Topic: Pond Plants

[Roy Bham UK]

My Bro-in-law gave me a few pond plants for my new pond, I was wondering if I can just plonk them straight in or should I treat the plants first with antibacterial chemicals like Malachite to prevent infecting? ???
This is all new to me as I never had plants in with my Koi in the past.
Many thanks Roy ;D

[Margaret]

Hi Roy.If your brother in law has a healthy pond,with healthy fish and has had no problems recently,then you should be ok.Bacteria rarely gets transferred on plants:if you take them from the wild it is more risky as you could bring pests with them.Just rinse them off with plain water and you will be fine.However,don't just"plonk them in!!"

I presume you are going to be potting them up into aquatic compost? i have never had koi but I do know they are very likely to yank plants out of a pot unless you put a good layer of thick gravel or small pebbles on the top of the compost.The one oxygenating weed you could just throw in is hornwort,which has no roots but grows well.Gosh I wish you lived nearby,i have 2 ponds full of the stuff!! :D

[Roy Bham UK]

Thanks for that Margaret, just what I wanted to hear, ;) my Bro-in-law does have a very healthy pond and he breaks all the rules in the book, ::) he has three large Koi and several smaller that have been there many years, loads of gold fish and even more babies, his pond is bursting with plant life. :-\
The main pond raised high 2½ ft deep, has an area approx 5ft diameter that is circular with the water running down into a smaller circular pond approx 18 inches deep, wait for it, :D he has a pin hole leak in this pond liner and intends doing nothing about it and runs a hose permanently so gallons of untreated tap water must be in there, how does he get away with it? :o

Roy :)

[Margaret]

Hi again Roy.he may be getting away with it at the moment but he is very stupid to think it will not be affecting his fsh,and sooner or later he will get problems.He is being most unfair on them.There are products these days that fix leaks underwater which mean you don't even have to drain the pond.i would suggest he try and find out the easiest way because it must be affecting them.Or at least put in a dechlorinator.And what if for some reason the hose leaks or the water is turned off?A very silly attitude.

[Roy Bham UK]

Hi Margaret, :) I agree he is silly not repairing it, but his reason being that a Heron frequented the pond and cleared the small lower pond of small fish that had escaped the jaws of the big fish in the upper pond and whilst the Heron hunted the small fry, it has managed to pierce the pond on several different occasions. At this point he was getting fed up forever removing the liner and repairing it. :(
He learned from his next door neighbour that he kept a fairly large single Koi in his leaking pond for years and kept it topped up on tap water with a garden hose left permanently on trickle, the Koi lived happily until there was a mains burst and the water was cut off and the water lay still and then the Koi died, sad but true.  :'(

Roy.  ;D