NANFA-L-- Ponds, Gainesville FL

Gerald Pottern (gbpottern-in-yahoo.com)
Wed, 14 Jun 2006 09:48:25 -0700 (PDT)

Cynthia, since you purchased a house with a pond and
built-in aquarium, i'm assuming you have some
underlying fascination with fish that's ready to
bloom. Start thinking about what you want from your
pond: 1) a "formal" landscaped garden pond with
goldfish or koi and exotic flowering plants? 2) a
bare pond with edible fish (bluegill, bass, catfish,
tilapia)? or 3) a little piece of nature, with
interesting native fishes and plants (least
maintenance). Who to call and what to do next will
depend on that decision. Also, is it a dug pond with
a liner, with no inflow/outflow, or is it a dammed
creek ? Commercial pond maintenance companies will
probably focus on Options 1 or 2. Native Fish
Conservancy folks can probably give you better advice
on Option 3. If it were my pond, i'd go with small
natives that are compatible with plants, like
blackbanded sunfish, bluespotted sunfish, everglades
pygmy sunfish, golden topminnow, bluefin killifish,
sailfin shiner, taillight shiner, etc. Keep in mind
that aquatic and emergent plants will help keep the
water clear. Without them you'll get more algae growth
(cloudy green water). For your indoor tank you'll also
need to decide whether you want freshwater tropicals,
natives, saltwater, planted aquarium, frog terrarium,
etc. There's LOTS of things you can do with tanks and
ponds. Join us-in-NFC and good luck with whatever you
choose.
-- Gerald Pottern, NC

--Original Message--
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Cynthia Swanson"
<Cynthia.Swanson-in-acceleration.net>
To: <robertrice-in-juno.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 09:56:17 -0400
Subject: Ponds, etc.
Message-ID: <002601c68e27$fa6d1780$1400a8c0-in-cynthia2>

Hello, Mr. Rice - I found your name and email address
by Googling "fish
ponds Gainesville." I'm looking for some help in
cleaning up and
maintaining a fish pond in a house I recently moved
into. The pond was
here, the previous owners no help, and I know NOTHING
about fish, ponds,
etc. In fact, the house has a large built-in acquarium
that I have to
maintain, and about which I know next to NOTHING also.
I found a kid who
works-in-Aquartropics who came to clean the acquarium
a few times, but he
is unreliable and I haven't been able to reach him for
weeks now.

Anyway, I wondered if you might have some suggestions
about how I might
find a person to clean out my pond (it seems to be
overflowing with
plants - almost no clear water surface) and show me
how to maintain it.
Your post that I read said something like 15 minutes
per month to
maintain it, but I don't know what to do. Also, if by
chance you know
anybody who cleans and maintains acquariums, I'd love
a referral there,
too.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

~ Cynthia Swanson
http://mail.yahoo.com
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