Goldfish Pond Location - Risks.

[so called]

Hi all, I have recently bought my Wife one of those Hoselock, 'above ground', ponds.

I have assembled it and located it in, what we feel, is the most suitable, sheltered, location.
However, the location is below a Silver Birch which is currently dropping significant quantities of catkins into the water.
While I will secure a net over the top at the coming weekend, are the goldfish at any risk of toxin or will they just feed on them?

Thanks.

[HustleRussell]

I don't know about the toxicology aspect but you're going to need to reduce the stuff getting into the pond as far as possible. Rotting plant matter at the bottom of a pond will eventually cycle into Nitrite which is toxic to fish in elevated concentrations.

[otolith]

Rotting leaves create a risk of deoxygenation and tend to make the water more acidic. They don't tend to add much to the nitrogen cycle, they have a lot of carbon and not much nitrogen so their decomposition is more likely to remove it, but still, not desirable.

[so called]

Great, thanks for the advice.

Yes, I intend to keep as clean as possible.
We've been fishing out the catkins on a daily basis as well.
I'm preparing a net this coming weekend too.

Daft thing is, I checked all was well last night and realised that 99% of the catkins have fallen this week.
If I'd waited a week......

Thanks again,
Tony.