My goldfish pond

[sissy]

I have the fantails I call them butt wigglers and have had popeye and olive oil for over 8 years now .

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes Sissy, they good at wiggling their butts for sure and darn cute too! I like the funny fancy tails, they just make the pond so much more interesting and kids love them. I would bet some are difficult to breed too.

 

[sissy]

I think I had a couple of babies this year because of the shape of there bodies but have not seen them in weeks .Mine like to swim into my hand and get a body rub ,but are getting kinda big for that now ,so they get belly rub :razz:

 

[callingcolleen1]

Too cold now too! You spoil your fish too! I like to pet the big ones too, let them come swim in my hand and feed them. My Poor fish will be starved come spring! No wonder they eat my fingers too!

 

[capewind]

Dang... all these "hand spoiled fish" LOL... and here I was thinking it was normal for them to act like they have some piranha in the bloodline....

 

[CountryEscape]

OMG, is that a Black Moor you have Colleen? That is one that I thought would never survive the winters, as they are more "deformed" than the others. I also have fantails, Keith, and this being only my second year, the ones I had from last year made it just fine. I bought several more from Wal-Mart, and most of them survived, I think I have about 6 or 8 of them going into the winter. I did see one belly up on the bottom couple of days ago, so assume that one died for whatever reason. The ones I got from Wal-Mart were small, maybe only about an inch long plus their tails, so I expected some of them not to make it. But most did make it. And, I have only seen it once, but I put a copper colored fantail in the pond, didn't see it until I was in the pond grooming the lilies, and saw a solid black fantail! I guess that sucker changed to black, from bronze/copper color! I hope it's still in there, but won't know until spring. I always watched for him/her, but never saw it again. So many places to hide, though, I will be hopeful that it makes it! Could have changed to solid orange, but didn't have any solid orange ones either.
My pond has more ice on it than yours, Keith! I have the waterfall, stream and skimmers going, thanks to Colleen! If I wasn't going to be gone, I would keep them going, but unless the weather prediction for the 11 days I'll be gone doesn't call for below 25 for nighttime temps, I'll probably be forced to shut down the waterfall. Going to leave the stream and skimmers going, though. Have water bubbler on goldfish pond in front of that skimmer, and air bubbler on the koi pond in front of the skimmer there. I think that should keep the ice from forming in front of the skimmers, since they are pulling in water and moving it so should not freeze. The only thing I worry about (also worries about tubing above ground ...) is if the flexible sump pump tubing I've used would break, that would empty my pond down to about 14", which I don't want to happen, especially if I'm gone! So, we shall see ... I'm sure enjoying having no ice on the ponds, though!
Another thing I've noticed is that the goldfish pond, which has stream, has had almost no ice, but the koi pond which has the waterfall (more above ground) has ice on it. I would conclude that the water running over the stream which is on the ground level is warmed by that, and the water going over the waterfall is more cooled, thus colder water and more ice on the koi pond. But, always open areas where the water is moving, even from the bogs!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes CE, that is a cute black moor. I have had the black moors all my life since I was a young kid and fell in love with them, but they never lived long for me INSIDE the house, but they do very well outside under the ICE all winter, figure that out! I think the fish tanks can become crowed and too warm for goldfish, which are really cold fish, and I don't think the cold water hurts them and the poor water quality of a small tank cannot compare to the fresh cold clear water of the pond. I have had gold fish since I was five years old, had them in my teens and my fish followed me my whole life to where ever life took me. I also think the less hardy fish have more of a chance at living a longer life, getting healthy by eating fresh pond greens and fat juicy bugs than living in a small tank where chances are greater that the water and food will be much poorer quality.

Fish are much much more likely to have sickness when the water is to warm. The only real trouble with winter is that if you have a solid ice cover and too many fish, gas builts up and that kills more fish than the cold water. If you keep filters working and water moving, the gas can escape better I think and keep a hole open in the ice and all will be good.

 

[taherrmann4]

comet how big is your pond??? Can't remember if you expanded it or not in the last year or so, if you did what was the original size? Thanks

 

[CometKeith]

tmann, it's around 600 gallons now, I think I had around 250-300 gallons for my first pond. I'm still hoping to add on to it maybe this spring!! CE yes we have had hardly any snow and no ice. I only shoveled once this year and that was for less than 5 minutes. I am attaching a few not so great pics I took the other day with some snow accents around my pond. Colleen, i really like your goldfish pics. The fish are really pretty! Okay so the general consensus is fantails will do okay over the winter but may not do as well as comets and shubunkins. Sissy it sounds like you have had yours for a while and been successful with your fancies and CE and Colleen it sounds like you guys have been successful too. CE I know you have a few wakin and they are supposed to be very hardy. No one mentioned having ryukin, orandas, telescopes, bubble eyes, pearlscales, lionheads or any of those. Somehow when someone mentions fancies I think of those fish before I think about fantails. Everything I have heard about those is they are not hardy enough for freezing temps like a lot of us get. I had two watonais last year but they didn't make it over the winter, but I had to deal with quite a bit of disease because of rising and falling temps so I don't know I can blame it entirely on the breed. Everything I have heard is if a fish has a body shape similar to a comet they should do okay in the winter even if they have a more unusual tail.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Those other breeds are more rare and expensive. I have not seen some of them around town for a while now and have not owned those before. I would think the more rare and expensive, the less hardy for sure. Comets are the best for hardy and anything close would be almost as hardy too.

 

[CountryEscape]

I'm not positive the types of fantails that I have. I know some are fat bellies, and some are not as fat. I usually pick the ones that have the longer fantails instead of the shorter cut off fantails. I don't care for the "downswept" look of some of the fantails, and I know what the lionhead looks like, but usually don't see them around here. I had an Oranda that came with the 55 gal aquarium I got last year in January, had it inside until first pond was done. I think it died before winter hit, but I never found the body. One one I really liked from Pond Kid disappeared this past spring. Never did find out if something ate it, or if it died and disappeared. That was by far my favorite.
Here are a few of the pics of fish from Pond Kid. He needed to thin out his numbers, and brought them to me. Notice the red eyes on several of the fish. I really like the Shubunkin (but that pic would not load). It's my largest now, and very "blue" looking. I now have several small blue Shubunkin fantails as well. It seems that type keeps all 3 colors better than some of the others that I have purchased locally. When I see Shubunkins that are more blue, I look hard for bright red and black and buy if they are nice. I've only found 3 like that locally so far, though, plus I think 3 fantails.

 

[CometKeith]

Hey CE, I think your fancy with the spread tail looks like a watonai. If the tail was shorter it could be a wakin. Here are some neat pics of watonai. http://www.raingarden.us/goldfish-watonai.htm. I'm off to Costa Rica tomorrow. It will nice to get away from work!

 

[j.w]

Have fun and enjoy yourself and

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes have a nice trip and watch for weird bugs while your down there! Happy New Year Keith!!

 

[fishin4cars]

Oh, Lucky you Keith, I would love to visit Costa Rica at some point in life, What a way to spend the New year. CE, the pic you have posted is two Sarassa, one regular fancy tail fantail, and a standard white comet. I've found that most fantails without head growths and bubble eyes do pretty well in the winter. Probably the Ryukin might be one that may or may not do good outside in very cold temps. Orandas do not do well with much ice on the water. Bristol shubunkins are new and rare and quite pricey but do well from what I have read in Cold conditions. These same fish don't do well in overly warm water as well.