Fish for the garden pond are the icing on the cake for most owners of such systems. However, the species should still be selected in a very targeted manner in order to prevent the system from being ecologically overloaded. The size and depth of the water surface also plays a decisive role.
Koi carp create an Asian flair
First of all, it is important that the garden pond must meet some very important requirements as a habitat for the animals. The first thing to consider is the size of the body of water, but also the depth as an elementary prerequisite. A prefabricated tank with a depth of 80 cm, which freezes over immediately in winter, is definitely not suitable for stocking fish, because the The water depth should be around 150 cm, at least. It should be noted that:
- Each fish species requires a certain minimum number;
- the species cannot take their food from each other or eat each other;
- for every type of habitat such as hiding places, different substrates and zones of different depths are available.
What fish food does a garden pond need?
Some species of fish prefer dry food, while others prefer live fresh food. There can only be as much feed for the fish in the garden pond as is actually used, i.e. no excess. Many fish do not need to be fed at all, some species no longer accept food with falling water temperatures of around 10°C. One should therefore be careful not to place fish indiscriminately in the garden pond if life in the water is to proceed without problems and, moreover, one should not forget that fish also grow in the course of their lives. A brief overview of which species are suitable for your garden pond:
| fish species | expected size |
|---|---|
| Bitterling (Rhodeus sericeus amarus | 6 to 10 cm |
| Minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) | 8 to 12 cm |
| Gudgeon (Gobio gobio) | 10 to 15 cm |
| Dogfish (Umbra krameri) | 12 to 15 cm |
| koi carp | up to 120 cm |
| Mustache (Leucaspius delineatus) | 9 to 10 cm |
| Peacock Bass (Centrachus macropterus) | 12 to 15 cm |
| Roach (Scardinius erythrophthalmus) | 15 to 35 cm |
| veiltail | 10 to 20 cm |
| Silver and golden orfe (Leuciscus idus) | 30 to 50 cm |
Feeding the fish in the garden pond
The amount of feed not only has a great influence on the fish stock itself, but also on its reproduction, from which two constellations for the pond can be derived:
- If they are fed a lot, all young fish survive, their reproduction is very high and ecological overload gradually sets in.
- If little and moderate feeding is used, part of the fry is used by the conspecifics as food, which leads to the desired ecological stability.
Therefore, the fish for the garden pond should only be fed every second day and only in such amounts that completely consumed within 10 minutes can become. If there is still food floating on the surface of the pond, the amount was clearly too much.
tips
Even if the insight may be difficult: koi are not for the "normal" garden pond. In order to be able to survive in winter, these fish need water depths of at least two meters and the pond itself needs an efficient filter system.