Fish add vibrancy and life to your pond. They are perfect additions to any pond or water features. Here are the few things you should consider when adding fish to your water features.
1. Fish enjoys shade over direct sunlight. Placing your waterfall or pond in a location that has direct exposure to sun may not be the best choice for health of the fish.
2. Pool depth is critical when it comes to adding fish to your water feature. A typical Koi pond should not be shallower than 20 inches. Ideally, a Koi pond is about 30 to 40 inches deep. However, it should certainly have shallow edges for feeding the fish and watching their beauty shine through the water.
3. The purpose of having ideal depth of about 20 inches is to meet the temperature needs of fish. For example, during hot weather, fish prefers to hide in deep waters to avoid the hot surface water. Similarly, during cold weather, Koi fish go deeper in the water when the surface water freezes. They need to hide in the deeper ends of the water to escape animals like cat or raccoon.
4. A Koi pond requires some type of pump for aerating and filtering the impurities in the water. There needs to be something in place to check and maintain the ammonia composition of water.
5. Fish need oxygen. In order for fish to be healthy, it needs to absorb sufficient amount oxygen from the water passing through their gills. To make sure that they’ll get the needed amount of air, the surface area of pond needs to be as large as possible. Adding a fountain or waterfall aids in aerating the pond, which in turn results in healthy life quality for the fish. A small air pump can aid in aeration as well.
6. Filtration is one of the best ways to deal with ammonia. Natural filtration can be achieved by adding plants like hyacinths. Mechanical filtration by using zeolite is an alternative.
7. The best time to introduce new fish to the pond is late spring or early summer. When introducing new fish to the pond, consider placing them in quarantine pool for three to four weeks. This helps in monitoring the fish for any unusual diseases or allergic reactions.
8. Most of the fishes can only eat small amount at a time. It is important to add lot of water plants if you plan on creating a self-sustaining eco-system. A balanced pond contains a lot of water plants, some insects, algae – all which are edible by fish. A typical Koi fish needs to be fed by about 5 minutes.
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