My goldfish pond

[addy1]

I don't see any fish in your pond I would call ugly! They are all pretty!

I have a hand full of green/gray fish with beautiful fins, long and flowing. Hard to see just watching to see what they end up doing.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes, I did not see any ugly fish, they all look beautiful and your pond looks great! Nice bloom too!!

 

[j.w]

All your fish look nice Keith and we had a big thunderstorm yesterday also and just after I topped off my pond. Oh well they got an extra flushing and they seem to like it when the rain pounds down on the whole pond like that. Think it knocks all the bugs outta hiding and they have a feast!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Ugh, I got bugs eating the vine on my house again this year, and they are really bad this year, probally cause the winter was so mild...

 

[j.w]

Sorry for you Colleen,what kind are they?

 

[callingcolleen1]

JW, I think they are some type of white fly, they eat the vine every year, but not this bad! The vine will survive and will come back next year, but we need a cold winter to kill most off. I need to cut some of it back as well cause it is too big and eating my house.... the bugs eat the vine, but the vine eats my House!

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Addy, Now I'm starting to wonder if a few of my babies came from the plants and frog eggs I got from you last year? Some of the fish don't seem to be from any of the adults that are in my pond. Colleen, Thanks, Sorry about your bugs! JW you might be right, we have had a few hard rains the last few days. It doesn't seem to bother the fish at all and they are always in a good mood the next day! Went to our annual village carnival/festival this weekend. This was one attraction that caught my attention.

 

[addy1]

Anything is possible! I have such a variety of fish, all colors, all different finnage, some pure white some almost pure black, green/gray, red, orange, yellow, shubbie colors. No way I can keep track of what should or should not be there.

 

[j.w]

Nice looking fish at that carnival but feel sorry for all those fish and what happens to them. I remember winning a goldfish when I was a little kid at one of those fairs. I loved my goldie and took care of him,even got him a friend and I slowly graduated to a bigger bowl and then a tank and now a pond! Hopefully most will end up in a nice home but have my doubts. Maybe some will even get to go in a nice pond but chances are slim. But who knows maybe they will get some little kid into dreaming about having a pond and start the addiction just like all of us here

 

[CometKeith]

J.W I agree with you on everything. Now here is the rub. I spoke to the owner of the concession. I asked her where she got her fish from because I noticed they were so nice. Her comment was from a fish hatchery. I'm not surprised because you don't normally see the quality and size of her goldfish around a whole lot. I said something like Blackwater farms? She couldn't believe someone at the carnival actually knew fish hatchery names. She said they came from Ozark Fish Hatchery or something like that which I had heard of before. She mentioned she was a third generation keeper of goldfish. Naturally I showed her some pond/goldfish pics that I have saved in my phone.We talked a little about how people were going to handle the fish after they won them. She asks everyone if they have kept goldfish before and if they know what to do. If they don't sound interested in the fishes well being she won't give them the fish they won and will give a refund instead. If they are not familiar with keeping goldfish she has a paper printout that she gives out so they will know what to do. Also what was interesting is you have to pay $5 for 10 ping pong balls. At the most you can win one or two small fish with the 10 balls because it is so hard to get the balls in the bowls. You get one small fish for every one you make. Then to get the large fish you have to have 6 small fish. So it takes someone at least $15-$25 in balls to make 6 total to get a large fish. The people that are doing this really want one of them and are making a significant investment to win one. Also she sells starter aquarium tanks and supplies so people can set up a tank right away for their fish. On the surface it seemed like just one of those stupid giveaways of goldfish but in reality they really knew a lot about fish and were encouraging other people to start up with it as a hobby and of course making a buck while doing it. Not Bad!!!

Addy I guess it sounds silly, but because of my small pond I know exactly which of the fish are females and which are males and can track the lineages pretty easily. That was of course before I had the 22 babies. I'm going to attribute the gray-green (natural color) ones to you because I never had that color before!

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, that's really neat that you talked to that lady at the fair about the goldfish. I won one when I was a kid, at the church picnic, and took really good care of it, cleaning the water, etc. But, I suspect the water was chlorinated, and after a while it died. I was devastated! When my siblings and I (4 of the 6 of us) got a "pet", I chose an aquarium. Others got guinea pig, hampster, gerbil, but I got to get new fish all the time, when others would die. I wasn't very good at it for several months, but learned as I went, and my mom helped me, too. I'm just really happy that one of those places actually is thinking of the well being for the fish, not just trying to make a buck. But, making money is what we are programmed to do, so good for them all the way around!

 

[addy1]

Addy I guess it sounds silly, but because of my small pond I know exactly which of the fish are females and which are males and can track the lineages pretty easily. That was of course before I had the 22 babies. I'm going to attribute the gray-green (natural color) ones to you because I never had that color before!

lol Keith............. lets see all I had was a orange, white and a shubbie to start with. So I think you sent me the gray green ones................

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, They are all great including the frogs. Obviously I have spent way too much time watching my fish this summer, but it is a great diversion from everyday reality! I think everyone's biggest problem should be what color their goldfish should or could be. Now if we had any decent baseball teams in Chicago I could have spent less time at the pond, but there was nothing worth watching on tv except for a few shows like Dexter, Mad Men, and Ray Donovan.

CE, Yeah I'm glad i talked to her. it's funny how you develop an impression of something and then when you learn more about it you see things differently. Actually it's kind of a cool way to make a buck. I think everyone who walked by her booth were fascinated with the tanks of large colorful goldfish. if someone spends $20 or $30 bucks for a fish to win one hopefully they will try to take care of it.

 

[addy1]

lol Keith, I look at mine a lot. I have seen a handful of the green gray in my shubunkin only tank, .................humm eggs sucked up by the pump, shubbies make gray greenies .........who knows. I don't really care, they have beautiful fins! I have plenty of water room.

 

[callingcolleen1]

I remember when the Woolworth store downtown in Medicine Hat was giving away free goldfish, and I was in grade two. I had to walk across the old bridge to get downtown from where I used to live, was a big walk for me back then. I walked all the way to Woolworth that day to get my free goldfish in a bag. I was tired, the day was hot, the walk seemed long, and I kept dropping the bag all the way home. We had a little fish tank, can't remember for sure what happened to that goldfish, I think that was my first goldifsh, it probally died cause I was so young. I am sure lots of those goldfish will die too Keith, but it may get some young kid the chance to have a goldfish and someday they may graduate to a bigger pond.....