Maidenhead Aquatics Topical Tips - January 2010

As I write this, a blanket of snow covers the ground and adds an air of serenity to my garden. It’s true, even the worst lawn looks great under six inches of snow and the wildlife pond is no different and needs only a seasonal robin perched on the emergent branch to look like a classic winter scene. Perhaps if we have another hard winter I’ll be lucky enough to see a kingfisher again and he’s always welcome at my fish-free pond. So, with a new year upon us what needs doing this month?

Outdoors

Now is a really good time to plan a new pond. The great thing about the planning stage is that you get to sit down with a hot drink on a cold, dark evening and still look busy! Nothing makes one feel more virtuous than planning physical labour after a series of festive feasts and even if you only have room for a small wildlife pond, it will be great for getting both you and your garden in shape.

With the disappearance of most of their wild spawning habitats, the somewhat ironically named common frog is now reliant on garden ponds to survive in our modern landscape and loves shallow fish-free pools where tadpoles can grow quickly and escape their principle predators – newts. Many of us have frogs that visit our gardens but most ponds with fish have a very low survival rate for tadpoles, as goldfish and koi happily eat the spawn and young tadpoles. Unlike frogs, toads are able to successfully breed in ponds that house fish as their eggs and young share the distasteful toxins found in the skin of the adults. A small pond a meter/yard square with a few native plants can be a lifeline for wildlife and add much interest to your garden. Find a bit of room to ‘make space for nature’ and you never know - your local store might have just the right sized off-cut of pond liner to get you started.

If your plans run to something rather more ambitious, this is still the perfect time to start and without working too flat-out you can have a mature looking pond by late summer. There are some unwritten rules that nobody ever tells you about fish ponds and you may benefit from knowing them in advance. Firstly, most people make them far too small. Like aquarium fish, pond fish will grow and in the case of carp they will just be getting nice as they outgrow your pond. The wonder of any koi whether expensive beauty or bargain beast is the fact that they’re so friendly that it’s like owning a dog with fins. The bigger they get the more intelligent and companionable and so you can see that there is a world of difference between putting a few small carp into a medium sized pond and having a lovely big pool full of pet fish. By making your pond as deep as you can, you gain extra volume that means that you can have more fish and they’ll enjoy cooler summers, warmer winters and better body shape due to having more space to exercise. Secondly, it is natural for ponds containing fish to be cloudy. Take a walk beside most canals, lakes and large ponds and you’ll notice that most of them are a murky haze with the odd sign of life visible in the gloom. Most small organisms that would naturally clear the water are eaten by fish or destroyed by pumps, so dig your pond deep to alter the surface area to depth ratio in your favour and reckon on adding an Ultra-violet clarifier to your pond to keep it clear. The old principle of the balanced pond still works with goldfish but koi of any kind will eat the plants and root around in the mud, destroying any chance of a biological equilibrium. Thirdly and more positively, there is nowhere more relaxing to enjoy a well-earned beer, wine or cup of tea at the end of a summer’s day than by the side of a healthy garden pond.

At this time of year, there’s a good chance that any pond lacking permanent water movement or a pool heater will freeze over. If this happens, don’t panic and never try to break the ice covering a pond as the shock waves transferred to the fish can be very stressful. Instead, place an old saucepan on the ice and fill it with boiling water to melt a hole. Then you can place a pond heater in the hole or one of the less labour-intensive devices for keeping the pond ice-free.

For more winter pond care tips, check out the December edition

Indoors:

Are you the type of person who makes New Year’s resolutions? I must admit that I gave up on them a while ago but have to admit that I often resolve to do more waterchanges. Considering how easy they are to do and the benefits to your fish, I often wonder why people seem so reluctant to do them regularly. Use a gravel cleaner and make them even more worthwhile – by removing the solid waste from the base of the tank you’ll reduce the nitrate and phosphate that causes algae, not to mention giving your fish a breath of fresh air.

Make sure that you use a water conditioner to remove chlorine from new tap water and try to get the temperature within a few degrees of your aquarium to reduce the risk of shocking your fish. Carried out properly, there’s no such thing as too many waterchanges and many fish breeders carry out daily 50% changes as part of their standard maintenance. Aim to carry out a 25% change weekly for most aquaria, if you have large messy fishes such as goldfish or Oscars try doing this twice weekly and watch your fish thrive!

f the idea of hauling so many buckets around makes you weak at the knees, there are some products that will extend the length of time between changes if used correctly. Many of these can be very useful but none of them replace a waterchange completely. They should be seen as an aid rather than a replacement, apart from one or two gadgets such as JBL’s Aqua In-Out that connects between the sink and your aquarium and moves the water between the two through hosing. One of the biggest improvements you can make is to use better water. If your tap water is hard with high nitrates and phosphates, you’ll see a big difference if you switch to Reverse Osmosis treated water. This R.O. water has been passed through a membrane that removes almost all dissolved impurities and can be ‘reconstructed’ to match any water parameters by adding desirable mineral buffers. Without these buffers, this water is too pure for fish and can be prone to massive pH swings, so add something back before you put it in the tank.

As well as using better water, you can add chemical filter media to take some of the pollutants out of solution. Resins that remove damaging nitrate, phosphate, silicate can all play a part in reducing algae in your aquarium and improve conditions for the fish. For best results, place these products in an external filter and keep them clean – a layer of debris or bacteria will effectively stop them from working. Carbon is a long-established aid to water clarity and can be used in the same way. For best results use a small amount and change it frequently. Note that carbon takes out good things as well as bad, so make sure you remove it before adding medications or vitamins etc to your aquarium.

On the course of my travels I’ve been fortunate enough to see some real treats including a species I’ve not seen in the flesh before, so I’ll start with that one right away!

This psychotic potato look-alike is the rarely seen Tetraodon duboisi, a predatory West African pufferfish for the specialist prepared to give this fish its own aquarium. This fish was at our Farnham store, where the manager’s fondness for puffers is very obvious when looking at the range on offer.

Also at the Farnham store was an extraordinary group of large polyped stony corals which include an amazing Comb coral (Catalaphyllia) which in the time that it’s been in stock, has grown into the largest I’ve seen at a retailer.

Nearby at the Ascot store, two very different dwarf cichlids were on display. At one extreme, the recently developed Electric Blue Rams (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) were looking very well. Like all varieties of this community friendly species, these will thrive if given warm, softwater low in nitrates.

The other end of the scale came in the form of the quietly beautiful Purple Gold Acara (Laetacara ‘buckelkopf’) a terrific community fish which still awaits scientific classification let alone the development of domesticated forms. These fishes will thrive in similar conditions to the Ram and perform the classic ‘brown in the shop but beautiful at home’ trick that we see in a large number of dwarf cichlids.