kathy wrote:
Elaine wrote about
unfiltered ponds (no outdoor electricity here), and what plants and
fish
I can keep outdoors year-round in Southern California in an
above-ground
pond.

I have one unfiltered pond (800 gallons) that doesn't have a fountain
or any water movement.
It is stuffed with plants, so much so that the fish in it were deprived
of oxygen
in the hours before sunrise. I removed the fish and now use it as a
insect larva
and amphibian pond (I use mosquito dunks to keep the mosquitoes out).

A pond with a lot of plants and very few fish can run unfiltered. Mine
is sprinkled
every morning from the ugs and that seems to keep it from getting
stagnant. It
is also in full sun (and hot sun for much of the summer here in SE WA)
and has
never gone green which I atribute to the plants and few to no fish
(didn't go green
with fish in there either).

You can also run a solar powered fountain in a electricity challenged
pond.
Good for the pond, soothing for the soul.

kathy

Solar! Wow - Cool! I had figured on many plants and only a couple of
fish to eat mosquito larvae and add interest. I have always wanted to
keep Bristol shubunkins or calico comets and they don't mix with my
tropicals.

Thanks for the URL too. I'll be back with questions once I read enough
to even know what to ask. :-)

--
__ Elaine T __
__' http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__