Acclimating Indoor Fish to a Pond

[RoyalFeather]

My cousin gave me two goldfish that she had kept in a bowl in her house. The little guys are so tiny, about 2" and appear to be a comet and a common. They came from a heated tank at walmart and then were placed in a bowl with a heater. Since my 20 gallon tank full of tiny tropicals is obviously not a good fit for goldfish I am wanting to put them in my pond.

I have a couple of concerns about this, however.

First is my main concern, which is that the temperature in my pond is at least 10*F colder than the temperature they are used to. It is winter, but it rarely freezes or gets below 20*F here. The most ice I've had on the pond was about1/4 inch thick and it was thawed out by mid day. Will they be okay with the lower temperatures? I don't see it getting overly cold as far as goldfish are concerned, but the 10*F temperature difference is what I am concerned about. I am also a bit worried about them going from a temperature that never fluctuates to a pond where the temperature raises and lowers with the air temperature.

My second concern is how small these guys are in comparison to my other fish. I have my 10 6"-8" long Comets and Shubi's in the pond and these new fish are only 2" long. My concern is that the bigger fish will bully the smaller fish and cause problems for them. The pond does have a lot of cover and live plants, so they'd have places to get away from the bigger fish, but I'm concerned about sharing food and the other problems that sometimes occur with bigger fish and smaller fish in the same pond.

Do you guys have any advice for me?

 

[HARO]

I'd wait until spring to put them in the pond, that will give them all summer to acclimate, and they should be OK by next fall/winter. As far as getting enough food or being bullied, goldfish usually get along well, no matter the size difference.
John

 

[addy1]

My spoiled house shubunkins get to wait until spring to go into their nice big pond. I am going to wait until the water temperature goes above 65 and stays there.

The house tank is around 70 degrees.

 

[RoyalFeather]

All i have is a 2 gallon gold fish bowl for them until spring. Going to suck for them until they get outside, but since people have them in bowls everywhere I guess it should be fine.

 

[Dave 54]

Hi Royal Feather wait until Summer months to put your small goldfish in the pond and not before, doing it before summer could well lead to disaster for these guys, in that the thermal shock would kill them.
When you do release them into the pond be sure to float your fish in a plastic bag until you have matched temperature as closely as you can i;e withing a degree of the pond temperature this normally takes around 30 minutes .
They are then free to go into the pond and will live happy lives.

rgrds


Dave

 

[RoyalFeather]

Goldfish bowl it is then.

 

[CountryEscape]

Hi, Royal Feather. I have purchased many fantails and fancier comets and shubunkins from Wal-Mart, and had really good luck with them. First of all, goldfish do NOT need to have a heater while in your house. They can take the water temp fluctuations no problem. So, don't worry about having a heater in a 2 gallon bowl. Second, when you are ready to put them outside, do it after winter is over, assuming you have cold temps still coming in Oregon. My pet store taught me a way to get fish acclimated, both tropical and pond fish. Put them in a large container with sufficient water that they were used to. Let them rest for a few minutes. Then, add water slowly from their new home source (pond). I use a 3.5 gallon bucket, put the bag of fish into that (I always ask for extra water) and then start adding water about a 16 oz cup at a time. I do this about every 10 minutes for up to an hour, depending on the difference in temperature of the pond vs where the fish came from. So, if you have them in the bowl, and assuming you keep your house between 65 and 70 degrees, and the pond temp is up to at least 50 and heading up (outside temps are going up), you could slowly get them used to the new temperature if you took about an hour in the bucket. Do it on a warm day, with warmer temps coming, and they will be fine. I put 2" fantails into my pond last fall, the water temps were down to probably 60 or so and they are still doing just fine, having gone through ice on the pond twice already.
And, as Dave said above, the goldfish don't seem to chase and bully. The only time I see my fish bothering each other is when they start the breeding season. Otherwise, they all coexist very well. As far as food, just watch the little ones and see that they get some food, too. Don't worry if they don't, as they will be eating algae and other things that are naturally in a pond, that you probably filter out of an aquarium. Good luck!!!

 

[Dave 54]

The only problem with the

I'd wait until spring to put them in the pond, that will give them all summer to acclimate, and they should be OK by next fall/winter. As far as getting enough food or being bullied, goldfish usually get along well, no matter the size difference. John

I still say wait until the start of summer before they go in , this is when the pond temperature is at its most stable thus less risk to your fish.
To acclimatize a fish only needs 30 minutes floating in a bag everything is then done and dusted but to do that in spring is just asking for trouble.
Not only that spring time is when you see peak activity to any parsite there may be lurking in the pond, as such these two little guys will be fare game to them coming in from a parasite free enviroment.
Val and I have been doing this for the last 26 years with not a problem to any released in that time. The practise of adding water into the container is a rather hit and miss afair hense floating the bag prior to release

rgrds

Dave

 

[CountryEscape]

