We decided from the outset that we wanted our pond to be a frog habitat, which meant that we could not stock the pool with fish whose mouths were big enough to eat tadpoles. We also only wanted locally occuring native fish. As such, most of our fish only grow to about 10cm.
The first fish species we introduced to the pool in 2004 were Firetail gudgeons, followed by Pacific blue eyes.
Pacific Blue eyes (in one of our fishtanks)
There were only three firetails and we don't think they have managed to breed. The blue eyes, however, have populated happily in our pool and there are hundreds of blue eyes of all different ages and sizes.
A firetail gudgeon caught in 2005
In 2005 we added 10 Australian Smelts, which have flourished and now school busily at the deep end of the pond.
In 2006 we added 15 Empire gudgeons. We'll keep you posted on their progress.
Empire gudgeon (in one of our fishtanks)
We also tried adding 10 freshwater mussels which may still be living down there. As they were all males we won't be seeing any babies though.
We feed the fish with fish food flake a couple of times a month, usually to attract them to the surface to show visitors. They mostly live on the insects that land and breed in the pool, and smaller fish.
