7/5/99

    First let me thank you for taking a second or two to respond to my question. My wife recently surprised me with a pond in my back yard. The pond is about 48 square feet and is 2 feet deep. We pretty much have finished the exterior landscaping and have started to attempt to have a water garden.

     A friend who has a beautiful pond with very healthy Hyacinth brought over about 6 plants with about 3-4 shoots on each. When we put them in my pond of about 2 days old they appeared to turn yellow. I have since bought several new plants such as a water lilly and oxygenating underwater plants. These seem to be flourishing.

    The problem is that my friend also brought over about 25 small goldfish mixed with little koi. I need the shade for the fish but the Hyacinth does not seem to be healthy. What am I doing wrong? I have been trimming off the dead leaves. My water is crystal clear and I have a healthy bit of brown algae growing on the bottom of my pond.

Thank-you again

Rick.....

Answer:

Rick,

Take a look at the roots of the water hyacinths,. Are the fish eating the roots off of them? If they are you may grow them in some floating mesh to let them grow and keep the fish off of them.

You may also check the Ph to make sure it isn't too high. Between 6.8 and 8.0 are reasonable readings. 7.2 is optimum. If the Ph is out of kilter it will put the nutrients out of reach of the plants.

Thanks and I hope that this was helpful.