creating a wildlife pond from an ornamental koi pond

[soyo]

I have a rectangular carp pond that I have inherited in the garden of the house I have recently moved into and I'd like to convert it to a wildlife pond. The pond is about 10ft long by 5ft wide and has a 3ft high brick wall surrounding it with concrete coping stones on top.
Obviously I need to provide access to the pond via some kind of wildlife friendly ramp. I have been getting rid of the fish so the population is down from 12 to 4, and eventually they will be gone.

Any tips on what to plant/ramp details e.g angle, material etc much appreciated

thanks

[wheatleys wheels]

I only have a small pond that I sorted a few years ago. You want plants to oxygenate the pond, e.g. pond weed. If you want to attract toads then I believe you do have to move the fish out. I'm under the understanding that fish and frogs dont work together in ponds but I'm not sure how true that is.

If you're wanting it wildlife friendly then a couple of ramps/rocks would be good for them to be able to get in and out. Hedgehogs for instance can't swim far at all and therefore will need ramps/mini islands for them to rest on.

If you're planting pond iris, and most other plants, keep them in their pots with some way of being able to pull them out. If you dont, their roots will take over the pond something cronic (I found out the hard way when every year I didn't check to make sure the plants stayed in their ponds and they eventually blocked one side of the pond to the other... had to use all my strength to attempt to pull it up so that I could hack at it.

I personally have kept my fish I inherited, so I dont get frogs. You can get pond snails to help keep the pond clean. Also look into some form of barley/hay bale type thing. This helps prevent those long thin green slimy strands that wildlife can get caught up in and also is not good for fish. Check out with the pond shops what type of bale is best but it's all got to do with enzymes in your pond to balance it.

Best thing to remember... attract the bugs, the rest can follow. if the bugs are there to feed on, then the animals will come to feed.

I hope this has helped I'm sure others have their ideas as well.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Depends what sort of wild life you want to attract. But if as you suggest the pond is 3` deep all round with vertical walled sides I personally think this would be to deep for most amphibians.

My forgs, toads etc live in a small pond about 9" deep with a selection of large stones in so that they may exit easily. Right along side that pond is my carp pond and although they could get in and out very easily they never venture there. It may be that the carp pond is to open.

Colin

[wheatleys wheels]

I have known toads/frogs to live in deeper ponds but there must usually be a graduated wall usually made of rocks and roots for them to hide under to avoid being eaten. generally, islands of plants help and rocks creating slopes to the sides of the walls help immensly too. I'd say a shallow slope to help creatures get out of the middle of the pond.

You could dump some pond soil in the bottom for any worms and things to bury into as well... it will also bring the bottom of the pond closer to the surface.

[soyo]

thanks thats some useful info to kick me off

[SueA]

Soyo, I think a 3ft high brick wall is going to be a bit of an obstacle for anything like frogs/toads to climb over! You could try putting various pot plants & stepped piles of rocks around the outside of the wall for creatures to climb up & similarly you'd have to have something on the other side going down into the water, you could put a few pieces of driftwood they could climb down & then stones/pebbles in the water. My tiny pond is in a raised bed so it just has the height on the outside & I have lots of pots around it & then lots of plants in pots in the water which frogs etc. can use to climb around on & I do get frogs & toads in there. You'll get dragonflies & damselflies, maybe even newts using the pond but fish would eat larvae & frogspawn, dragonfly nymphs will also eat frogspawn, koi definitely would although you are supposed to be able to keep small native fish such as sticklebacks in wildlife ponds, I don't have any.

[soyo]

stepped piles of rocks around the outside of the wall for creatures to climb up .

good idea, I like this