My goldfish pond

[rodsboys]

Most of mine are shubunkins, just love them, very colorful and long beautiful fins.

Yeah, I'm a crackhead for the long fins too!

 

[CometKeith]

Most of my Shubunkins have short fins. I have one that is probably the mama of most of them and she is mostly black with some blue highlites. A lot of her babies have either her blue or pick up some of her black but they all have her shorter fins. Most of the comets in my pond started out black and now I have a lot of white and some gold or red ones. There are a few multicolor ones that are pretty and I have one baby now that looks like it could be really nice as an adult. Most of the comets have nice fins so that makes up for the shubunkins. My biggest comet is a red and white spotted sarasa. With her tail she is probably close to 8 inches long now. She is my oldest fish and I have had her over 6 years now.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I got a little of everything, even minnows
The regular comet goldfish with short tails live the longest and are very prolific.
Today we had more clouds and for sure I thought it would storm and dump lots of rain, the clouds were black and it was very humid. Still no rain at all.

I need to cut more trees too, and the caterpillar dung is falling heavy everywhere, even in my gazebo!! Must have blown in or something...

 

[CountryEscape]

We need rain here, and we have had rain, so I can only imagine how dry it is for you, Colleen. I'm a sucker, don't want my pretty flowers and new plantings to suffer, so I watered all of my landscaping yesterday. LOL I did my part to make it rain, but only got a few drops, not enough to register in the rain gauge.
Keith, I had goldfish first, then bought koi, which is what I ultimately wanted. My mistake was buying cheap goldfish to "cycle the pond", when I wish I had bought prettier ones for 25 cents more each. LOL Now I have separated the koi from the goldfish, so no more cross breeding. I have 4 baby koi, that are all very pretty, but no babies the last 2 years of either goldfish or koi, at least not that I have seen. I put a mop head in each of the ponds, one right next to where I saw the goldfish spawning about a month ago. We shall see if I spot any babies in either pond this year, but I doubt it. I think the bullfrogs, turtles, snakes, dragonflies, and fish do their best to eradicate all of the eggs, and if any fry hatch, they eat them, too. Ho hum ... well, at least I'm not getting tons of fish, right?!

 

[CometKeith]

Colleen. it rained here like every other hour today. First its sunny and nice then tons of rain then sunny again then more rain etc.... It was the same weather yesterday. i was buying flowers and it started raining and I almost gave up and figured the weather was too bad to plant them. Then I go home and the sun was out and everything was dry. CE, Sorry you don't have any baby fish. Do you see them spawning and then none survive? The first couple years I didn't have any then I started gettng more and more. One summer i had more than 30 and I think I still have a little more than half of them 3 years later. What I try to do is set up a kids play zone only with no adults allowed. I think it gives the young ones more space to survive and not be bothered. Basically the kids play area is a small area surrounded by hornwort, obedience plants and anything else that I can get to grow thick so the bigger fish can't get through it. Then the fry can live in it safely for the whole summer until they are big enough to come out. It's always fun seeing a new one I haven't seen before at feeding time darting around the edges of the area where food is floating.

 

[addy1]

I saw a few 1/2 inch fry under my lily leaves. Now that I have a water snake snacking on the fish, frogs, whatever, (read they are more into frogs than fish) it is a good thing they have babies.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I got a little rain today, and streets and ground still wet so we got enough to hold dust down on my side of town. Other side of town got no rain.

I get a few babies every year, but not too many cause of all the dragonfly nymphs that live in my ponds. Those baby dragonfly nymphs are downright scary and really freaky looking little monsters!

 

[addy1]

I get a few babies every year, but not too many cause of all the dragonfly nymphs that live in my ponds. Those baby dragonfly nymphs are downright scary and really freaky looking little monsters!

population control!

 

[CometKeith]

Colleen, I have seen them in my pond. The ones I have seen look like fish with wings! Addy, Sorry about your snake. Hopefully it gets bored and leaves soon! Oh,. I met DrellDrell today. I invited him to view my pond since he is planing a pond build this weekend. Super nice guy!

 

[addy1]

The snake does not bother me, it was small. My only concern was did we have poisonous water snakes here, and we don't. So it gets to live, besides I doubt I could catch it. I read they prefer frogs, and I have tons. The smart ones will survive.

 

[michey1st]

The snake does not bother me, it was small. My only concern was did we have poisonous water snakes here, and we don't. So it gets to live, besides I doubt I could catch it. I read they prefer frogs, and I have tons. The smart ones will survive.

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/snake-bites-kills-nixa-man/21051620_33227578

 

[rodsboys]

http://www.kspr.com/news/local/snake-bites-kills-nixa-man/21051620_33227578

Good ol' USA..."man did not get medical attention because he did not think he could afford it"...sad and foolish.

 

[addy1]

thanks michey! now I need to worry about dieing! tell you the truth, until I see it again I will just were my waders in the water. It did not have the venomous snake head, very mild markings, sort of a nondescript brown., and green eyes or green around the eyes. Skinny little thing that ran the moment it saw me move. No indication it wanted to strike.

 

[CometKeith]

I liked the advice in the article... to avoid snakes altogether!

 

[addy1]

I respect them, do enjoy spotting them in the yard, but don't attempt to chase down and pick up.