On Tue, 3 Jul 2007 17:52:41 CST, San Diego Joe
wrote:

The main problem I see with setting this up is that the fish will breed,
which will bring you to your scenario of too many fish and they will starve.
If you want something natural AND low maintenance, omit the fish altogether.
Then you don't even have to be concerned about your water parameters. Along
will come the dragonflies, frogs and birds. If you have mosquitoes, you
could introduce a few gambusia that will deal with them. Of course, they
breed like guppies. Depending on where you live, the county vector
control will pick those up for you.

FWIW, I don't think there really is such a thing as low maintenance pond.

San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Koi, Goldfish, and RES named Colombo.

There may indeed not be a true low maintenance pond, but there can be
a no maintenance pond, as in neglected pond. I know, because I have
one. Well, three, actually, but one close by the house that I really
neglect. The others are just victims of passing neglect. I have no
idea what the pond by the house started out as, but when I got
involved it was a garbage dump. I lived with it that way for a year,
then got some heavy equipment to haul out the junk. I was left with a
large mud puddle, which I guess is better than an overgrown junk heap.
By the end of the year it was a mud puddle with weeds. It isn't the
fastest way to go but it seems to work out in the end. I've seen a
bunch of critters, from egrets and ibises (ibi?) to a Florida
softshelled turtle to a water snake named Bob (though I haven't seen
it recently). As for the frogs and dragonflies and such, "if you
build it they will come." At least that has been my experience, and
they moved in long before I thought they would. As far as mosquitoes
go you can just get these "mosquito dunks" that contain a bacteria
that gets the mosquitoes if you don't want to fuss with fish. I don't
use either, though I've used both in the past with excellent results.
I don't have much of a problem with mosquitoes, I'm not sure, but I
think the dragonflies and frogs get 'em. I've got oodles of both.
--
Galen Hekhuis
Hell hath no fury like a bird in the hand