What do you guys do on a regular basis to control pests like anchor worms, etc...? Do you use UV sterilizers? Do those help in a pond? Do you have certain times of the year when you inspect your fish closely to make sure they are healthy?

I was wondering if I ever do go through the trouble of building a pond, how often I would have to catch them and make sure they are healthy. Or maybe there are regular treatments you do to ward off all the baddies.

Well, in general, pond fish are lot hardier than tank fish, and once you are through the regular way of quarantining any new fish and making sure they come into the pond clean, the same basic rules apply for a pond than a tank. Unless something is visible wrong, don't upset the fish or the system. In a pond, things come into the water more natural, and it is harder to control it. Something as simple as bird droppings can carry parasites, and it is almost impossible to prevent those kinds of things. Leaves fall into the pond, and they might leach out stuff if they are being allowed to decompose in the pond.
That doesn't mean you have to be all over your pond all the time - more is less in that case. Pond fish get used to all kinds of natural things in a pond, and aren't as artificially kept as tank fish. The algae growing on the side of the pond walls is a natural filter and oxygenator, and takes care of all kinds of things, including being food for fish and help batte green water problems and nitrates. As long as you have the right sized filter for your pond, protect the fish from predators, don't overfeed them and take care of the water, there are only a few times during the year when you really need to dig in.

Winter preparation being one of them - if you live in an area where there is frost and snow in the winter, take the neccessary precautions long before the weather approaches. Fish need to have some body fat before they enter the "hibernation" season, during which they don't eat or move much. Neglect to feed them heavy in the fall, and your fish will suffer and come sickly into spring.
For me personally, spring is another season in which I like to dig into the pond and clean it up. After winter, a lot of stuff has accumulated on the bottom of the pond, maybe the filter wasn't running constantly due to freezing temperatures, and we generally don't do much during the winter season with our pond fish. So, I always take spring as an opportunity to clean the filter some (rinsing, not tossing media out), draining the ponds, getting all the leaves off of the bottom, clean any possible rocks that might you might have in the ponds, and replenish any dead pond plant population, since some of them might either completely die, or look very unhappy after winter. All in all, somewhat like a spring cleaning.

A lot of pond keepers, mainly with koi, also treat their fish in the spring with antiparasitic/bacterial treatments, since unfortunately those nasty buggers can survive winter temps and are usually the first ones awakening in the spring. Even before the fish, those buggers can attack fish before the fish even are fully responsive yet, and don't have their immune system on full throttle just yet. A critical time for a lot of health problems in fish, if you don't take precaution. A lot of people tell me they do a precautionary PP treatment (Potassium permanganate) in their ponds, to battle any fluke investation, but also to clean natural waste in the pond, since PP is a powerful tool in that area. First its PP, then its a water change, since PP will clump very small dirt particles together, leaving a whole lot of waste in the pond that needs to be taken care of. Some fish keepers feed their pond fish a round of antibacterial food for the very same reason - to give the fish a fighting chance for any early bacteria nasties.

But all in all, during most time of the year, the pond is more of a pleasure and relaxation tool than work. Especially if you have the equivalent filter, some plant material, a bit of shade over the water, good food and aren't overstocked, there isn't much too it once you got over the basics of pond keeping.

As to what to do on a regular basis - we clean the filters once or twice a month, fish get regular water changes, and hubby nets the leaves out of the pond daily. What I personally do is repot the pond plants once every few months, since those darlings seem to like it in there and don't stop growing...

I've never had anchor worm in the pond so it hasn't been an issue.... In fact, my pond was completely healthy until last year when I introduced four new shubunkins without quarentining.... It was stupid on my part. I should have quarentined, but I thought the source LFS was reliable. Big mistake on my part. I ended up with an ENTIRE pond full of sick fish and lost my favorite tri-color comet.

