Hi,

My name is Adrian and I keep tropical fish in 3 indoor aquaria and also have a 17 x 10 x 3 feet pont in my garden. I have a variety of tropicals (pretty much the usuals; tetras, silver sharks, bumblebee cats, some other stuff I've forgotten the name of and a sole remaining australian blue lobster). In my pond outside I have 2 x diamond sturgeon, 4 x rainbow trout, 9 x chub, 3 x european perch, 2 x roach and 'X' x gudgeon (only see them on occasion - put 5 in, but don't know how many left; not seen any dead ones...). Also wild frogs etc. I'll put some pictures on when I get a chance.

I posted on the old forum some time ago to say I was going to put in natural (stand fast sturgeon and rainbow trout) fish and was told it was a waste of time - I'd never see them. Happy to report that in anything like warm weather the chub sunbathe on the surface, the perch are half-tame(!?) - they see me coming and wait just below the surface waiting for me to feed them. The trout came from a fish farm and again come to the surface regularly. All of the fish also rise to natural flies and, since the edge of the pond is about 7 feet from my kitchen, I can watch them behaving naturally through the window. Absolutely superb.

The pond is about 1800 gallons, but has an over-powered 2500 gallon filter. Also, in the summer I intend to get an air pump to keep the sturgeon happy. I've made sure there is plenty of shelter for all fish as well.

One issue I'm having is that the blanket weed has kept growing all winter. I have the 'natural' blanket weed treatment but it doesn't work in cold weather, so I have to keep getting it out mechanically via a fishing rod with a net on the end! Anyone got any better ideas?

All ideas welcome.

Adrian