THE best thing I ever did was to put an email address at the end of this column. I get fascinating wildlife observations from readers, and, often, the answers to questions that puzzle me. The amount of response to different topics also helps me gauge the sort of things that interest you.
If I write about feeding garden birds, or about garden ponds, I know I’m going to get email in my in-box, and usually a few letters, as well. I wrote about both last week and the usual happened. One interesting email, from a Co Limerick reader, noted that frogs were late to spawn in his pond this year (February 26 last year, but nothing so far, in 2010). Though, as he noted, a frog can’t get into the water to spawn if the pond is iced over.
When he first built his pond, he stocked it with goldfish. When the frogs discovered it, and started to use it for spawning, he had to build a second, smaller pond just for them. The problem is that goldfish enjoy eating frog spawn, and even very small tadpoles. He and his wife lived for many years in England, where they had wild frogs, toads, and newts in their garden ponds in spring. When they returned to Ireland and built the ponds here, they had one disappointment. "We do miss the excitement of not having any golden orfe, which, apparently, are a banned fish in Ireland, for which I’m sure there are good reasons, though they always lived very happily with our goldfish. They are extremely popular in the UK, especially in the grandly designed ponds you find in the grounds of stately homes," he wrote.
The orfe, or ide, is a fish from the great cyprinid family. It looks a bit like a roach, though it can grow bigger and it is more closely related to the chub. It is a native of eastern and northern Europe. It is not native to Britain, but it has established itself in rivers and lakes because specimens have either escaped or been released from captivity. It has also, strangely, turned up in some waters on the north island of New Zealand.
The golden orfe is a variant with a pale-orange-coloured body which, as far as I can gather, was originally bred by fish fanciers as an ornamental variety. Their popularity as a pond fish, in Britain, is due partly to their colour, which is paler and rather more subtle than a goldfish, and partly because they have a habit of swimming near the surface, where they can be seen. They are more predatory in their habits than most cyprinids, and sometimes eat smaller fish. Wild orfe are regarded as a delicacy in parts of Finland and Russia.
Ireland has always had conservative policies for the importation of fish species that have the potential to escape and naturalise in the wild. However, two things have to be noted, here. First, both goldfish and koi carp are available for sale in this country, and both species have successfully naturalised themselves in Britain, where conditions in the wild are very similar. Second, at least 80% of the freshwater fish species that we regard as native to this country arrived in exactly this fashion – though, in some cases, it happened quite a long time ago.
Medieval monks brought in bream and tench for their fish ponds, 19th century anglers introduced roach and dace, while chub appeared mysteriously in the River Inny in the past decade. Fish smuggling has always been popular and it wouldn’t surprise me if a golden orfe turned up here.
* dick.warner@examiner.ie
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 15, 2010
