Fry? Now what?

JBtheExplorer

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So I've had my pond less than two months. I was topping it off and noticed something small swimming in it. From the research I've done in the last few months I knew almost immediately it was a baby fish.
So, my question is: What do I do now? I have no idea how many are in my pond, though I'm not too worried about that right now. The fact is, I wont have room for them, other than 2, maybe 3.

Do I raise them to a certain age and try to give them away? I'm sure other ponders probably have their own fry to deal with. Do I solve the problem by "getting rid of the situation" as soon as possible? If so, how?

Don't get me wrong, its pretty darn cool! I was happy to see it, but I have to think about down the road and what I'm going to do. I'd like to keep a couple for sure, but how long would I have to wait to see which ones look the coolest?

Also, will the adult fish eat the fry?


At this point, they're about the size of a centimeter. I only saw the one, caught it and decided I needed to ask a few questions.
DSCN2649.png
 

HTH

Howard
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First choice is to line up new homes.

The adult fish may eat them, it is natures way and an easy solution.

It is a lot easier to 'dispose' of them while they are small. Clove oil then an ice bath.

For the people who are hating me at this point it is unrealistic to try to keep all the fish spawned. In the end they will all suffer from over crowding.
 

sissy

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geeze thought you were frying something :cheerful: some of the fry may get eaten by bigger fish ,but most times if there are plants or pots to hide around ,they will hide .I just found 3 more baby fish this morning
 

sissy

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the pic you show looks like a tadpole that you have there .I see tiny legs
 

JBtheExplorer

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sissy said:
the pic you show looks like a tadpole that you have there .I see tiny legs
Nope, its definitely fry. I know local tadpole species very well. I wish I could get a clearer image or side image, but its just too small. I see mini fins and everything! it looks like this photo I found online:
wr45.png
 
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If I found fry in my pond, I would do nothing. Many will die or be eaten. Let them grow out a bit. You can keep the ones that look best and drop the rest off at a local fish store.
 
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I'm not an expert but I've been posting what I have been doing (and asking questions but not getting much feedback) here: https://www.gardenpondforum.com/topic/11827-i-think-my-sarasa-might-be-spawning/

My comets seem to spawn quite often so far this spring/summer, I have a mix of sarasa and probably normal comets and bigger goldfish. I notice spawning especially when the water level is high after a good rain. Anyway...my fish suck most of the eggs off the plants before I get to them and some plants like my watercress I won't remove as they are rooted into rocks. I pulled out several of my smaller floating plants and put them in a rubbermade tub and the eggs hatched in 3-4 days, I thought they where all dead at first but they sat on the bottom for over 24hrs before slowly starting to move around. I kept them in the tub for a good week with an adjustable bubbler on the lowest setting. I kept the plants in, ground up flake food, and also put a scoop of pond water with algae every couple days. I've since setup an Intex kiddie pool (158gal) in my sun room. I moved the fry into that yesterday. I also picked up a cheap pump from harbor freight. I am seeing some dead fry today but still several alive, I watched one get sucked into the pump even with quilt batting over it so I turned it back off. I'll have to wait for them get bigger before using that...

I'm in the same boat as you if they all lived I would have get rid of most of them. I did lose some fish this spring so I will keep some if they survive, this is more of an experience thing for me to learn what is involved and what works in case I really want to get into producing more fish as a side hobby of pond keeping.
 

JBtheExplorer

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I hadn't seen any in a week until today.
I'd like to bring one inside so I can watch it and raise it until its big enough to have a chance against the other fish.
I don't have a pump or aeration system. Can it live without one or is there something I can do such as water changes to avoid needing one?
 
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I have not been running a pump with my fry. At first in the rubbermaide tub I was just doing partial water changes every day or other day and using bubbler/air pump. Since moving them to the intex 158gal pool I tried using the harbor freight pump but I still saw fry being pulled in by the pump and one actually sucked in so I stopped that. I am just using the air pump again in the center of the pool and I have about half the pool filled and have not changed the water in probably two weeks and it is still fine. I add a couple scoops of pond water every couple days to keep fresh bacteria and some plant/algae matter in the pool for the fry to eat as well as feeding some cheap flake food.

It is harder to tell how many I have left now but I know it is not as many but they are growing, some have reached and are passing quarter inch mark closing in on a half inch. I'm thinking I might have to put them in an aquarium for the winter for best case survival and grow out. I don't know if they will be big enough to put in my pond by the time fall shutdown comes around but we will see. I think they will grow faster with more room so I will keep them in the pool as long as I can or put them in the pond once they reach a size I think they other fish won't bother them.
 
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In my pond that would be the perfect size for a delicious and nutritious turtle snack.

If that's a koi and you raise them to a larger size I can't imagine they'd be very hard to give away.
I accidentally raised a bunch of goldfish fry last year by moving some water hyacinth back from the pond to my little water hyacinth breeding greenhouse, the goldfish apparently spawned on the hyacinth I returned and they hatched and grew in that little greenhouse pond. It got very hot in that greenhouse pond, and I use to dump all kinds of fertilizer in there, but all that seemed to do was make them grow faster. :dunno:
Before most of them were more than an inch long I returned them all to the main pond and it seems like they all survived because I have a pretty big school of goldfish this year. That lazy turtle of mine ain't doing his job. :nono:
 

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