My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

hey ponder630. have you looked at wakin at this seller? http://www.raingarden.us/goldfish-wakin.htm You have really pretty fish. Are they both koi and goldfish? Also I really like the fish from Blackwater Creek. http://www.koisale.com/KoiStore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=69_96 The owner was on the gpf for a short time.
I took a few pictures this evening. You can see all the babies running around. There are about 20-25 of them. There are 10 of them that are still black.

 

[addy1]

Beautiful fish there Keith! Love the colors and fins. I have a mixture of short and long, a lot of my shubunkins are long finned, the gold fish are a mix.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Keith, your fish are doing very good, they look nice and the colors are fabulous! Good Job, water looks very nice and clear too!

 

[ponder630]

Your fish look beautiful, how many goldfish did you start with and did your fish spawn the first year there? I was looking at a few wakins at a local aquarium store and they have comet fantails at the water garden store by me.

I'm still a bit leery of the idea of having a fish shipped to me in that long journey, but I have looked at that fish dealer after following your thread.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks addy. I have three adult shubunkins. One that is about 6 inches I bought for 1.99 when it was about 1.5 inches and has really long tails and fins now. I also have a short tailed one I bought from Petco that never really has grown much, maybe it was under-nourished at some point? I have a female that is black and blue I bought from a garden store. It is really pretty but doesn't have a long tail. The shubunkin babies all came from her because it's my only female. Thanks Colleen. It's still a work in progress. I been pulling sludge from the bottom every few days and need to change my bio-filter because it has a small leak. So I am doing water changes whether I want to or not because I am losing about 25 gallons a day. Ponder630. I didn't have any babies the first year. Two of my adult fish were born in the pond. An all white one and an orange one with a white nose. I have usually stayed with about 10-12 fish. Now i think there are 12-13 adults and around 25 babies! My recommendation is not to buy any on-line until you check out the garden store I mentioned. I think you will be really impressed with their quality and selection of fish. It is way better than any aquarium store I have been to and the cost of several fish is much cheaper than buying on line because of shipping charges. One more thing if you are fairly new to ponding. It can be very addictive buying fish. I would recommend that you set a number of fish or bio-load that you are comfortable with for your pond and not go beyond that and also remember that they grow and have babies!

 

[ponder630]

Thanks for the tip CometKeith, I think I will actually make my way up to the garden center by you this weekend and check it out. I understand the bioload as I have grown up with fish tanks and supposedly this DIY biofilter should be able to handle it, but I am only thinking about adding 2-3 more gold fish. I know the kois already are big polluters already so I am hesitant on adding more fish. I may have a new home for two of those koi's as I think my pond really isn't big enough for all 3 of them in the future.

 

[addy1]

I started with 4 added about 20 small ones, now have over 200 plus, still have room for more, but they do breed and have babies. I keep them low fed, they eat the eggs, saves getting overpopulated. NO KOI

 

[CometKeith]

Ponder its something to think about. The higher the bio-load the more work is involved. if you are really into the pond and have a lot of time to spend on it then you can shoot for a higher bio-load. On the other hand if you want to enjoy it and relax in a nice chair and not do too much work you are better off with a lower bio-load. I don't like spending all my time thinking about filters and what I need to do next with them so I stick to the lowly goldfish!
Addy, I'm sure you are right about not overfeeding but i have seen live videos of your pond and some of your fish look pretty big. Please explain! Part of my enjoyment of my pond is feeding them and watching them eat so it is hard not to do it.

 

[addy1]

I am a casual feeder, When i do feed it is once a day, about 4 handfuls gone in moments. They do get good food, i.e. koi food, high quality, but if you look at cost per lb/ounce about the same as the other foods. It does not have corn as an ingredient, which the fish just poop out, I have read they do not digest it. I bought some last year, have it in a freezer to keep the nutrient level up. Just pull out what I need. Kenzen, I bought it on sale, 69 for 10 lbs. They seem to thrive on it.

They come running anytime they see me. I do feed them only in the deep end, in the center of the pond. I don't want them to get used to coming to the edge, for when mr heron comes back, just in case he gets close.

I enjoy feeding them too, that is the time to check them out. We have some real pretty pond spawn fish, long fins, many different shubbie colors. I finally got the fish cam running again, had a moisture problem over the winter. It is too close to the two waterfalls, a lot of water movement, but fun to watch the fish chase each other.

