The primary concern of any koi pond keeper, indeed of any fish pond keeper, it to preserve the pond water at a high level of hygiene. This basically means that you have to keep the nitrate and ammonia levels down. However, the fish will not help in this endeavour, and nor can they, since they live and defecate in their surroundings, the water. You can accurately say that the live in their own toilet bowl.

Therefore, it is up to you, as their benefactor, to keep their water as clean as possible. This is actually not so difficult and much or the decontamination process can be automated, leaving you, the owner, to only have to carry out routine, weekly tests.

The first check that you should carry out can be made on a daily basis if not more often, when you give food to your fish, does the water look clear? Is it green? Are there lots of leaves floating around in it? If it is clear enough to see the bottom of the pond, you are probably doing OK, but do not rely on that, wait for the weekly chemical check up.

Never forget that you have created an unnatural environment for your fish to live in. It is nearer to nature that a fish tank, but it is a long way from being a river or a lake. This is why the bigger your pond is, the simpler it will be to maintain, because the closer it will be to the real thing.

The smaller your pond, the more that you will have to depend on water filtration and oxygenation systems to keep the water crystal clear. One way of helping to maintain clear water is not to over feed. Most fish pond owners give far more fish food that the fish have need of.

This results in more excrement and more rotting food on the bottom of the pond. All this excess energy in the water is happily soaked up by algae, which will also suck the oxygen out of the water as it blooms. If you find yourself in this situation, the first thing to do is reduce the amount of feed and clean the sides of the pond of algae. If you do not, the lack of oxygen will stress out your fish and stressed fish are more prone to disease.

Keep the water in your pond circulating as much as you can, as this will reintroduce oxygen into the water that the fish, algae and plants have removed. The typical methods of doing this are to have a fountain, a waterfall and an aerator (or bubbler, like you see in fish tanks).

Another way of dealing with oxygen and algae problems is to not overstock your fish pond. Koi will breed freely, so if you just start your population off with a few fish, you will soon have many more. They know when there are too many of them and they will eat the fry or control the breeding in other ways. If you do all you can to give your fish a good milieu, they will do the rest.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is at present concerned with fish pond accessories. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for some great deals.

Do you like the sound of running water? Do you find the sound relaxing? Well, you can easily produce the sound of moving water in your own garden. You can put in a fish pond or a water garden. So, if you think that your garden needs landscaping, it might be a good idea to consider a fish pond or water garden.

People think that a fish pond takes lot of looking after, but that is not inevitably true. The truth is that the larger the fish pond, the less effort you have to put into it. This is because a big pond can create its own ecosystem, whereas a small fish pond needs help.

The ways that you can help a small fish pond be a decent environment for your fish are as follows:

Pond Filters – use a pond filter with a good pump. Do not forget that you could use a solar powered pump. It will save on the environment and on your purse. You should use a pond filter on a small pond, because the ecosystem cannot cope with all the plant waste of a small ornamental pond on its own. A pond pump will feed the filtration system and a waterfall or fountain if you wish.

Your pond filtration system should be left running twenty-four hours a day, but you can not just set it and forget it. Check that the pump is running daily and keep the filter as clean as needed for it to do its job. You may find that you have to clean it two or three times a week in the summer and autumn but only once a week in the winter and spring.

Leaf Netting: stop leaves from clogging up your pond in the autumn. The net should be poised a foot or so above the pond to prevent autumn leaves falling into the water and rotting.

Feeding: all fish should be fed fish food, not bread or scraps. Some fish ought to have specific fish food in order to preserve their colour. When you buy your fish, the salesperson should inform you what they eat. In general, the larger the pond the less trouble feeding becomes as they will eat natural food like insects, grubs, larvae and flies.

Fish need less food in the winter when they become semi-dormant and live off the fat reserves that they built up in the warmer months, so give food often in the summer and autumn, but less often in the winter. You must look to see if surplus food is left floating on the surface.

Winter: make sure that there is a hole in the ice so that the water can take in oxygen and the fish can feed if they wish to. You can buy a floating de-icer or some people float a round football in a hoola-hoop, which seems to work unless the temperature gets very low.