Dave, what about acclimating the fish to the new water chemistry? By floating a bag, you don't do that at all, just go from one type of chemistry into a totally different. I think that is the reason for adding the water, instead of only floating the bag. Maybe it would be great to float the bag, get the water temp the same, then add water before putting the fish into the new environment? You also have some very good points, Dave, about parasites. I have never had any trouble with that (knock on wood!!!), so didn't think ahead to that possibility.
Not sure about where you live, RoyalFeather, but around here, the water temp can be very stable in March, and very unstable in July and August. Just depends on the climate in your area. I think Oregon doesn't fluctuate in temperature as many other States/Countries do. What is your current normal temperature, and what is coming in the next couple of months? That would help you decide when to put the fish into your pond. :razz:

 

[Dave 54]

I agree with you on that matter you will have to mix the two together , forgive me my slip I'm thinking of what we do with koi after shows.
However in saying that we are told not to mix water with a newbie to the pond after Quarentine theres no telling if there is anything nasty lurking that could play havok with your existing fish ......

rgrds

Dave

 

[Jason]

Your question answered mine as well! My brother is giving me 2 Goldfish that are 3 years old and around 6-7'' and have been in a Heated 55 gallon tank their whole life. I just told him to wait until march before I got them so the outside pond temp was close to matching what they are used too. Thanks lol :razz:

 

[Dave 54]

Jason March is way to cold for that depending on where you live in the world I'd wait possibly till early summer , however why does your brother keep goldfish in a heated tank , they dont need it as they are a cold water species

rgrds

Dave

 

[CountryEscape]

I always wondered the same thing, Dave, but I think people who don't have pond fish, think that any fish purchased at a pet store need to be in a heated tank, like most tropicals want/need. When I purchased my used 55 gal with hood and stand, it came with 5 large goldfish - fantail, comets and couple of commons. That guy had I think 3 large filters (one of them was rated for an 80 gal tank!) on the back of the tank. Guess he figured more was better. LOL The heater never was used while I had just the goldfish.
Note that Jason lives in Florida, so March should be ok for him to acclimate the new fish, don't you think? I bet you missed where he was from, Dave. :razz: And you have a very good point, Dave, on not putting the water from the other tank in to your pond. I do mix the water from the pet store and the pond in the bucket to acclimate the fish to the temperatures and the water chemistry, but I always net the fish or catch them with my hands before putting them into the pond, thus not introducing any "foreign" water into the pond. Good point!!!

 

[RoyalFeather]

Well, tragedy has struck, but I have averted a crisis with the whole situation and done what I had felt was best at the time and is still proving to a good course of action. Anyways, here's what happened... So, about 5 days ago one of the chickens was inside the house and causing a bit of a ruckus. Somehow she ended up in my bedroom with the fish and when I went to catch her, she panicked and flew up onto the shelf, colliding with the fish bowl. The entire thing went crashing to the ground, fish and all and shattered. Needless to say, my heart stopped and I scrambled to get the fishies up off the floor where they were flopping and gasping. I put them in a cup of water scooped out of my guppy tank to get them into some water quickly. I didn't want them in with my Guppies screwing up the ammonia levels and since I had no fish bowl anymore and the water in the pond had been averaging a stead 45-50*F for the last few days, out the fish went. They have been out there for 5 days now and been through a cold night with 1/8" of ice on the surface of the water. They aren't looking stressed, but I'm keeping an eye on them. And now for a bit about my climate... Around here it is never colder than 10*F and this time of year it averages around 55*F and drops to around 40*F at night at the lowest unless it's a cold snap. The temperature stays pretty steady during the winter months here, so cold is not an issue with ponds in this area. We do get a lot of rain, sometimes as much as 5" in one day during a big storm, but the acidity level of the rain is pretty low so that is not a problem here. The temperatures don't really get truly warm until well into April or Early May and we occasionally get snow in March. Mostly we get hail, as well. During the last two months there has only been ice on the pond two nights and by 10:00a.m it is always melted and the temperature raises again. During the summer the temperature can get fairly warm, like 95*F, but usually stays around 70-80*F with not very much fluctuation. During the peek of summer we get no rain at all. And my acclimation method... I have been breeding guppies for about 5 years now and when I introduce a new fish into the tank/pond I use the following method. I put the fish in a plastic container, such as a margarine tub or a cut of soda bottle depending on the size of the fish, and attach it to the side of the tank so that it won't tip over or float around too much. I fill the container about half way with water from the fish's original tank or the water in the shipping container. Once every hour I replace about 1/8-1/4 of the water with water from the tank the fish will be going into. After the water has been swapped about 4-6 times I then let the fish sit for another hour before adding it to the tank. I net the fish out of the acclimating container and discard the water from it. This way none of the water ends up in the tank to pollute it. My pond temperatures... The temperature in the pond has been averaging 50*F with only a few degrees variation either way.

 

[addy1]

Well if they are still alive after being put in the pond 5 days ago, most likely they will be fine.
Can just imagine the shock those poor lil fish went though, DUCK MA there is a FLYING chicken coming!