My goldfish pond

[j.w]

I can't tell from the photo about the scales missing. He must have rubbed on something to have them missing or is there a disease that causes it..............I do no know. Hope he heals.

 

[CountryEscape]

It's the light gray area at the base of his tail that I'm referring to. Maybe it's just the way he's marked, but I think that used to be solid black.
Oh, and if RSFish is reading this, I think this is the fish I got from him that he said was kind of a miracle fish. Something about him jumping out of a tank and landing on the ground or concrete or something. Said he should have died twice, but came around both times. Quite the fighter, so I'm hoping he is and will be alright. As I said, I noticed a small spot last fall, and now it seems there are 3 small pots. Maybe it's missing scales, maybe it's something else. Hopefully someone will check it out and let me know if they know. He seems fine otherwise, swims and feeds (when I fed) and acts normal. Just was worried since I mentioned he did him best "Shamu Sea World" act jumping out of the water 2 weekends ago, and someone mentioned her may be trying to rub or have a parasite! Then with the one baby koi dying ... made me start looking ultra close!

 

[CometKeith]

JW, I lost one of my Shubunkins over the weekend that I bought for 1.99 a few years ago. I had brought him back from the brink of death with salt baths a year ago so he was on his second life. CE, sorry about your Koi. I did put some salt in my pond but figured my fish were more important than the plants. The only really negative affect I have seen with salt were the water lettuces. This year I bought two floaters, one water lettuce and one water hyacinth, and the racoons have pretty much ate up the one water hyacinth I got. Some of the fish have really been loners and sitting by themselves. My smaller watonai has been like that and now has a large black spot by the base of her tail. Does not look good for her at all. A few other fish are showing signs of distress as well. I am super busy with work so it has been hard to spend much time on the pond and didn't even notice the problem before Saturday. The only thing I could have done wrong is I put a couple hardy water lillys in the pond last weekend and I noticed one of them had a lot of fertilizer on it. The next day I had a ton of stringy algae growing in the pond. I don't know if those plants could have changed the water chemistry enough to hurt the fish or it was just the extended dip in temperatures that did it. I had noticed the fish were eating a lot of algae and producing a lot of waste back in March when the outdoor temperature was close to 80 degrees every day and I think the pond just couldn't keep up with it since the outdoor temps have been below 50 degrees for most of the last few weeks, but that is why I don't feed at all until it cycles. Addy, Thanks for your concern. it's very frustrating when you think you have a nice pond balance and then you get hit with something like this. In retrospect I should probably have not added the extra fish and increased the bio-load but I felt since I added the extra volume last year things would be okay. Now if I could have expanded it larger this year maybe that would have helped... Live and learn I guess.

 

[CometKeith]

We had a few visitors today.

 

[CountryEscape]

Awww ... now that is just cute as pie! Maybe they will adopt your yard to have a nest and raise some baby ducklings for you to watch. They probably think it's wonderful having their own private pond. They don't eat fish, do they? Maybe they will keep your bugs in the grass under control.

 

[icsd71]

Nice pond! I am wanting to do something simular to put up by the house.

 

[addy1]

very neat ck, better than the heron that is doing a fly over every night at our pond! I would prefer ducks to harry

 

[CountryEscape]

You're evidently doing a fantastic job keeping Harry away from your pond, Addy!
Hey, Sullivan, IL icsd71!!! You're just up the road from me. Welcome to the Pond Forum!!! You will gather tons of good info on this forum, just keep reading. And, what are those in your hands in your pic? Looks like baby birds of some type. Cute!

 

[addy1]

either that or harry has not decided to land yet. It is flying over the pond every night, top of tree height. Time will tell, maybe the gators are scaring it, wish I could be that lucky!

 

[j.w]

Keith missed the post about your losing your one fish and sorry to hear that.
Cute ducks but hope they don't foul up your water too much. Wonder if they will make a nest near there and bring all the babies............oh boy that could be a real clean up for ya! I think ducks will eat really small minnows but don't know if they would eat the goldfish or koi if they were small.

 

[CometKeith]

Just looked up ducks. They were both Mallards. The brown one is the female and the other one is the male. I knew the green one was a mallard but didn't think the other one was.They both jumped in the pond and then took off a few minutes later. They didn't eat any of the fish, but afterwards the fish were all hiding and totally freaked out by the ducks. JW. Thanks. I think things warmed up way too fast last month and now that it is so cold that the pond hasn't cycled the waste the fish have been producing. I have some others that don't look so good and have done a few water changes but that doesn't seem to be enough. Literally the air temps have been averaging 30-40 degrees colder than last month. icsd71 welcome and good luck with your pond. It can be a fun hobby. You can learn a lot on this forum. Addy, I haven't read about ducks eating goldfish so I watched them for a few minutes and took some pictures but was a little worried nonetheless. I wonder if my tadpoles are still there. Good luck with Harry! That's a funny name for a bird. Hope he stays away. CE I don't think they will come back but we did have a neighbor one time have a couple wild ducks that made a habit of sitting on their front lawn. Baby ducks would be cute...

 

[icsd71]

They are baby killdeer chkicks.

 

[koiguy1969]

hey C.K. ..its strange how We humans are about the only species that the females are the "pretty" ones ( in most cases)...most every other animal, bird, and most fish, the males are the most ornate

 

[j.w]

Too bad it's not that way for humans..................maybe you guys would all get luckier

 

[addy1]

Addy, I haven't read about ducks eating goldfish so I watched them for a few minutes and took some pictures but was a little worried nonetheless. I wonder if my tadpoles are still there. Good luck with Harry! That's a funny name for a bird. Hope he stays away. ..

think it was jw talking about them possibly eating small fish, I have never heard that.

I named the heron after spending hours watching it try to get our fish. Figured better than saying that d___________m bird lol