We all know that stress kills in the human world, but did you know that stress kills in the animal kingdom as well? It should not really come as much of a surprise an humans are only intelligent animals anyway. Stress kills animals, including fish as sure as it kills us.
However, fish do not pay bills and most of them do not even care about their kids. Some fish even eat their own children, so why does stress build up in a fish?
Well, stress can build up in a fish for lots of reasons, but the main one is bad environment, which means water that has a chemical imbalance or a lack of oxygen. Fish can also get stressed, if it does not have anywhere to hide from predators or the sun.
It is easy to give your fish somewhere to hide. You can grow plants in tubs or buy floating lilies and you can also create caves of a sort for the fish to go into. A chemical imbalance can be monitored with a kit and corrected by following the directions that came with that testing kit.
Algae can have a huge effect on the amount of oxygen in your pond's water. During the day, the algae consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen - all well and good - but at night the opposite is true and a mass of algae can draw all the oxygen out of your pond water in no time at all.
So you have to control the amount of algae in your pond. And it is no good scraping it off the walls and hoping it will die, because rotting vegetation also uses up oxygen. Excess algae has to be removed. A rule of thumb to check whether your pond water contains enough oxygen is to watch your fish. If they are frequently gulping air at the surface, then your pond water is oxygen deficient.
Warm water has less capacity to hold water than cool water. Once water temperature reaches 80F or 25C, then you can be fairly certain that your pond water needs mechanical aeration. A fountain or a waterfall may not be enough, but it could be - it depends on the size of your pond, the quantity of plants, the number of fish, the surface area of the pond and the amount of algae.
It is not easy to work out the oxygen content of the water in your pond, but you can keep an eye on the general look of your pond and its contents. Algae is bad news, in general, do you have a lot of it? Are your plants, especially the lilies doing well? Are your fish gasping at the surface? Are they listless or active?
By observing at these indicators you should be able to get a good idea of what is going on in your pond. If you do not have a fountain, install one. Are things any better? If not, install a bubbler. Did that help? If not enough get a better filtration system and let the water run back into your pond via a waterfall. If that does not help, give up and try bee-keeping!
However, fish do not pay bills and most of them do not even care about their kids. Some fish even eat their own children, so why does stress build up in a fish?
Well, stress can build up in a fish for lots of reasons, but the main one is bad environment, which means water that has a chemical imbalance or a lack of oxygen. Fish can also get stressed, if it does not have anywhere to hide from predators or the sun.
It is easy to give your fish somewhere to hide. You can grow plants in tubs or buy floating lilies and you can also create caves of a sort for the fish to go into. A chemical imbalance can be monitored with a kit and corrected by following the directions that came with that testing kit.
Algae can have a huge effect on the amount of oxygen in your pond's water. During the day, the algae consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen - all well and good - but at night the opposite is true and a mass of algae can draw all the oxygen out of your pond water in no time at all.
So you have to control the amount of algae in your pond. And it is no good scraping it off the walls and hoping it will die, because rotting vegetation also uses up oxygen. Excess algae has to be removed. A rule of thumb to check whether your pond water contains enough oxygen is to watch your fish. If they are frequently gulping air at the surface, then your pond water is oxygen deficient.
Warm water has less capacity to hold water than cool water. Once water temperature reaches 80F or 25C, then you can be fairly certain that your pond water needs mechanical aeration. A fountain or a waterfall may not be enough, but it could be - it depends on the size of your pond, the quantity of plants, the number of fish, the surface area of the pond and the amount of algae.
It is not easy to work out the oxygen content of the water in your pond, but you can keep an eye on the general look of your pond and its contents. Algae is bad news, in general, do you have a lot of it? Are your plants, especially the lilies doing well? Are your fish gasping at the surface? Are they listless or active?
By observing at these indicators you should be able to get a good idea of what is going on in your pond. If you do not have a fountain, install one. Are things any better? If not, install a bubbler. Did that help? If not enough get a better filtration system and let the water run back into your pond via a waterfall. If that does not help, give up and try bee-keeping!
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is now involved with water garden pumps. If you are interested in a Solar Powered Pond Pump, please go to our web site now for a special deal.
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