European Gardening: Pond projects, 1 by Patbarr

Patbarr wrote:
We do lose a few to the heron, but I usually stretch some pea netting over the shallow bits in winter when there isn't as much cover for them and the heron doesn't like that.

What a great name for a goldfish - Dennis - I can't imagine a fish with eyebrows.

Some of my fish are about 30 years old as they are what the children won at fairs when they were small. Others have been adopted from friends who no longer wanted them. They also breed every year, but not many survive. There are some little black ones from last year. We also have a very large old tench which is about 15 inches long. You just see a mouth appear from under a lily pad and the food disappears as if down a vacuum cleaner. There are also three young golden orfe which are the offspring of the very large ones that died when the thunderstorm made the pump cut out last year.

A very sad picture - all those beautiful fish. I lost seven golden orfe and a golden rud and some of the largest goldfish all because of a power failure in hot weather. It just shows how much they depend on oxygenated water when they are large. They seem to grow to fit the conditions in the pond and then if something changes the larges or oldest die off and then the small ones take their place.