I have two small ponds made from kids sand pits (see pic below). they are about 3ft at the widest point and approx 12" deep (might be a little less), do you all think they would support a small stickleback population?
my plan is to build a much larger pond that would defiantly support fish life but was wondering about starting to create a small population that will keep the mosquito larvae down during the summer months.
if overwintering will be a problem (the ponds have never frozen solid just the surface, which i tend to melt in case there are frogs in there) the plan is to transfer the fish to the large pond in autumn and move some of them back in late spring.
so does this sound like a good idea ???
PS if i could keep fish in there i would keep the water levels topped up from the water butts.
(http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk187/thifasmom/IMG_0792.jpg)
I believe sticklebacks breed like mad, but in a small space other SB's will eat the small fry so keeping the population down. They tend to prefer slow moving water, but I did know someone who kept them in a pond at home. He ended up having to remove loads as they became too prolific.
They will also eat frog spawn, so it really depends what type of wildlife pond you want. If you do go ahead it would be interesting to know how things go.
This is a good forum to ask this type of question http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/forums/
Good luck ;)
thanks Star for reminding me about the frog spawn part of things, i did also figure they would keep their own population down.
the ponds went in last year and we thought we would have been rewarded with frog spawn this year but although we had what appeared to be one mating pair we didn't get any spawn :(.
does anyone know if the sticklebacks would eat tadpoles? if not i could add them to the pond after the spawn has hatched ??? and if the population becomes to much i suppose i could just transfer back to the larger pond (that's not even finished as yet ::))
i could also only transfer one female and male at the beginning of the season when it will be fairly easy to tell them apart because of their colourings, etc.
gosh that's a lot of ifs :-\ :).
thanks for the link I'll check it out.
No it's not too small for stickle backs! and they get on fine with our frogs!! ;)
thanks for the reply Tonybloke, I'll try and source at least four pairs for spring two share between the two sand pit ponds :D.