Plants and rocks are a feature of ornamental ponds and, once everything has established itself, these ponds look very natural. Although fiber glass can be used successfully in irregularly, shaped ponds, it may be more convenient to use a butyl rubber liner.
Butyl stretches well to fit unusual shapes, but folds or creases are almost impossible to avoid. Small fish can hide in these folds and occasionally fatalities occur if they are unable to get out.
Detritus can also accumulate in these folds, making cleaning difficult. Given careful design, fiber glass is probably a better lining in order to avoid these potential problems. Many ornamental ponds are in ground and do not lend themselves to hand feeding koi.
The presence of water plants makes cleaning the shelves and pond bottom time consuming, as well as awkward. Any plants in an ornamental pond will need protection. Koi are natural bottom feeders and will grub around in plant pots and eat the plants as well.
Unfortunately, they do not just nibble at the leaf edges, but suck them into their mouths and then snatch their heads to tear off the leaves. This often means that they take much more of the plant than they can eat and the remainder falls to the pond floor.
Under these circumstances, the plant is lost and depending upon design, uneaten remains could block a pipe or pump impeller, with potentially disastrous consequences. However, if small koi are placed in a pond with established plants, the plants may survive.
To avoid this problem, most new koi ponds have plants around the edges rather than in them. As well as giving you an almost uninterrupted view of the koi, this method has the added advantage that plants soften an otherwise harsh pond edge. And they do give the koi something to nibble at if there are overhanging leaves brushing the water surface.
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