5 Tips On Keeping Your Fish Healthy This Summer!

Don't let things get fishy. Follow these 5 tips on how you can optimize your tank or pond to keep your gilled friends happy, healthy, and safe this summer!

We breathe, they breathe, we all breathe!

During the hot season, the water temperature in your pond has everything to do with optimizing the health of your fish! Warmer water temperatures keeps the water from being able to hold as much oxygen as cool water. Be sure to have sufficient oxygenation occurring and more so around the high heat months. You can never have too much oxygen. If you see a fish at your waterfall, and hanging out there often it indicates there is more oxygen there than anywhere else in the pond. An oxygen pump is recommended at the deep end of the pond.

"If you see a fish at your waterfall, and hanging out there often it indicates there is more oxygen there than anywhere else in the pond."

Ain't no thang but a net solution.

The summer brings the fun and the sun but it also brings out some unwanted predators. A known fish lover- the heron. To keep your fish friends safe from harm, the best recourse is to cover the pond with a net and maybe just even temporarily. Herons are typically known to continually return when they know there is a food source. When you chase them away they don’t go far and when the coast is clear, they return. Covering it with a net will frustrate the bird and they will leave and not come back. Fishing string around a pond’s edge is insufficient to keep a heron away for any amount of time. They will merely step over it because it is not a hassle for them. A fishing string is an idea that at one point became a popular idea and was taken a bit out of context. It was applied pertinent to bird prey that swooped down to pick up the fish like owls, hawks, and eagles that drop out of the tree and grab fish mid-air and continued to fly away.

So when the bird hits the string they would steer away and not be able to grab the fish. That method does not work for the heron.

Happy to help.

When it comes to the health of your fish, it is important to rely on your local trusted fishery to do pond health checks. The bio system is the heart of any pond and if you have any concerns about the condition of your water or your fish’s health, it is better for your friends with fins if you have a health check done sooner than later. Don’t be afraid to have someone take a look if you have concerns, no question is a stupid question when it comes to keeping your fish healthy and happy. You want professional people who know how to handle fish and prep fish for different variables.

Second breakfast for champions.

The warm weather months are when your fish are more active than in the winter. Because of this a high protein diet is recommended. At least one feeding a day if not more. Fish could eat up to six times a day! They don’t have stomachs as we do. We can eat a sandwich and it could last us hours on end. Fish don’t do that. Hence, the notion that fish are always hungry...it’s because they are. You never want to overfeed them as fish food breaks down quickly and could offset your bio system specifically causing spikes in the ammonia level. Remove any food that is not eaten in five minutes’ time. Let it hang in a net to dry and feed it to them again in about two hours.

That is so shady.

In the summer your pond has greater exposure to sunlight. Sunlight and nutrients are two main food sources for algae to grow in your pond. Seeing algae if it’s floating or string algae is an indication that the bio system is not what it should be in your pond. If you take away one of its main food sources, it will starve the algae and it will not grow. Pond plants serve your pond by keeping it healthy! They aren’t just there to be a pretty face. The plants not only eat the same thing as algae (which starves the algae) but it also shades the pond keeping the algae from growing in the sun. In addition, the shade provided by the plants helps reduce the water temperature and that is ideal for easy oxygen retention in the water.