Having started a water container pond early last week, with a
miniature water lily, an Obedient Plant, and some Red Ludwigia, I put
two goldfish in it Saturday, a black and a orange one, and today they
seem to still be alive. I still don't have a pump or mechanical
filter in it, but certainly will get one eventually.

Thanks all for your answers to my questions. They've been very
helpful. And thanks for answering my inquiry about the fish in the
last post, Jan. I unfortunately JUST read it today, but I have in
fact been feeding them perhaps once a day, with at most two to three
flakes.

I also bought a test kit today, prompted by concern over the fish and
having seen the orange one with some black spots on it. I don't know
the welfare of the black one (REALLY bad choice of color) since I only
see the orange one.

So using the orange one as a guage, it still pretty much stays on the
bottom, but it is alive and does swim around on the bottom every so
often, particularly darting away when I peer over it. Today I saw it
swimming up while I had food in there, then just as I arrived it
darted back to the bottom.

Earlier this week we had a cold snap for one night (the water felt
VERY chilly), so I brought the plants inside and put them back out
today. The plants were gone for about two days except for the Red
Ludwigia plants. We had heavy rains this weekend.

Today, I took the fish out while I was rearranging the plants back in
so that they wouldn't get smooshed by the water lily pot or trapped in
the overturned "leverage" pot. I also got rid of the more obvious
plant matter such as broken Ludwigia leaves and floating seeds from
trees.

The fish weren't at all cooperative while I was trying to net them out
even while they were darting around on the surface to get away. All
dechlorinated water. It's difficult enough to see into the depths
because of dirt and/or algae. Grass-like algae seems to be growing
out from the gravel of the water lily.

I went to Petsmart with a bowl of water from the water garden for
testing. He said that the water looked fine, despite the ammonia. He
said that it wasn't bad but ideally would be 0--I've done my
research, though, and have heard others in this group also be told
that by store reps. I also asked him about the black spots that the
orange gold fish has, but he didn't have an answer for me. All in
all, the stores haven't seem to have been the pond/fish experts that I
had hoped for.

Water Quality Levels as self-tested (ppm I believe):

PH 7.0
Ammonia .25
Nitrites 0

This is my first test, ever, other than from a long time ago in middle
school. So I have some more questions that I hope you all can answer:

At which point are any of these levels dangerous for plants? How often
should I check the water quality? Do you have any prediction as to
when the ammonia will rise to a critical level?

I want to watch out for any dead plants, particularly the Ludwigia
that isn't firmly rooted in soil, too. I don't want to contribute any
more to the ammonia levels. What should I look for? Blackened or
yellowed leaves?

Finally, there was a bunch of warnings on the test kit materials. How
should I properly dispose of finished test samples, and what
precautions should I take? Regular gloves (I used this along with rags
to handle everything)? Latex gloves?

Thanks,

Daniel Phillips

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