At that time I managed to net out two fish and took them to a local koi place. The owner took a scraping and put it under the microscope and it turned out that I had chilodonella and ich. I bought Proform C and treated the entire pond for a week. I also fed all the fish medicated antibacterial food. The meds killed all the beneficial bacteria in my 100 gallon filter, so that had to completely recycle, and a lot of the algae in the pond died off, but most of the fish survived. It was traumatic for me, as I'd gone 16 years without a problem, but we dealt with it.

If you have a pond and are out there every day and KNOW your fish, you'll know when something isn't right. Occasionally though, I go out and there's a dead body floating. You lose a few here and there for no apparent reason. I've learned not to get terribly attached to the ones in the pond.... Overall, though, I've had good success in pond-keeping and recommend it to anyone who really loves goldfish. These fish were meant to go in big water. They love it....

I usually sit by the pond for a while when feeding, count the fish and check them.
I have lost a few fish mysteriously, I suspect predators.
But this summer I will put on the net as soon as we remove the winter cover, since
there are fish in there already and I don't wanna lose anyone of them...
There is nothing like sitting by the pond a sunny day, see the swimming fish in the clear
water, the smell of the water, the sun glittering on the surface, the sound of flowing water..........
oh I can't wait.........

may I ask. I have been reading all the reply in here and it's very great and helped alot, I had a pond but it's extremely small so over the winter and both of my shubunkin died, I dont really want to have pond, but I decided that soon i will be digging over the old pond for a bigger pond. One thing is my family dislike frog very much, and ot be honest, i'm not so fond of them either. There was 1 frog came by and my mom freak out but it's gone now and I would like to ask if there is way i can keep them away. I want to put on a wire fence but then it will make the pond look ugly. I will start working on the new pond in about 1 or 2 months. from the last time i build the pond was a big mistake becasue I didnt do enough research but now i think i got pretty much everything down and ready. (even though i still dont know where I should put the extra soil! really a headache lol) The pond will be around 1,000 gallon and I will be getting help from friends (family dont want anything to do with my fish *sigh*)


and I'm so mad..I have a swimming pool, above ground, so i dont have to worry durign the rain, debris and chemical and evrything from the grass getting into the pond, it is 50,000 gallon and my parent want to get it remove! and iwant to use it as a koi pond but...w/e lol

wait but then would the pool be to big for the koi pond? I dont know, here is some pics of my pool. I dont know if it will be to hard to mantain.

During the ice storm

A pool would never be too big for koi.... The koi get really big so the extra space would be terrific... A lot of people convert pools over to koi ponds.

As for frogs, there really isn't much you can do... They mostly stay in the water and rarely come out, unless it's evening and they're hunting bugs. A fence might help, but I doubt it would look very nice.... Also frogs can hop over fences or climb them to get in the water. Frogs are just part of the garden.

A bigger pond will be wonderful. You'll really enjoy it.... You can use some of the extra soil to build a mound for the waterfall.

Thanks GardenGirl. I will start begging my parent if i can use that pool as a koi pond, but if they let me, I will have to do something, becasue that pond is exposed to direct sunlight, meaing it gets awfully alot of algae in just about a week, but i have the filter.

If they would not let me using it, then I will start my digging for the in the ground pond. I guess frog will be ok, I mean I dont really have alot of problem with them, they can mind their own business around the pond, maybe it can make the pond look more natural, but as long as they don't lay eggs, then it's all good. The pond building is not going to be quick so I might decide to work on it from late spring and over the whole summer break so i cant be sure it will came out perfect. I also need money lol

Lol I have no idea how I would builda mound for the waterfall out of the extra soil. Lol would it make a big mess and release alot of dirt. Lol But I have to think of something to do with it lol.

You mound the soil at one end of your pond. Then you use rubber liner to construct your waterfall, down through the soil. The water will actually flow across the rubber liner, NOT the soil. Then you place rocks and plants all around the mound to make it look more natural.

On the pool, you'd probably have to upgrade your filtration for koi. You can turn a pool into a koi pond, but it takes some work..... especially on the filtration end. Now if you wanted to just have goldfish, you could plant up the pool with lots of waterlilies and they would provide shade and you'd have less algae.