The best of wild life and water gardening

Wild pond life will generally arrive of its own free will. Very little is of direct harm to any fish or plants that you might want in the pond. In fact it all goes into the make-up of the interdependent existence that the fabric of pond life has. Watching the to's and fro's of this existence is one of the joys of owning a pool.

These large red damsel-flies had established this new wildlife pond as a home by the second season.

If wild life does not seem to be arriving soon enough, then any desire to stock your pond with any particular species from the wild should be curbed. If a friend or neighbour wishes to donate an excess of frog or toad spawn from their urban pool then that is quite acceptable and it is one of the ways of ensuring that you have a population of amphibians that will return to your pool. In this way the common frog in the UK was brought back from the endangered species list and is once more common.

The common frog caught in the middle of a lawn, looking for a new home?

However there is a possibility that this has led to a spread of the spread of the life threatening disease of frogs called red leg if it can be shown that the disease can be spread via the spawn.

Here is a report from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust posted 2005 that expresses considerable concern relating to this:

Over the past few years, there has been concern expressed over the spreading of Red Leg Disease throughout the country. Red leg disease may be caused by bacteria, which are already present amongst frog populations. It seems that the disease only breaks out if the frogs are under some stress, perhaps overcrowding. In fact, research is still going on into the condition and it may be that more than one factor is involved. Symptoms of red leg disease are exactly as they sound. The frog is obviously ill, with red legs and anus. The condition is fatal.

So if spawn swapping may increase the spread of the disease, although experts are still unsure of this, do not move spawn if there is an outbreak of red leg disease in the area.

Do not move frog spawn if there is an outbreak of red-leg disease I frogs in your area. Consult your local wildlife trust to find out.

Also, make sure the pond it is going to has all the right conditions for frogs. Do not put it under any undue stress.

If you already have a healthy amphibian population, it is unwise to add more. This will probably lead to overcrowding and so red leg disease is more likely to break out.

If you are offered spawn from a healthy population in a garden pond, that is probably acceptable, but only if your pond has no frog population of it's own already.

Be careful. If your pond doesn't already have frogs, why not? If it is new, be patient, and, if the conditions are right, the frogs will find you. If it is a well-established pond but has no frogs, either there is something wrong with the pond, or there are no frogs nearby to colonize it. Do not introduce new spawn year after year. It takes a "froglet" about four years to mature and come back to the pond to breed.

Baby froglets emerging into the big bad world. It will be 4 years before they will return to breed as adults.)

Do not move tadpoles or adult frogs

Do not move adults or spawn into the wild without expert advice. Such a well-meaning gesture could wreak havoc amongst the existing population. If there is no spawn there already, then conditions are probably not right for it and they would not survive.

A palmate nest is a fairly rare inhabitant of your average pond. You know you have got it right if you find one in your pond.

DO create a wildlife pond in your garden if you do not have one already. Even a small pond will provide a much-needed habitat for all sorts of creatures, such as amphibians, dragonflies and beasties you just cannot imagine.

One client of mine claimed that thin strips of plastic were a lure for newts to come and spawn in the pond.

Almost 20cm (8ins ) long this monster of the deep is the gold medal prize for pond keepers that got it right. Not only that, you will now never be able to fill that pond in. The great crested newt and its habitat are protected by law.

Water scorpions, Nepa cinerea, prowlers of the muddy margins, they prefer a well established flora before they will regard a pond as home.

Freshwater shrimps, daphnia, larvae and other beasties that provide food for fishes will eventually find their way there but can be hurried along via the introduction of a few gallons of the 'starter' as described in "ESTABLISHING YOUR POND".

Beetles, caddisflies, skaters and dragonflies will arrive uninvited and will stay if they approve. Some arrive in the mud on the roots of the plants you establish. Some species wont arrive until the pond is really well established, because that is how they like it.

A rare find unless you have a very large pond with a muddy bottom the Banded Damsel Fly, Calopterix splendens.

The empty casing of a dragonfly nymph, the dragonfly having already emerged and flown. This nymph would have spent two to three years in the bottom of the pond having been laid as an egg off the stem of a reed or rush or from the pad of a lily.

Wild or indigenous species of fish

These are best left in wild or conservation environments. Sticklebacks and minnows if taken from the wild carry a lot of pests and disease, which may be latent on them but may cause an epidemic on more 'ornamental' fish. Besides this they can be a lot more aggressive than more interbred varieties (particularly when feeding), which in turn will cause stress and therefore more susceptibility to disease for domestic fish in a domestic environment. (See: Choice of fish for the British 'Natural' pond.)

If you already have a wild pond or conservation style pool, the reverse is the same. Introducing domestic fish can only lead to problems that will upset the environment. (See Conservation or 'Natural' Ponds: Choice of Fish.)

Procedure for introduction to a pond

Allow a maximum of 1-2 inches of fish per square foot of surface area. Only introduce a few fish at a time to your pool.

Fish are best transported in a plastic bag.

When introducing fish to your pool float the bag for 15-30 minutes in the pool so that the temperature can slowly adjust.

Rolling down the lip of the bag forms a float for the bag that keeps it upright.

During the time the bag is floating in the pool, introduce several cupfuls of pool water so that the new water chemistry of the pool does not cause too much stress to the fish when they are eventually turned into it.