In fact, the hoola-hoop is a good idea all year round really. If you place the food in the hoop, it remains in one place and you can see if you have given too much. It also makes a nice site to see all the fish feeding in a shoal.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is now concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site right away for some extra special deals.

categories: fish,pond,water,home improvement,family,pets,animals,recreation,equipment,entertainment,outdoors,other,uncategorised,happiness

We all realize that stress kills in the human world, but did you realize that stress kills in the animal kingdom as well? It should not really come as much of a surprise an humans are only intelligent animals anyway. Stress kills animals, as well as fish as certain as it kills us.

However, fish do not pay bills and most of them do not even care about their kids. Some fish even eat their own children, so why does stress build up in a fish?

Well, stress can build up in a fish for many reasons, but the main one is bad environment, which means water that contains a chemical imbalance or a lack of oxygen. Fish can also get stressed, if it does not have anywhere to hide from predators or the sun.

It is straightforward to give your fish somewhere to hide. You can grow plants in tubs or buy floating lilies and you can also create caves of a sort for the fish to go into. A chemical imbalance can be checked with a kit and rectified by following the instructions that came with that testing kit.

Algae can have a huge effect on the amount of oxygen in your pond’s water. During the day, the algae consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen – all well and good – but at night the opposite is true and a mass of algae can suck all the oxygen out of your pond water in no time at all.

So you have to control the amount of algae in your pond. And it is no good scraping it off the walls and hoping it will die, because rotting vegetation also uses up oxygen. Surplus algae has to be removed. A rule of thumb to check whether your pond water contains enough oxygen is to watch your fish. If they are frequently gulping air at the surface, then your pond water is oxygen deficient.

Warm water has less capacity to hold water than cool water. Once water temperature reaches 80F or 25C, then you can be fairly certain that your pond water requires mechanical aeration. A fountain or a waterfall may not be enough, but it could be – it depends on the size of your pond, the number of plants, the quantity of fish, the surface area of the pond and the amount of algae.

It is not easy to determine the oxygen content of the water in your pond, but you can keep an eye on the general appearance of your pond and its contents. Algae is bad news, in general, do you have a lot of it? Are your plants, particularly the lilies doing well? Are your fish gasping at the surface? Are they lethargic or lively?

By observing at these indicators you should be able to get a good idea of what is going on in your pond. If you do not have a fountain, install one. Are things any better? If not, install a bubbler. Did that help? If not enough get a better filtration system and let the water run back into your pond via a waterfall. If that does not help, give up and try bee-keeping!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is now concerned with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a great deal.

Do you love to fish? Or do you just like to look at beautiful fish in their natural environments? Fish are interesting creatures. Not only does fishing provide one of the most relaxing and peaceful pastimes, as well as food, but if you love to scuba or snorkel then a school of fish can be one of the most intriguing sights you can see. If you love fish, and all that they represent, you might want to think about purchasing fish-inspired personal checks.

The good news is, these checks aren’t as expensive as you might think. In fact, when you order them from a reputable website you can save as much as 50% off the cost of your checks. You’ll also have a wide assortment of checks to choose from, too.

Whether you like going fishing, or you merely like looking at fish, you will find that there is a range of fish designs to pick from. Indeed, it might even be hard for you to choose. However, you can be certain that you will discover something to go well with your personality and style.

If you think fishing beats every other pastime, then you will be delighted to discover that there are a number of fish designs that focus on this fun activity. These checks contain images of tackle boxes, fishing poles, and obviously, the big catch.

You can also find fish checks that just feature bass. These striking images of large mouthed bass are sure to appeal to most fishing fans. Plus, you can also find coordinating address labels, contact cards, and a matching checkbook cover to go with them as well.

If you prefer your fish to be colorful and tropical, then you’ll find no shortage of these check designs, either. There are many check series that contain beautiful, vibrant images of colorful fish swimming in their native oceans.

There are also several check series that are devoted to the conservation of sea life and fish in general. The Coral Reef Alliance checks, for example, support the conservation of coral reefs. The proceeds from these checks might benefit a good cause, but they are also beautiful checks to boot.

You can also uncover checks that assist the Ocean Conservancy. This great organization helps encourage pollution-free waters, wide-ranging conservation, and the security of maritime life. The photographs of fish in these checks are beautiful and are certain to be impressive to anyone you give one to.

Nearly all of the fish checks can be purchased with matching accessories at an added cost.

When you order your checks online, you will not only save money, but have many check designs to choose from, unlike the limited selection you might have had at your local bank. You will never have to settle for boring bank checks again!

