My sister has a pond I wanted to get her some plants through the water lily co-op but I know fish will eat them. She has 1 koi and quite a few goldfish. Is there any kind of water lily or flowering water plant that the fish won't eat. Don't suggest water hyacinth please, they're bad news in Louisiana :-)
Mary Ann
Is there anything the fish won't eat?
My goldfish don't bother the plants much. They do root around and nibble but not anything that impedes the plant's growth. But my fish are still small.
Koi, though, are notorious for being plant destroyers.
They do make special planters that are supposed to keep the koi out and I think there's a post in this forum from someone who made a screen for her waterlilies to keep the little buggers from rooting them up. Maybe she'll chime in.
Right, detroyers...not eaters. They want them bugs in the pots :o)
I remember that thread, got my mesh and tie wraps and still haven't tried it yet though, but I plan to. I'm sure they'll pop in :) I don't recall who it was though.
Lynn... have you had problems with your koi and lilies? Your ponds were so awesome when I visited... and LOTS of great pond plants...
I have always used the biggest nose in the pond as the rule for the smallest rock that goes on top of the pot. If they can't get the rocks off the roots they can't "root" around lol If the roots are not protected in some way from fish that are big enough to be destructive, they'll get destroyed. Someone will pop up with that thread with the mesh idea, I like that way better than rocks, just have been totally ignoring the pond and all it's contents :(
That's what a new puppy will do...
And a new pair of birds lol I'm a bit obsessive compulsive.....I've spent the last couple of days building a play gym for them that they may not use for a long time because we have "trust" issues (I am working with them every day to hand train them) lol Oh well, I'm having so much fun designing and building it.
Cool! Photos, please!
You're funny, these guys don't want to see my birdie gym, it's not finished anyways. Right now it's in pieces so I can dye some pieces and sand others.
I DO want to see! I was actually hooked on cockatiels a few years ago but a stray kitten adopted us so I figured that was not such a good idea ;-). What kind of birds do you have?
ha ha!
They're lovebirds :) We do have a cat though, he's been very good- a nice dose of water on the butt did wonders for any interest he had around the cage lol
I use the half size cement blocks as underwater planters......I put the plant in the cube hole and fill it with rocks. The fish can't root much through 4 cement walls and a pile of rocks. All of my underwater and marginal plants have done very well.
:)
2nd option.....I also bought some black football open holed jersey material at WalMart for a dollar a yard, filled it with kitty litter, some rocks, and the plant, and tied it up loosely around the plant (so new growth could also have room to sprout out) and just dropped the bundles in the pond. The fish can't get through the fabric to the roots, and they are portable, so you can move them around from time to time if you want to. I've done this with cannas, water iris, water lily, elephant ears, and lotus. So far it's worked on all of them.
Lotus 'Mrs. Perry D. Slocum' and koi coexisting, sort of.
snapple, that is gorgeous! MerryMary, what great ideas!
Lotus tub with plastic fencing wire tied over the top ( taken late March). You can see one leaf coming up. It had just broken dormancy. The lotus pictured in my Jul 4 post is the same one growing from this tub.
