pond plants for zone 8 central Texas

[electrikat]

Would appreciate any info on good hardy pond plants for use in zone 8 central Texas area. Need some from each type(marginal, floaters etc). Any help would be appreciated. TIA

 

[zacdl]

Well....

Almost anything for Texas (I am in OK)

You will find the hardest floaters to grow is Lettuce and Hyacinth. You need to try them to see if they will grow for you, because for some people they do not grow.

Anyway... As far as hardy fast growing hard to kill...
Anacharis, Hornwort for submerged.
Floating- Pennywort, parrots feather
Marginal- Rushes, Celery, Mint, Pickeral, the list here goes on and on. Most anything you want.

Like I said you can grow almost anything you want in Texas.

 

[ReefNooB]

In TX a majority of the floating plants such as Hyacinth and Lettuce are illegal to have. I have HEARD that the fine is in the $250 range...so be careful.

One more submergable plant that is really nice in Cabomba, but its likes cooler shady water.

If you are intrested in water lilies tropicals do very well here, but you have to be careful because they can die during the winters here. I work at a pond supply store in San Antonio area and i tell customers that with a pond 3ft deep in ground their tropicals will come back year after year. If you have say a 2ft deep timber pond or water trough pond i would be pretty cautious.

One more thing is to be careful when u buy a plant because most plants labeled as full sun only need partial sun here because the sun is so intense here.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me i will be happy to answer any questions you have.

 

[zacdl]

Cabomba fish eat quicker because its leaves are smaller and easier for them to eat.

TX is a lot like OK, OK has colder wints than TX, and summers are sometimes hotter (Aunt lives down in Dallas)

Trops live fine through the winter here, I have seen them live in 1.5' deep.

You just dont want them to freeze. TX doesnt freeze but a couple inches or so thick on top, and other than that the water is basically all the same temp underneath.

As long as the plant wont turn ito ice you will be fine...

Like I said you can have almost any plant you want to have in this area (Zone 8)

 

[electrikat]

We have a 5 man hot tub that is 30" at the deepest(feet area) and 20 to 24" deep everywhere else(seats). It is buried in the ground except for the top 12" or so. The buried part is also coated in foam insulation(because it's a hot tub). It's appx 450 to 500 gallons or so. I don't anticipate any complete freezes but will probably stick to the hardy lillies for lilly type plants. The local pond store has all kinds of lillies, cabomba, parrot feather, anacharis, papyrus, some kind of palm, pickerelweed, rush, and several others I can't remember. We have made a filter out of a 5 gallon water cooler. Any ideas on how many of each type of plant I should get? How many koi(if any) and goldfish can it handle with a good bio filter and plenty of oxygenating plants? We are also building a water fall to help oxygenate the water and to help with bio filtering.

 

[electrikat]

They also have plecos, bullfrog tadpoles, and snails. What are your thoughts on these in a pond. The pleco will definitely be questionable.

 

[zacdl]

maybe a couple smaller koi.

Koi seem to grow and grow no matter what the pond size.

Goldfish tend to grow to the pond size.

Just get what you think looks ok.

Dont overdo it.

There are plenty of rules but use your best judgement is all I can say...

 

[electrikat]

We had two plain goldfish(leftover feeders from lionfish) that we had in a 5 gallon bucket(fake wishing well in garden) and have put them in to start the cycle. I am assuming that it has to cycle like anything else. Plants in now ? Fish in when? How does the cycle on a pond work ? Any different than a saltwater tank?

 

[zacdl]

They also have plecos, bullfrog tadpoles, and snails. What are your thoughts on these in a pond. The pleco will definitely be questionable.

Plecos woudl be fine but they need to be taken inside during the winter.

Snails sometimes die in the winter but they are cheap enough you can buy new ones again.

Tadpoles will turn into frogs wich live through the winter.

 

[electrikat]

How do the frogs get into and out of the pond? It is slick sided and 12 inches above the ground level.

