He ain’t no goldfish!!

[Andys temperate tank]

In the pond at my old house I used to keep Orfe. Great fish!

Paul did the pond ever freeze over? We’re they as hardy as goldfish?

Yes it did freeze over a few times, once quite thick and for a week or so. I melted holes in the ice but they froze again! The orfe seemed fine - I had a mix of about 10 gold and silver(blue) ones.

Encouraging. Encouraging thanks

I'm going back to my grandad pond here Ruth. In winter me grandad used to put a couple of fly away (penny floater) footballs in the pond every morning if the pond froze over he pulled them out of the ice leaving a few nice big holes.

[Staffylover]

Eli is a lovely looking fish don't think I've seen the golden variety before, at least with the weather warming up there is a few months to make any decision, be a shame to take him out of the pond though, I bet it's lovely to have them in there, can you see them from your house?

[Ruth]

Eli is a lovely looking fish don't think I've seen the golden variety before, at least with the weather warming up there is a few months to make any decision, be a shame to take him out of the pond though, I bet it's lovely to have them in there, can you see them from your house?

I can thanks - the pond is right outside my kitchen window.

[Staffylover]

how lovely, I have been feeling the need for another project so bought myself a pre formed pond yesterday it's just a big plastic box it will have to sit above the ground as there is a limestone shelf just under the top soil but hopefully better than nothing, will be a couple weeks until I can get delivery, so any recommendations on plants welcome

[Ric]

Certainly during spring/summer, you can just dump any spare cuttings from your tank plants in there. Come autumn, though, they will die off.
Certainly have some oxygenators - elodea or hornwort; perhaps a water lily. They come in lovely dwarf versions, if your pond is not that big. The leaves will shade the water and thus reduce algae during the summer.

[Martinspuddle]

If he is a WCMM then he will likely become goldfish food......

If he is a WCMM then he will likely become goldfish food......

Nooooooo!!! He’s been living with big ones in close confinement for years! I really hope not!

Need to get Eli out of there @Ruth before someone eats him either it's very unlikely he would survive a bad winter, like we had in 2012 or even 1989.

[Ruth]

how lovely, I have been feeling the need for another project so bought myself a pre formed pond yesterday it's just a big plastic box it will have to sit above the ground as there is a limestone shelf just under the top soil but hopefully better than nothing, will be a couple weeks until I can get delivery, so any recommendations on plants welcome

Super!! I have kept the labels from my pond plants so will post them up. As Ric says I have elodea in there to oxygenate and a dwarf water lily and a few other things.

[Ruth]

If he is a WCMM then he will likely become goldfish food......

If he is a WCMM then he will likely become goldfish food......

Nooooooo!!! He’s been living with big ones in close confinement for years! I really hope not!

Need to get Eli out of there @Ruth before someone eats him either it's very unlikely he would survive a bad winter, like we had in 2012 or even 1989.

Flip me!!

I shall contemplate Eli!

[Ruth]

how lovely, I have been feeling the need for another project so bought myself a pre formed pond yesterday it's just a big plastic box it will have to sit above the ground as there is a limestone shelf just under the top soil but hopefully better than nothing, will be a couple weeks until I can get delivery, so any recommendations on plants welcome

Here’s me plant labels! I also have that thing with white flowers and a mini pond lily and something that looks like pyparis (can’t spell that!). You can also see my stroke of genius in suspending some over the edge so I don’t have to put so many bricks in the water!

[Mol_PMB]

The white flowered one is Water Crowfoot, Ranunculus aquatilis. A lovely plant and useful oxygenator too.