Last year was my first year with my new pond. I have some golfish which have grown to about 3 or 4 inches, and 2 koi about 7-8 inches each. Last year I tried to grow water lilies, but they would gradually disappear all the way down to the pot. There were no broken leaves floating or anything, they were just gone. Is it possible that my fish ate the entire plant? This happened three times and then I just gave up. I would really like to have lilies but what can I do to protect them? No one I have asked seems to think that my fish ate the lilies but I have no other explanation for their disappearance...HELP!

I have kinda the same problem. My waterlilies get broken off at the stems. :huh: I had platties in the pond last year but they were washed out to sea by Hurricane Ivan. I put goldfish in the pond this year and notice that the waterlilies are still breaking off at the stems. I even put plantfood sticks in the pot but to no avail. :(

How big is your pond? What is in your pond aside from the plants and animals that you mentioned? Do you have any snails, especially apple snails? Apple snails will cut waterlily leaves right off the base. Goldfish and koi (normally just the older ones, kind of bigger than the ones that you have) will root at and pick at young waterlily plants, preventing their growth or even killing them. Small fish aren't normally a problem unless the pond is really small. Some ideas to deter goldfish and koi from eating your waterlilies:

1. Get a bigger pond.
2. Buy a lily plant protector or build your own from plastic mesh. A few places sell these such as
http://aqua-mart.com/show.pl?cmd=showsubcats&subcatid=134
3. Elevate the waterlily pots so that the fish can't swim inside them, at least until they grow a bit.
4. Temporarily put the waterlilies in a shallow area, another pond, or someplace the fish can't get them until they grow up more and can fight off some chewing and messing with them.

Thanks Robyn. :) I'll try that.

Thanks for the suggestions. My pond is about 1100 gallons. The goldfish are about 3-4 inches long and the koi are about 7-8 inches long, I think. I didn`t have any snails or other living things in the pond that I know about. :rolleyes: How do you make a mesh protector, what would you make it out of etc, can you help me with that?

I have some mesh fencing in my garage. It looks to be the perfect size. I hope it's galvanized. I mean, aluminum will rust.

You can make a mesh protector out of a number of things that come to mind. We have this hard plastic holed mesh sold for gardening (like stiff bird or pest fencing) that would work as well as some more loose mesh (not sturdy enough probably for a protector). For a more flexible plant protector, nylon laundry bags are good. Vinyl-coated dog/yard fencing (won't keep out small fish) or rabbit wire (hardware cloth) (would keep out smaller fish) can make a nice cage. The vinyl keeps it from rusting anytime soon. Don't use uncoated wire. It will rust and/or add metals to the pond. Basically, anything made of nylon, vinyl coated wire, or plastics might be used. Other things - those old fashioned plastic milk crates, even large plastic bottles for smaller plants (put holes in them). There are a bunch of options.

I was surprized to learn that deer will eat water lily leaves. We rarely have deer visit the yard, but over a two night period, they finished off all the floating water lily leaves along the edge of the pond. After the first night, I closed the gate, but they jumped a 36" fence to finish the job. This is the first time this has happened in twenty years, but then again, there are a lot more deer around.

Our "deersies" will eat anything, at least once! They love the water lily leaves. Each week, I toss the yellowing and rotting ones over the hill, and they come to eat them. I've yet to find a plant that deer won't eat at some point or at least try. Daffodils come the closest but yearlings don't know yet that they taste bad so they'll pop off a few flowers here and there and leave them.