Maintaining a fish pond that accommodates other wildlife is a very delicate
balance. You may be forced to make a decision between fish and frogs. When
the leaves are left in the pond, the frogs have a place to hibernate through
the winter. However, in the Spring, the detritus created by the decaying
leaves - and the "nasties" that ALSO appreciate the decay - will create
problems for your fish when they emerge from Winter. Their immune systems
will not be anywhere near optimum, but the pathogens (lower life forms that
they are!) will have a definite advantage. And the aeromonas/pseudomonas
bacteria will not hesitate to attack your fish when they're least able to
fight them off. Going into winter with a clean pond gives your fish the
best chance of surviving until next Summer. However, many folks are more
into a "natural" pond, so fish loss is taken in stride as being part of
Nature's way. I get a big kick out of watching my frogs, but I like the
fish better. Jan's right - but it's too late now to clean your ponds if
there are leaves in the bottom. Hopefully Spring will not be too
"interesting".

Lee



"~ jan JJsPond.us" wrote in message
...
For those of you who think leaving a few leaves on the bottom is no big
deal. Well today I was doing some vaccing of the last of the leaves to
blow
in when I upturned a bucket that had a few leaves and rain water, it had
been sitting like that since the leaves started falling (about a month).
Talk about PeaEwwww! Can't imagine my fish disturbing something like that
on the pond bottom and surviving it. ~ jan

http://users.owt.com/jjspond/

~Keep 'em Defrosted~
Tri-Cities, WA Zone 7a
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