape suppliers that carry a lot of pond plants and supplies in addition to the regular gardening stuff. I like my water lillies, but the marginals are even more interesting, [acronym:1d64b6e83c="In my opinion"]IMO[/acronym:1d64b6e83c].

[SquishyFish]

Cool..thanks. I didnt know if you could order any of them on line. Some times you can get a better selection that way.

Yes, you can also do it that way, BUT, you will get very small immature plants, [acronym:194a84499d="In My Experience"]IME[/acronym:194a84499d], that will take 1-3 years to mature, flower, and look their best. google up pond plants you will find all you can handle.