When ordering your fish checks, ensure that you have your routing number and checking account number available. These will be printed right onto the checks themselves. You can usually expect to receive them in about 5 days.

Before you purchase fish checks, go to FishChecks.net to get coupons and to save up to 50% off your next purchase of fish personal checks.

If you live in a temperate zone, fish from temperate zones can effortlessly overwinter outside. On the other hand, tropical fish would die without a water heater. We will be looking at how you can keep cold water, temperate climate fish contented during a typical winter.

If you live in an region where winter is cold enough to create ice, you will need to bear this in mind when you construct your fish pond. How thick is ice normally in your region? In most cases, a ‘deep end’ of thirty to forty five inches should be sufficient, but you will have to get advice locally if you do not know the answer. A pet store, a neighbour or the zoo can provide the necessary advice.

The other problem with winter and ice is that a layer of ice prevents poisonous gases escaping and oxygen entering, as it would do in the usual course of events. Therefore, you will have to ensure that there is always a hole in the ice. However, smashing a hole will scare the fish.

There are several ways by which this air hole can be maintained under mild freezing conditions:

Aerator: a bubbler, can be placed in the pond. It has to be under water, obviously, and it has to be pretty vigorous, so that the bubbles keep breaking the ice above it. If it is placed in water that is too shallow, it can freeze up too, so that is a consideration to be borne in mind.

De-icer: a mild, floating heater. This kind of device does not create enough heat to threaten pond liners, but it is sufficient to keep a small surface area ice free under most weather conditions.

Water pump: a pump pumping water at force through the surface can keep a breathing hole in your pond, but only under fairly mild icy conditions. The pump must be placed in deep water or it could freeze solid.

Hoola-Hoop: if the weather is only mildly icy, a hoola-hoop with a round football floating in its centre can be effective at stopping ice forming within the hoop. The wind keeps the ball moving within the hoop and ice does not get a chance to form.

This hole in the ice is critical. Your fish will be semi-dormant in the winter and you may not see them for months, but they still have to breathe and excrete and the gases that that and the plants give off have to be permitted to escape or they will poison the water and kill your fish.

At this time of the year it is extremely important not to over-feed. Fish build up layers of fat during the summer and live off that fat during their semi-hibernation during the winter, but they do eat sometimes. The only problem for you is that you will not know which days they decide to come up for a nibble.

This is where the hoola-hoop can come in handy again. If you only feed within the hoola hoop, you can see how much food has been eaten and how much has been left. Aspire to give no more than they will eat.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now involved with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a great deal.

categories: fish,pond,water,garden,home improvement,recreation,pets,animals,outdoors,other,uncategorised,family,environment

Choosing the best American Cichlid tankmates is not very hard. There a couple of issues that you must think about before anyone at your local fish store pressures you into making a fast decision.

The first thing that you must consider is the size of your cichlid species. Obviously, don’t choose fish or invertebrates that appear to be able to fit in their mouth. It is not fool proof, but it makes for a good rule of thumb.

Next, don’t pick a tankmate that has the potential to be more aggressive than the dominant species in your cichlid tank. Take this for example. Angel fish and Oscar fish will make great tankmates when they are small. But as they start to get bigger, the Oscars will beat up the docile Angels.

Those are a few obvious points about choosing tankmates for your cichlids, but lets get to the issue of this article. So what are the best tankmates for cichlids. Catfish, that’s right, Catfish. But lets get a little bit more specific. What about Corydoras. These little guys are some of my favorite tropical fish, and they make great tankmates for all sorts of cichlids.

If you decide on choosing corys, it is best to think about the size of your cichlids. If you have a tankful of Oscars, choosing the smaller varieties of corys will be a disaster. The Oscars will consider them as a snack and gobble them up like M&M’s. Choosing one of the larger ones like the green corydoras.

These larger cichlids will reach full adult size at about three inches long so they will make great tankmates for the larger varieties of cichlids.

But consider this fact when choosing tankmates for cichlids, sometimes Oscars don’t play by the rules. It is best to raise Oscars with corys as tankmates so they get used to having them swim about the bottom of the tank. And make sure that you keep at least five or six corys at a time. They are much happier when they have a few buddies.

See this article for more information about cichlid tank mates. Visit cichlid care to learn how to keep cichlids healthy, colorful and happy.