My goldfish pond

[haver79]

My goldies follow me around the pond like puppies. The bigger ones eat pretty aggressively but slow down quickly. But give them 10 minutes and they are begging for more. The pellets are just to big for the babies so thats why I feed the flakes also. Though I think they are constantly snacking on algae.

 

[Jeff Zimnisky]

Wish my babies followed me around. They hardly even get close us when we feed them.

 

[haver79]

Give them time Jeff. I do enjoy them being so friendly. Problem is sometimes they are too curious, the dog and cat like to drink out of the pond and they get right up to their noses when they drink. Neither dog or cat pays them much mind but if it would be the wrong kind of critter stopping for a drink it could be their demise!

 

[Jeff Zimnisky]

This is true. Thank god ive never seen a racoon or anything else here that would harm them.

 

[CometKeith]

My fish are way too spoiled. When anyone walks to the pond they all come out running for food! It's cool I have lots of babies again this year. I have about 1/2 dozen assorted shubunkins and about a half dozen black comet babies. Of course those are the ones I see. There may be even more hiding. I have some pretty heavily planted areas in the pond so I think it made for some nice hiding places for the babies. So all in all I probably have about 40 or more fish now. There are only 5 original store bought fish and the rest were all born in the pond. Unfortunately I lose one or two every year for assorted reasons and the babies keep coming to replace them. I had one sick fish and one healthy fish disappear this year. I don't know what got them but I suspect a cat or raccoon. The first picture you can see one of the babies with an orange nose and a black stripe right above the middle white comet. Then there is a bigger baby shubunkin right below the other white fish lower down. It has a white nose. In the bottom pic are a bunch begging for food. The red serossa was my first fish and I've had it 6 years. The ones around it were all born in the pond two years ago except the larger orange fish to the left which was born 4 years ago in the pond. There are a bunch of black ones around it too if you look closely.

 

[tbendl]

The middle shot is beautiful.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks tbendl. I took that picture about a week ago. Since then I pulled out about 1/2 dozen lily pads so I could see the fish a little better. it's funny my lilies are really happy and gave off nice flowers all summer but it took a few years before they settled in. It definitely helped when I set them deeper. All my plants grew like crazy this year and I needed to constantly cut them back otherwise you wouldn't even see the pond! I have two laguna pumps feeding my little waterfall. One feeds the external bio-filter and then goes to the waterfall and the other comes straight from a pump halfway to the bottom and then up to the waterfall. If one pump ever gets restricted waterflow the other pump keeps the water movement going well.

 

[tbendl]

How big is your pond CometKeith? It's just so pretty and natural looking.

 

[haver79]

Very pretty fish. Love seeing the babies. That dark colored fish in the 1st picture is interesting. It looks black with lighter colored spots. There is another dark fish right above it that looks like its black with a white nose. Are those shubbies?

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks tbendl. It's 9 ft diameter.It's pretty shallow on the front edge so it's not as many gallons as you would think. Maybe 600-700 gallons. Oh, it looks natural because my wife stopped me from enlarging it anymore a few years back so I just work on the landscaping of it now! Thanks haver, Those are all shubys. I have had a few quite a while and they keep having babies. Some of the colors are really interesting. There are a whole bunch of them now with white noses. i don't know quite how that came about. Maybe half regular gold fish and half shubunkin. I do have a lot of white comets now so maybe they are breeding with the shubunkins. Thanks!

 

[tbendl]

I hate to say it but she did good.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks tbendl. it's funny how woman stick together.... I tried substantially enlarging it a few years ago when she wasn't around. She came home and saw what I was doing and she stopped me dead in my tracks so I had to put the dirt back. The only reason it's as large as it is because a few years earlier I changed the liner to make it slightly bigger and I left a lot of extra liner folded up on the front edge. Somehow over time that liner got unfolded and the pond grew!

 

[addy1]

you sneak!

 

[CometKeith]

lol, but the end justifies the means!

 

[Lisaebetten]

Thanks tbendl. it's funny how woman stick together.... I tried substantially enlarging it a few years ago when she wasn't around. She came home and saw what I was doing and she stopped me dead in my tracks so I had to put the dirt back. The only reason it's as large as it is because a few years earlier I changed the liner to make it slightly bigger and I left a lot of extra liner folded up on the front edge. Somehow over time that liner got unfolded and the pond grew!

Send her on a longer trip next time!