Might get ambitious and move it, might not lol.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, I am feeding once a day now too, but I usually do more when the temperatures increase. I went to the dentist yesterday. My dentist has these nice videos you can watch while you are sitting in the chair being worked on so you can relax. Last time they had pictures of different cities in Italy which was very pretty. This time they showed natural scenes from Hawaii. Well they showed a beautiful pond with really pretty Koi in it and then they zoomed in on a Huron that was sitting on the edge of the rocks that was watching the fish. I tried to explain to them that to a pond owner this was not very relaxing at all because it looked like the Huron was about to grab a fish at any second and carry it away! Here is a few pictures of one of my frogs today. It's not a bullfrog, maybe a green frog? Oh and the white stuff in the picture is not snow even though it is going down to 36 degrees tonight. They are petals from our ornamental pear tree.

 

[CountryEscape]

I had goldfish that came with my 55 gal aquarium, which was the reason for the beginning pond. They did spawn the first year, but they were all over 4" long when put into the pond in early July. So, depending on the size, goldfish spawn earlier than koi. My koi didn't spawn until the second year, and I have only 4 babies from that spawning, which is more than enough for me. I'll be looking to rehome all 4 of them. Not sure how many goldfish I have, but that pond is crystal clear. I am soooo sold on plant bogs, as that is my only filter for that pond. I realize the koi pond may be dirtier because of the koi, but also believe in the bog in the goldfish. My sister is moving from AZ to WI, and has asked me to design her next pond. She's in a "hurry up and dig and build" mode, though, which is NOT good in my opinion! She wants me to design it before she even buys a house. How stupid is that? She literally wants to begin digging the day after they close ... yeah, on a house that has not even been looked at yet. I told her to slow down, or forget about me helping her out.
Oh, sorry for my rant here, Keith. It just goes to show that those of us who really enjoy our ponds build with patience, change and tweak as we go, and enjoy it along the way. Nothing mentioned here about hurry up and finish! Haha ....

 

[CometKeith]

CE, wait a second. Is this the sister that had a pond and gave you tips when you started yours? Now you are designing her pond?!

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh yeah! She didn't have this Pond Forum, and I learned while I was in AZ after her knee surgery, that she didn't do ANY research, just decided she wanted a pond, had someone design and build it for her and now she will have major issues. Of course, she's selling her house, so wants me to design her next pond. That was AFTER her "koi guy", came to fix her skimmer, and he and I figured out how her pond was plumbed. Yeah, she has NO idea how her pond is done incorrectly. She's one of those "know it all" types, and I just thought she knew what she was talking about. Not so. And, she told me just today that when she closes on their house they are going to buy (they haven't even looked at houses in WI yet ...) she wants to "dig the pond the day after closing". I told her then forget about me designing anything. That's just crazy talking. You don't design and pond, and then look at the yard, it's the other way around. She can be on her own this time. I can give her pointers on how to plumb it at least. She couldn't even pull her bottom pump (which ran her filter, waterfall, fountain and skimmer ...) to clean it! It was hard plumbed at the bottom of her pond ... ON the bottom! What craziness, and she had no idea. When I told her it was wrong, she argued with me, but when her KOI GUY told her it was wrong, she agreed. LOL
Oh, get this. She told her buyer on her house in AZ (it's sold if all goes through) that her koi "know their names, and come when I call them". Really???? Come on!!! My fish swim to the side, any side, when I'm out there. Funny, I don't even call them by name ... it must be telepathy, wow, I have REALLY smart fish! Geesh ... she exaggerates everything. It's quite funny, really. My younger sister and I laugh about her all the time. And, she really thinks her fish know their names, too! That's the funniest part!
So, thanks GPF, for all your help along the way. I know my pond is far from perfect, but it sure helped me get most of the details correct!

 

[CometKeith]

CE, That's too funny. At least it sounds like she respects your knowledge. I wouldn't be too hard on her. Also if she wasn't into ponds i bet you would have never tried one. Designing a pond before you know the site you are designing it for is like designing a house without any idea what the windows will look at. It sounds crazy but it's done all the time. I once built a house and the architect designed this beautiful and expensive window on the side of the house where the stairwell was, but he didn't know it faced a brick wall on the house next door! Well I got my tads today. They all looked great, but then my daughter went outside to spray her clothes with mosquito repellent not too far from the pond because she is going to Africa Monday. I had been out and saw her just finishing up so it was too late to say anything. I hope the bug spray didn't affect the tads or frogs. Last year when the city sprayed for mosquitoes it killed all my baby tads in 24 hours.

 

[callingcolleen1]

C.E, she is probally in a hurry cause her fish need a proper home right away, if I was moving, I would get the pond all built and running and then move the fish. Maybe she has to sell quick and get out fast for what ever reason. Got to just LoVe them demanding siSters!!!