Planting media for water garden plants

I am having problems with my Koi and catfish uprooting my plants and scattering the planting media on the bottom of my ponds. I have heard about cat litter being used. Has anyone any experience with this?

Yes. One of the other threads uses it. I put pea gravel, then 1" rock over my lilies to keep the fish out, but I have only little koi and gold fish. But they do try...

Torpedo

Try the egg rock over your lily pots. It should be too heavy for your fish to move. Also, I have seen where some people have put a coated wire mesh type of thing over their lily pots.

My understanding is the koi are after the clay in the waterlily soil and the plain cat litter. I too plant my waterlilies in pea gravel with the egg rock over the top. I don't really have a lot of issues with my koi uprooting my lilies.

Carolyn, what is egg rock? And do you use some sort of media besides pea gravel to plant in? Or is that just the topping you put on

mstella

I have my waterlilies planted in pea gravel with the egg rock over the top. Egg rock is bigger around and has no sharp edges. You can get it by the bagful at Lowes. http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=93893-66882-93893&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3047686&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

I can't have plants at all with my Koi :(
They are really big. If they can't move the rocks, they rip the plants to shreds trying to get to the planting medium......they win....no plants in the Koi pond.

fish_knees - sounds like you have pirana not Koi.. lol

thanks Carolyn. I have river rock that is worn round that I was using. I am thinking of taking out the lilies in the fall and trying to overwinter in the garage in bags. I have to reduce the stuff in my pond over winter to make it healthier for the fish -- they have such a long dormant period and I am fighting low oxygen. Am going to readdress the aerator idea this year, as well as a small running 'falls' maybe 6" drop from a 2.5" house. Will probably just freeze over but might riffle the water when ti hits.

Fish Knees -

how big are your fish? I have some a little over 2 ft. Must be mine are either overfed or well behaved! ^_^

Now to be serious - I have read that one has to decide whether they want a koi pond or a water garden.....

For you guys running barracuda, that is probably the case. lol. My guys are too small to do any damage.

I switched to purple stemmed taro and umbrella palm for my pond...the large koi can't do anything to them. I plant them in the half sized cement block as planters filled with gravel instead of soil.

Several of my Koi are bigger than my dog...but then she is a Yorkie-poo :)

Mary, that is a neat idea with the cement blocks and gravel. Do you do anything to the blocks before they go into the pond. I heard they can leach stuff into the water.

Fish -

I'll bet your yorkie poo is a cutie. I have a cat bigger than that, but she weighs twice what she should weigh. When we have to go to the vet, they always say something to me about her weight. Try as I might though, it is not something that will change. I can get a few pounds off her and then if/when we go away, she eats everything in sight and puts on more.

Sounds like a happy cat =^..^=