I have a bathtub sized plastic pond and for years have tried to keep goldfish away from predators. The battle has finally worn me down. This year, after reading an inspiring book called Gardening for Wildlife, I have decided to reconceptualize the pond as a wildlife pond. I was wondering if anyone in the Vancouver area has native aquatic plants or animals to sell or trade, or can recommend a good supplier.
The Native Plant Society of BC maintains a list of sources / suppliers for native plants. Have a peek through the specialty nurseries -- some of them emphasize wetland plants.
From a mental health perspective, realize that there will be some predation and allow that you may have to re-stock occasionally. We had a converted hot tub (works great with the different levels supplemented with bricks for fine adjustments) and had years of enjoyment with fish and plants and yes, the occasional heron. We would have long periods (months) of stability or even increase - they do breed - and then a spell of "disappearances". We were never completely cleaned out but maybe twice in 4 or 5 years we bought a half dozen small goldfish. Perhaps the hot tub insulation helped reduce the temperature fluctuations a bit, but it still froze (a few inches of ice) in the winter. We had grasses, some irises (including the dreaded yellow flag), "arrowhead" something or other and some typical aquarium plants. We treated it like a lake - no maintenance, no inputs. Seemed to work. Ralph
It was suggested in an outdoor gardening show to add one or two decoys to the pond to discourage predation. They would be anchored to the bottom and floated a couple inches down from the surface. They were talking about koi fish but it should work even better in protecting smaller fish; the relatively larger size of the decoy koi should draw attention away from the smaller prey. Apparently the birds would be discouraged by getting a beak full of plastic.
Thanks for this. I like your image of the little lake. I will definitely check out that arrowhead plant--very pretty!
