All baby goldfish are black:
True.. Most are born black or dark brown the babies that change color early in life tend to be eaten quickly. Black goldfish are not seen by predators as easy as lighter colored baby fish. After a few years your pond will have baby gold fish reaching the age of 1 ˝ years of age before they change to gold. This is just natures way of providing the best opportunity for survival of the species.

Algae is bad:
False…Algae is a plant it is food for the baby gold fish and Koi without algae the babies starve. When the algae dies small microscopic critters feed on the decaying algae and these critters become the next bigger size of food for the babies. Algae also removes toxic levels of Nitrogen from the water. Algae is an indication that your pond is not handling the nitrogen levels adequately. It is recommended you check Ammonia levels, Nitrite, Nitrate, and pH. If toxic levels are reached in any of these test you can do 20% water exchanges to delute (not replace) until your larger water plants break dormancy or your biological filter becomes active.

Herons only attack fish they can swallow:
False.. Herons will strike at any fish that moves past them regardless of size. It is not uncommon to find 2 foot long Koi dead in the water with a hole punched in them, that looks like a clean bullet hole.

Well that is a few of the many myths about ponds. My favorite is one of "Murphy’s Laws": If a fish jumps out of a pond it will be the most expensive Koi of the pond.

A few side notes for June. Since this has been a long cool wet spring the ponds are just now starting to turn that yucky green color(algae). As soon as it warms up a bit more the Aquatic plants will start growing and using up nutrients and the water will clear up enough to see your fish.
Do not put Algae killer into your pond. This chemical is an herbicide and will kill other plants in your pond.
The green water may be a result of feeding your fish to much food and a food that is to high in protein. The fish excrete the poorly digested food as ammonia. Choose a food lower in protein and higher in vegetable matter.

Keep an eye on the outflow of your pumps. A deminished flow from normal may mean the particle screen on your pump is fouled and will need to be cleaned out.

This week the Tropical water lilies started to bloom inside the green house. Presently there are several new buds on the Hardy water lilies located out side the green house so Spring is near!!!

One of the local kids brought in a small brown frog with black stripes .. at first glance it looks like one of our native species frogs, until he opens his mouth to sing.. Now we know, it is a Chorus Frog.
This frog has a very loud voice and croaks all day long!!!

Quick note on Filters there are 3 kinds of filtration, Mechanical ( or straining out the particles). Chemical (Charcoal binding up nasty chemicals), Biological (bacteria converting ammonia to usable Nitrogen. If your filter has all three components it is a good filter. Next question, Is it large enough to support the numbers of fish you have? The filter should move ˝ of the volume of your pond through it every hour. The speed of the water trough the filter media should be slow . Remember Bacteria don’t move so fast and must absorb the Ammonia through their cell walls.

Dragon Flies and Damsel Flies, are your buddies. Both eat flying insects as adults. The aquatic larvae look like spiders and are ferocious at attacking other aquatic insects. Dragon flies land with wings pointing straight out from their bodies. Damsel flies hold their wings close. Dragon flies are usually much larger than adult Damsel flies. This year I have seen only metallic green or blue male, damsel flies. Often later in the spring the bright red Damsel flies come to land at my pond.
Mark Paulsen Scenic Harbor Nursery
http://www.techline.com/~frazzle