Pond plant advice

3 years ago

I wanted to share pictures of the Koi pond and get advice from Florida gardeners. Most of the koi forums have no bearing on a Fl pond. I don’t know why I didn’t think to come here sooner.

This is one of the fish caves that also serves as a turtle perch. We have a snapping turtle that is not into sunning itself. I don’t know anything about turtles or fish but they do hide in there and eat the algae. There is another rock cave in the deeper section that I can’t take a picture of. This pond is concrete with curved sides and no ledges. If I were building one today, I would add ledges for plants but I would still do caves for the fish. We have so many predators out here. We had a swimming bird once! I had to net the pond and then he got caught in the net and I had to untangle him and carry him to a pond up the road. He never came back. These Koi are huge, a ledge would never protect them.

There was a big patch of Iris on top of the other cave that always had frogs but it got so big and nasty that I had to remove it. I need to add more plants of some sort.

cave close up

I added one of these screen versions from the pond store when I didn’t know what they had. I have never seen a fish in it.

It is in the figure eight shape about 16 inches deep mostly with a 4-5’ section by the waterfall.

The former owner had a umbrella in the other end as well and the realtor had him remove it. I think they get enough shade from the plants and one umbrella.

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Comments (5)

sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
3 years ago
Your pond is fabulous! I see now what you mean by the stacked stone caves in the center. An umbrella is genius lol. I hadn't thought of that. The place I am thinking of putting my pond is where I will eventually have a greenhouse in front if it. That should lend some shad in the hottest part if the day.

I was wondering if your pond had a liner or was concrete. Thanks for including that tidbit. We were planning on a thick liner vs concrete. I would have to be careful about which plants get put around the pond, probably. My old pond had a thick preformed pool-like liner. I wont be going that route again.

My hubby has a smaller cement mixer so concrete could be an option. I dont know lol...I am hoping eventually to put a pool cage enclosure around the pond and that would keep out the birds or alligators, snapping turtles etc.

Does the waterfall bother your Waterlilies at all?
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I found this FL Softshell Turtle trapped in one of the pasture fences last spring. He was much too large to fit through. We put him in a wagon with a little water in it and released him in the deeper of the natural ponds on the property. I'm guessing if he got into my Koi Pond, he would eat up the fish?

There are a lot of turtles in the bigger natural ponds but I'm not sure what all they are.
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JoanM
Original Author
3 years ago
I thought it was a river cooter of some sort based on a top view only, not a friendly turtle. I lost a koi a few months ago and the turtle was puffy so I took video to the aquatic store for some advice. All the employees stated that the turtle was a snapper turtle and that snappers would eat koi fish. Well that turtle has been here since 2019 that I know of and it eats koi kibble with the fish so who knows a out their habits. It attacks the vacuum and hangs on like a little puppy. It is very cute for a turtle.

I did a partial water change and the puffiness went away and the other fish look fine now. Now I am wondering if that big patch of iris that I pulled out was a big filter thats need replacing. More plants are probably always better.

No, the waterfall does not bother the lilies. It was designed to have water come out in two or three places but the pvc all broke and I just have a hose hanging over the top for the time being. I need to build a pvc manifold of some sort to make the waterfall pretty again.
JoanM
Original Author
3 years ago
Since you asked, I walked over to see what was happening under the waterfall. Don’t mind my sad hose situation please. I’m getting to it. LOL

There are at least three pretty holes with ledges just waiting for me to fix it up, In the meantime it’s black hoses.
sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish)
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I totally understand about unfinished projects. We have a ton of them here lol. Soon as one gets done seems like something else pops up.

What all plants are you planning to put in? I dont think I will ever use Lizard Tail again. Although it was really cute, it completely tried to take everything over at my old place. It even crept out of the pond and into the greenhouse where things were getting watered often. It tried to crowd out everything lol.

I think it would be neat to make a biological plant filter/bog slightly above our pond to help filter the water. Its a perfect excuse to have lots more plants.

In the past, I also had colocasia, canna, louisiana iris, papyrus, dwarf cattails. Mint does excellent in a bog. I had chocolate mint in a bog forever and it survived the hot sun and the freezes in winter. If it got too crazy, I pulled a bunch out and fed it to our rabbits lol.