# Fish for unfiltered ponds



## Bradley

Hi im currently building a pond in my garden. it is to be unfiltered but I would like fish. What fish would people reccomend.I would like some koi if I could!


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## goldie1212

how large is the pond? will you be adding a lot of live plants? koi need massive amounts of water to thrive. you can get away with less for goldfish but it depends on pond size etc. ideally it will need to be filtered though.


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## Bradley

will be adding quite a lot of plants lillies and weed. The pond is 10 feet long, six feet in width and 3 feet deep!


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## Moogloo

100% no to koi in that size and unfiltered....

I can work out litreagefor you... hang on...

10 x 6 x 3 = 180

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180 x 6.25 = 1125

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1125 x 4.546 = *5114.25* (litres)

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Thats not a huge pond by any means, especially when koi get to 1.2 metres long, are delicate and incredibly messy.

As someone who works in the aquatic retail, i wouldnt sell koi to the pond. Nor Rudd, Orfe or Tench. They are all sensitive fish that not only 'deserve' more but they 'NEED' more...

I would possibly sell Goldfish (including the varients... goldfish, canary yellow goldfish, blacks, shubunkins, sarassa comets etc)...

Any particular reason you dont want to filtrate the pond? You risk ending up with a delightful mosquito infestation from still unmoving water... (the red worms and the black worms you see in buckets of water when left in the garden).


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## Bradley

I had a wildlife pod in the old house and it kept really clean and lookded good. I wanted to have this again but have fish in it aswell. We may be filtering as we ave the filtration equipment I just wanted to know our options without it


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## goldie1212

personally with no water movement in a pond that size, i wouldnt do any fish. i would add some sort of water movement with a pump, maybe through a planted bog filter if you dont want the mess of a big filter full of media next to the pond. goldfish would do fantastically well in a pond that size if you do decide to move the water somehow :2thumb:

Creating A Bog Filtration System


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## Bradley

may do that then. Thanks!


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## stegriff

what about fresh water sturgeon there pretty hardy and clean the bottom


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## goldie1212

stegriff said:


> what about fresh water sturgeon there pretty hardy and clean the bottom


i would say too large for this pond, and again would need filtration and water movement as they have high oxygen requirements. also, they need a good diet, they should not be left to just clean the bottom.

http://www.sturgeon-web.co.uk/sturgeon_care_guide.pdf


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## Victor Creed

stegriff said:


> what about fresh water sturgeon there pretty hardy and clean the bottom



Fresh-water Sturgeon in a pond THAT size???? LOLOLOLOL Is that an attempt at a JOKE? Judging by your last few posts, I'd advise everyone to basically ignore your advice altogether. That's almost as rich as keeping Barbs and Danios at -9C LMFAO!!!!

Maybe I'll get a COD for my Tropical tank too.


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## Paul B

its a nice sized pond for a few of the goldfish types but not too many. I have kept an unfiltered unpumped pond for many years with Goldfish / common carp/ and a tench or two without issue.
Pumped and filtered would be good to avoid the unsightly algae and loads of particulates in the water but with plenty of weed and lillies once it has matured should be just fine. Just dont over stock it.
No KOi though. The are too messy and will dig up all the plants and pollute the water.


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## Paul B

having read some of the replies i would get a mahseer or two. LOLOLOL


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## awh

to be honest i would not keep any fish in a pond without filters as fish eat they produce waste & amonia so you would need a way of filtering the waste produced by them amonia is also bad for the fish 
get your self a filter and pump 
i keep a few koi in my 8 foot square by 3 ft deep pond but i have double the recommended filters in it and have somewhere for them to go once the get to big as they grow fast anything up to 6/8 inches in a year depending of food levels


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