Small garden ponds - option of having fish?

[Matt UK]

Just discovered our garden has two small ponds - one slightly higher than the other. Both are around about a square meter and 2ft deep. I found a pump, got it all working and it seems that water from the lower pond is sent to the higher pond, which as it then fills, overflows down a little rockfall into the lower pond and so the cycle continues.

The kids had hours of fun cutting back all of the surrounding overgrowth and clearing all the surface debris and bottom sludge. Seems that quite a few frogs have made it home so they are keen on having fish in it as well.

There are pond liners in there but no plants growing within it at present, which I guess is a bit of a problem.

So, can I put fish in? Option for which type? Do you feed them or do I need to put plants in for the ecosystem to get going and look after itself?

Also, the pump is good for keeping the water moving and creating the water feature - if we put fish in, would this need to be on 24/7?

[hedgefinder]

its not really deep enough for fish, will freeze in the winter unless its in a protected area. Also the first Heron tha finds a 2ft deep pond will empty it within an hour.

[Dilligaf10]

Could be a haven for dragonflies and damselflies though. Amazing amount of wildlife in even the smallest ponds.

[nagsheadwarrior]

Fish=No frogs, enjoy the frogs,vive le frogs!

[Timmy35]

nagsheadwarrior said:

Fish=No frogs, enjoy the frogs,vive le frogs!

or any other wildlife for that matter. OP, make it a lovely fascinating diverse wildlife pond for your kids, you'll get waterboatmen, pond skaters, tadpoles, dragon flies, all sorts of interesting things. If there aren't any pop some pond snails in to keep the algae in check.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Don't bother with fish, they ruin a pond. keep it as natural as poss and watch the wildlife make a bee line for your garden. Frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies, more insects will bring in hedgehogs and grass snakes.

[otolith]

Ornamental fish are likely to eat most of your wildlife. If you can get your hands on a few sticklebacks, though, they are native to small ponds, interesting, and will integrate into the ecosystem fairly harmlessly. And they'll keep down the mosquito larvae, which are the kind of wildlife you don't really want.

[Nightmare]

Wilst the above is all 'right' advice...my pond happily sustains dragonflies, damselflies, every bug youve ever seen, 2 species of newt, frogs (not many but that's the newts fault) and s small shoal of 7 orfe. Everything seems to be getting along fine.....

Get some plants in there before you do anything else though.....you won't get much diversity with 2 empty linked ponds you've totally cleared out

[Matt UK]

Thanks for the advice.

Right, I actually made a mistake here - whilst cutting back the foliage I now realise that the lower pond has plants growing in it; some reeds and some other green stuff. I've also put a few sinker plants in the top one.

So, the kids bought two little fish each - we'll see how they go!