Wildlife Natural Garden Ponds or Pools | How to Attract Critters
QUESTION ... I would like to encourage native wildlife such as dragonflies, frogs and newts to my pond but don't know how. I live in quite a rural area and my pond is quite natural (although I do have a filter), but I haven't seen any of yet. Also, could the wildlife interfere with my Koi?
Mrs H Barns, Dorset
You refer to your water garden as a pond when many serious Koi keepers will talk about their pools. I always thought (erroneously no doubt) the reason for this was because they were as sterile and free any other natural from of natural life like in a swimming pool. In fact this would be an insult, since the best kept koi pools are cleaner than swimming pools. This does not mean that koi cannot thrive in a natural pond; far from it.
The only problem with koi in a natural environment is that they consume huge amounts of resources and create a considerable amount of mess and pollution. Your filter may be coping with the pollution problem but the koi are eating everything they can get into their mouths and undermining the infrastructure of the pond ecology. They need lots of space if they are not to have a detrimental effect on a natural pond. If you do want to introduce koi to a pond, I have personally found many of my old clients had most success by starting with small fish and letting them grow into their environment.
In this way the plants and other wildlife get well established before the koi turn in the fish equivalent of a blackhole down which all matter in the universe disappears.
If wildlife does manage to arrive of its own accord there is not a lot that will upset a koi carp apart from the unwelcome poolside guests like herons or mink. Frogs and toads have been known to take to a fish in a fit of passion, riding it like an aquatic bucking bronco. But this is a rare event, which if reported in the letters page of any horticultural or news journal, in remunerative terms, would compensate for any damage done.
If you want to speed up the arrival of wildlife, dont take any animals, spawn or eggs from the wild. I am sure friend and neighbours are willing to part with some at the appropriate season.
Also try turning off the filter and add something like two gallons of the neighbours fresh pool water to start off the basics life in the pool. This works like a yoghurt starter or yeast in bread and soon your pool will be teaming with miniature life and micro-flora.
Dragonflies need long reeds or rushes to lay their eggs from, and many of the larger insects that are the prey of the amphibians will not be bothered with a pool that has not got a good dense undergrowth of plant life. Unfortunately for pond keepers this means almost two-thirds of the total pool surface covered with plant life!