rerequisites
Anyone who wants to use a garden
pond as an outdoor aquariummust take the
conservation of nature and welfare of
livestock into consideration.
Conservation comes first!
For conservation reasons you must make
sure that neither animals nor plants can
escape into thewild.Please bear inmind that
during wet weather some fishes,
crustaceans, reptiles, and amphibians
undertake lengthy migrations across land in
their natural habitats in order to colonize
new bodies of water. Given the opportunity
they will do the same here in Europe. This
must be prevented come what may! There
must be a completely escape-proof barrier
round the pond if you want to keep eels,
snakeheads (Channidae), exotic crustaceans,
clawed frogs, etc in the garden pond. Newts
and salamanders will overcome any barrier,
which fundamentally rules out their
maintenance in the garden pond. Only
Axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum), giant
salamanders
(Andrias),
mudpuppies
(Necturus), and sirens (Sirenidae) are
acceptable exceptions.
Very small exotics, such as the majority of
small shrimps, as well as the eggs and larvae
of large species, can get into the drains
during a water change and hence into the
wild.Soprecautions against thismust alsobe
put in place. The waste water from a water
change must be passed through net fine
enough for 100% of the eggs, larvae, and
NEWS 115
20
Fishes in the garden pond? The choice is yours.The most typical garden-pond
fishes are Goldfishes and Koi.Only a fewplants and small native organisms will
thrive in their pond. Hence many pond owners prefer biotope fishes such as
Sunbleak (Leucaspius delineatus), Bitterling (Rhodeus amarus), and
Sticklebacks (family Gasterosteidae), etc. But a garden pond can also be run as
an outdoor aquarium with observation of the fishes the main purpose. There
are awhole series of exotic species withwhich such an experiment can be very
Unusual fishes for the
garden pond
by Tobias Körbel
Garden pond
P
juveniles it contains to be trapped.
Please also spare a thought for the native
fauna. Nowadays garden ponds play an
enormously important role as spawning
waters for amphibians, as numerous natural
waters have become unusable for news,
frogs, and toads as a result of pollution and
usage as angling waters.
Animal welfare
Eat and be eaten: this motto applies both in
nature and in the garden pond. There is
nothing to be done to prevent it, but we
must nevertheless not forget that we have a
certainmoral obligation towards the animals
we keep, as we have the power of life and
death over them.
Themost important conservationmeasure is
to make sure our brains are switched on
beforewe purchase an animal.Please bear in
mind that almost without exception the
livestock available in the pet trade is
accustomed to comparatively high
temperatures. Even though the species
discussed earlier are fundamentally able to
tolerate very much lower temperatures,
sudden changes in temperature are
nevertheless often lethal. For this reason
please don't put your newly purchased
animals into the outdoor aquarium/pond
until the water temperature is permanently
above 15 °C. Prior to that they must be kept
in the house.
Zaccominnows
Enough of the lecture! For some years
minnows of the genus Zacco have been
regularly available in the trade. Even though
they don't look like it they are fairly close
Two males of Z
acco platypus
The nuchal hump is typical of
Gymnogeo-
phagus balzanii.
All photos: F. Schäfer