 

[zacdl]

We had two plain goldfish(leftover feeders from lionfish) that we had in a 5 gallon bucket(fake wishing well in garden) and have put them in to start the cycle. I am assuming that it has to cycle like anything else. Plants in now ? Fish in when? How does the cycle on a pond work ? Any different than a saltwater tank?

Actually FW really doesnt have that big of a cycle.

I do 100% waterchanges and just throw all my fish in all at once and they do fine. Plants in now I guess, fish in whenever (Just get the fish a few at a time so you can see what they look like. You can tell you have too many because it just looks like too many sometimes)

 

[zacdl]

They jump.

If you have plants they hop onto the plants and then will jump out. They also dive into the pond as well.

I have a frog that showed up one day (I didnt put it there) and its inside the pond and outside the pond.

Dont worry abotu the frogs they take care of themselves.

 

[electrikat]

Thanks for all your help Zac and I'm sure I'll have lots more questions as it gets established.

 

[electrikat]

kudos to you for your time and expertise.

 

[zacdl]

Ponds are an "open" aquarium where nature does its thing.

Aquariums are indoors and what you put in is all that is in there.

Dont be surprised if you find a snake or heron or something either...

 

[ReefNooB]

I would shy away from the Koi, because they get big no matter what. Even only say 3 koi 2ft long (which can take them as little as 2yrs) in 400-500 gal have a HUGE biological impact on the pond. You cannot stock ponds like aquariums, because you not only have to fight all the bioloads from your fish and decaying plants, but you have to fight EVERYTHING. Anything that falls in your pond increases your bioload (as your probably already know). I know you said that your pond is in a shady spot, so if its under a tree it will lose leaves and they will fall in.

And i think snails are better in a pond than plecos because plecos start croaking when they water reaches about 60 degrees or so. I dont know how low they snails can take but i know its lower then plecos. If you choose snails i would suggest Japanese Trap Door Snails because they only eat algae not plants and i think only a handful of them do a better job that a pleco. Just becareful if you pluck out a dead snail because dead snail is quite possibly they worst smell on earth.

You shouldnt have to worry too much about they cycle on your pond unless your throwing i would say any more then 9 goldfish 6-7" long. You should be fine so long as you have a filter going and you dont have really high water temps.

When it comes time to get fish keep in mind what might be trying to get to you fish also. If you have a really active cat (or your neighbors do) i wouldnt get fancy goldfish because they swim alot slower. I would suggest a single tailed fish like comets, shabunkin etc. A really really neat fish you should keep an eye out for is a Tamasaba, they are a lot like a Ryukin but they have a single tail and look awesome in a pond. You also have to think about racoons, birds, and snakes.

 

[zacdl]

A koi 2 foot long would require a big pond.

The size of the pond doesnt hinder them MUCH but it will hinder their growth RATE.

Leaves increase the bioload yes. You just need to help keep them skimmed out, the dead plants you need to cut down, etc (Not to mention this will make your pond look better)

Maybe he missed my bit about the plecos needing to come in during the winter... Apple snails are not supposed to eat anything either but I have heard stories they have (Same for Jap Trapdoors)


Racoons are everywhere. I think I had one take a swipe at some of my fish one night because 2 of them were injured. There really isnt anything you can do about it (unless you use some sort of chemical or something) because your fish will be friendly to everybody even coons.

Birds have never been a problem for me becuase birds cant get where my pond is very easy.

Snakes not a prob for me either because we dont live by any large body of water.
Snakes will eat your fish as well, you just need to trap them if you see any (Same for coons)

 

[electrikat]

Well we decided against the koi. We read that goldfish get really big too and that's all we wanted was a few big ones. We also read that the koi are much filthier fish(similar to oscars) and we don't want to deal with anything that has a huge wasteload. The different golds are beautiful and get pretty large. We picked up two yesterday that are appx 4 inches long, along with an umbrella palm, a hardy lily, and a few handfuls of cabomba and parrots feather. Trying to get some shade.