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Old 20-02-2012, 08:07 PM
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Doghouse Riley Doghouse Riley is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Sep 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kay View Post
Ah right. One of ours has a filter. But the other 3 haven't had a filter for some years, and still have thriving populations of frogs and newts. Clearing out dead or surplus vegetation is hard - not spring, because the pond is full of frogs and newts, not summer because it's full of tadpoles and newtlets, not winter because it's frozen. There's a bit of a window in autumn, but I still find it hard to get them all done then, especially since I try to make sure I don't lose any amphibians or invertebrates. In theory if you pile stuff on the side of the pond, they'll make their way back, but in practice they don't.
I cleaned mine out a week ago, once there was no longer any ice about.
It has to be done now as the frogs will soon be in it.
Much of the problems can occur when the pond isn't big enough to support the contents, particularly when there's goldfish in small ponds.

Mine is only 5ft by 3ft. It's just there for a couple of lilies and keeps the frogs from depositing their spawn in my koi pool. The fish would eat the tadpoles.
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