outdoor pond with comets

[Betty Dively]

Are there any other outdoor pond owners on this forum or am I at the wrong kind of forum???

Betty

[RogerMcAllen]

No, I think you are looking for the pond forum.

[fishfreek]

Moving to the pond forum

[RogerMcAllen]

Now that you are in the right forum, what about your pond with comets? I think those are just regular goldfish, right? I had about 20 in my pond, along with a koi, some fantails, and about 20 rosies that got eaten every once and a while.

[Betty Dively]

I had four comets in there doing quite well. The next day I noticed quite a bit of tadpoles. I changed 20% of the water put some plants in as I had intended to do to cut down on the cloudiness, added some suckers and then the next day I noticed alot of tadpoles. (some frogs had been out there the night before making alot of noise and having fun). I changed 20% of the water but the next day two of the comets died. I did not know if it was from the newly added plants, suckers or tadpoles. I saved two of the comets, changed all the water, put back in the suckers and the new plants and the surviving two or thriving very well and the water is staying clearer longer. We live in Florida and the hotter it gets, the cloudier the waters get.

Thanks for all your advice

Betty

Greetings, Betty, welcome to the site! Good to have more ponders here!

Give us some more details on the pond, how big, pump, filter, liner or preform, basic background stuff. That'll give me a better basis to give advice. Also, what do you mean by suckers? That could mean a lot of different fish, need a little clarification on that one.

Look forward to hearing back,

CC

[Betty Dively]

Hi-thanks for responding-it is a 50 gal preform with pump and filter, well aerated. It is against a concrete wall with a small tree planted in behind it. I have three plants inside the pond as well as rocks. The "suckers" are those black fish that are spelled something like plesomous (sp?). It gets alot of sun so that is why I put plants in there to try to provide some shade. It seems to be staying clearer longer because the main problem I had was cloudiness to the point that you couldn't see the fish and the water would get extremely green.

Ok, much clearer now. The extra bio-load of the tadpoles probably caused an ammonia spike, unbalanced you dpond and killed your fish. It sounds like things are on their way back to being in balance, give it like 2 weeks before adding any more fish. If you want, use a net and catch as many of the tadpoles as you can, and let them bo in a nearby pond or stream. too many can foul your water, as your experience proves.

The suckers are Plecostomus, most of us would say Plecos here on the board. just an fyi.

You definitley want plants in there, for shade as you said, but they also use up nutrients caused by fish waste, thereby blancing your pond naturally. Put as many plants in as you feel comfortable with, while leaving at least 50% of the surface as open water. Be careful buying water lilies and such, some of them get huge, way to big for a 50 gallon.

Dont feed your fish too much, want to leave them somewhat hungry so they will hunt down all the mosquito larvae and othe rbugs tha naturally want to live in every pond. Also, more food = more waste = more algae and green water.

Hope this helps.

CC

[pondmom]

Hi Betty,

I'm a pond owner (5000+ gallons)
I currently have an assortment of imported koi,butterfly,comets,shubunkins
Being that i'm in minneapolis, I currently have no plants in the pond.

I'm out there every chance I get

[Betty Dively]

Hi Pondmom

I guess I will have to come up with a "handle" for myself. Boy, you're pond is just a little bit bigger than mine. Someone told me I some get a couple oscars to keep the tadpoles away. I was going to get two more,
I think I have comets or "cheaper koi", not sure now; and then a couple oscars-does that seem right.


Betty