HELP! Mozzies v fish eating tadpoles, et.

[francegarden]

I have a newly installed pond very close to a verandah where
I spend a lot of time.
Had not intended to have fish as they eat tadpoles, dragonfly larvae and so on.
BUT -they also eat mozzies and their larvae and we het a lot of the little beast here and I get bitten very badly.
Has anyone successfully combined fish and frogs in their ponds?
Hmm! That would make for an interesting result - a fish crossed with a frog - but you know what I mean.

[Dutchy]

Have you seen those funny fat goldfish the Chinese created with the huge upturned eyes? Almost like an orange frog those so some one beat you to the idea ;D

Good question though.
My friend has a pond of app 4 meter across and she has loads of goldfish.
Somehow she also has some frogs that do their thing every year. Maybe because there is a safe bit where the fish can't go and that is where the frogs lay their eggs. Goldfish only eat the eggs not the tadpoles. Maybe that is a solution.
I have a fish free pond but no frogs. I do have a honeymoon hotel for newts though and I think the newts sort of bung the frogs out so they have the pond to themselves.

I think you can have frogs and fish as long as there is a patch the fish can't go in, be it with a dividing system or so many green stuff they can't get through.

Try it, it seems worth the effort.

As for getting bitten so badly use a more than 20 percent DEET containing anty mozzies.
I usually get bitten bad by everything. Tasty person me But the gnats milk from Sweden keeps me safe even from those blasted sheep/horsefly bggrs. And I don't get tics when I use it so to me that stuff is the miracle send down form the Northpole.

[francegarden]

Yes. A couple of people have said you can have fish and frogs - keep the fish small, apparently.
I shall wait and see if I get some tadpoles and then introduce some fish. I am planning to have lots
of plants and am putting stones in,etc.
What is the gnat's milk you mentioned, Dutchy? Do I have to milk them - like cows??
Getting bitten is a major problem for me. Have tried all sorts of things, but the little blighters just
find the parts I haven't treated!

[Deleted]

I moved into my house four years ago and inherited a pond with six goldfish of varying sizes and a healthy collection of frogs and newts. In previous years the balance in the pond has seen very few tadpoles surviving the fish & newts, but some healthy froglets have made it.

However this year I was down to four fish after the winter and this has now been reduced to one survivor - I initially thought this might have been down to the water being very green and an increase in temperature over the last week but sadly found one barely alive this morning with clear evidence of having been eaten by the tadpoles (quite a gruesome sight). The pond is swarming with tadpoles and one suggestion has been that because it is also quite overgrown that the fish may have been unable to swim clear.

So I guess it is down to a balance but it is quite ironic that the steps I'd taken to protect the tadpoles from predators have turned the tables on the poor fish.

[Barbara]

Yuk Tiger lily what a horrible sight that must have been first thing in the morning

[Deleted]

Yep really grim and more worryingly I can't locate the one surviving fish - perhaps it will come up as the day warms - as I would like to relocate it until the tadpole swarm leaves the pond.

However I've just noticed a female blackbird looking very interested at the pond so there may be less tadpoles soon...

[andy]

If you do go for any fish, go for small, native fish....sticklebacks are a superb choice if you can get them.

[Spruance]

Hi Tigerlily and welcome to GWD.

I wonder if this might be a case of mistaken identity? If you have mosquito larvae in your pond these would make a tasty morsel for dragonfly larvae which in turn can also predate on small fish as well as tadpoles....

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly

[madonplants]

Mar 20, 2010 7:45:21 GMT francegarden said:

I have a newly installed pond very close to a verandah where
I spend a lot of time.
Had not intended to have fish as they eat tadpoles, dragonfly larvae and so on.
BUT -they also eat mozzies and their larvae and we het a lot of the little beast here and I get bitten very badly.
Has anyone successfully combined fish and frogs in their ponds?
Hmm! That would make for an interesting result - a fish crossed with a frog - but you know what I mean.

At our last house, I built a 16ft pond and it had frogs and fish in it! There were three Sarasa Comets and three Blue and one Golden Orfe. I had netted the pond, due to being on a Heron's flight path, but last year, a female dropped her spawn through the netting, so some was half in and half out, until I helped out. I always left a place that wasn't netted, so they could get in and out OK, but this female must have forgotten that!

You will get a balance of wildlife in time, that will help reduce their numbers, both in and out of the water.

As Spruance has said, try and encourage Dragonflies to the pond, by including reedy type plants, where they will want to lay their eggs on or close to. Birds will eat lots of the adult mozzies, as will Bats. It's only the female that bites humans, or should I say, any mammal!

As Andy has said, only fish you can really have in a wildlife pond, is our native Stickleback, but like he said, you might have trouble getting hold of some, as you can't take them from the wild without a special licence!

[andy]

May 27, 2010 11:00:24 GMT madonplants said:

As Andy has said, only fish you can really have in a wildlife pond, is our native Stickleback, but like he said, you might have trouble getting hold of some, as you can't take them from the wild without a special licence!

One of our local fish shops sells them for £3 each They have loads of brightly coloured males and spawn laden females so they must be available if you pull the right strings

[francegarden]

Don't know if there are sticklebacks in this part of France.
Have seen dragonfly flying around over the pond, but it has very little plant life in it yet - although I have planted a lot, they are still very small and round the borders rather than in the actual pond. I am awaiting a delivery of water lilies and floaters.
There is a large aquatic garden I intend to visit and ask their advice. They suggested roach, which are small.
Anyway, it will take a year or two for the pond to start maturing. It is rather bigger than I intended, but the chap with the digger got carried away with enthusiasm.

[andy]

If you're going to go for a native fish FG, i'd look at Rudd rather than roach. Rudd are more brightly coloured (there is a lovely golden variety available), they tend to stay near the surface and are a delight to watch on a warm summers evening as they take gnats and flies from the surface.

On the other hand, Roach are drab, bottom dwelling fish that shy away from light. they are also host to many diseases and parasites. They're a lovely fish but just not suited to domestic ponds.

I would usually advise anyone who has a pond to put a few fish in it just to keep the balance. Fish will not eat frogspawn but they will, if other food is scarce, eat tadpoles. But so will newts, dragonfly larvae and other aquatic bugs so i would just make sure the tadpoles have plenty of weedy areas to hide in.

[francegarden]

Thanks for your suggestions, Andy.
My only problem now is to find out (a) what rudd is in French - not in my huge French dictionary, and (b) whether I can get them here.
Friends have some small goldfish - and masses of very noisy frogs - but the little blighters refuse to allow themselves to be caught - the fish, I mean, not the frogs.