Hi Charlie, I don't live in Maine nor does the frost here, go down four feet in winter. [but] I would think you would be wise to go that depth, at least in one area, with your excavation. You would want to also, provide method of keeping a vent hole open in the ice covering your pond over the winter. Look in the FAQ at the top of the posting page, for articles on methods of maintaining a vent hole. Or type "winterizing" into the search box and you will find lots of previous posts on the subject. "Horton"

From the size of your pond I think you should just stick with goldfish. The waterfall accually puts air into the water so that the fish can breathe. If your waterfall is just like a little trickle or there are no bubbles coming up from the water where your waterfall lands then you need to find another way to get air to the fish. I would try to get goldfish from a place that sells ponds supplies etc because a petstore might not have the right kind and might not be able to help you with feeding of fish in an outdoor pond. You will need some plants and some sort of shelter for them incase they get scared. I made a simple one by putting to bricks about 2 inches apart and then putting a flat stone accross it. I suggest getting like one pot of lilly pads though. In the winter, you may have to take them in but if you leave them in there ( they should be fine in two feet of water) make sure there is an open hole in the top of the ice so that toxic gases an escape and you obviously dont want the whole pond to freeze into a block of ice. Also try to keep debree (spell chek) of the bottom of the pond because they can break down and release gases that are toxic to fish (that means no rocks on the bottom)nything else I might of forgot other people can add.

Thanks Nancy and Horton - the cutworms look similar, but not quite the same. I agree, now, that it was probably just some land-loving escapee, rather than a fish sucking parasite. I thing, though I am not a biologist, that the parasites are considerably smaller than this guy was. The thing that did and still does throw me though was the way he moved, he pulsed to propel himself forward, rather than wiggle (Like a worm) or "step" as an inchworm does (where they arch their body, then flatten, to move ahead) Ill keep looking for info - there are just SO MANY worms out there ...

Thank you very much for your advise, I am so disheartened at this point as to almost give up my little pond. But I have to try to keep it going and struggle on to bring it back to the right condition. It was bought for my handicapped son in 1998, who loved it so much, and who passed away some years ago. But I still keep it up, as if he could still see it. I know this sounds silly, but his happiness and joy over this little pond was a great gift to me. It's not as beautiful as some of yours, I looked at some pictures, some of you have some gosh-awesome beautiful ponds w/water falls and little streams. and wonderful plants in it etc. I wouldn't even know the terminology for all those things. -------- Clorax seems a strong chemical, that's why I tried it on the worm, but the WH I dipped in clorax are in a separate container just to see if they grow and stay alive. I have not put clorax in the main pond, except when I cleaned it out, and after that it was really rinsed out good before I put the water back in, and then put the chlor-out in. Dianna, thanks for the idea of the salt. I am actually very stupid and not very knowledgable w/ ponds. It worked so well before for several years, and I had no problems, so there was nothing to worry about. But now I'm at a loss. I will try the salt also. The 'bugs' are very small, but w/good eyesight you can see them. They look like dust clouds falling off the WH when I pick them up out of the water and they stay in the water and multiply like crazy, and finally you can't see the bottom or anything in that water. Also green algae forms on the sides of my preformed pond. These bugs are swimming like mad, dancing like they had Huntington's Chorea, in the water, killing the snails and frogs don't go in anymore. I wonder if the 'bugs' are also in my lotus bucket, which sits in the ground right next to the pond. I see a lot of brown, dying leaves this year and the water surface is not covered w/ leaves as it used to be. A few stalks make it and it produced 2 blooms, but not like before. / --- Glenda, I wouldn't be surprised if some fly laid eggs in there and the worms came from that. Maybe my fish then couldn't see passed the murky water to catch the fly. These bugs were so plentiful that they made the water very murky and dark. Are these worms bad? Or are they just fish food? -------------- Sandy, where can i buy these chemicals Praziquantel, Anchors Away and Dimlin? is that their name and what company makes them? I will try everything. I'm watching the WH I dipped the roots in clorax to kill any of these bugs to see how they grow. they are, of course, in a separate small bucket, and they are still alive, and looking as if they are getting new growth on top. Because if there are still eggs alive after this radical treatment, and if 'bugs' can hatch , then I am in real trouble. Also my water lily, which did not get a clorax cleaning, is doing better in a separate bucket. but I think if I cleaned the pond, and put fresh water in it, I would be afraid to use the old plants. Maybe there are some eggs somewhere. I am so paranoid about this at this point, one thing I have learned these last 2 1/2 years while I was battling this problem, I have to use all new stuff and also new equipment, like my new bio filter, it took me 4 hours to clean it, and I am not convinced it is 'bug' free. that thing cost me $100 alone. I thought if I used this, the 'bugs' would be caught in the filter an die. that was not the case. they infiltrated and contaminated everything. --- Scott, that Thuricide HPC, does that work when put in the water? Where can I buy it and is it in a spray container or is it liquid to pour out? Do I spray the plants, like w/the organic aquatic aphid killer spray? which by the way did nothing to stop the 'bugs'. The large Merrifield Garden Center, who has a program on local TV how to do everything in the Garden, had advised me last year it might be aquatic aphids. They were also stumped by what I explained to them. Well, I have called several Water Garden places and all of them had no idea what i was talking about. After I bought all this aphid spray, they told me that the aphids would not be able to live in water without the plants. my 'bugs' do. -- If i get this pond back up, this time i will make sure my water is clean and there are no bugs and my plants do not die before I put fish in. I wonder if there are eggs that stay in the stones around my pond, i have these flat slate stones on top all around the pond. As far as I know they cannot live in the surrounding plants, they cant survive on land. But I will try to bring a sample to the Merrifield Garden Center plant clinik. Thank you so much for your answers. You have given me new hope, maybe this time I'll be lucky w/ some of the items you all mentioned to treat the water. Ursula