Zero experience, planning a small pond this summer!

[rintintin]

Rintintin, If you are thinking of comets you should look into sarasa comets. They are really pretty and a lot of them have long tails. You can also mix shubunkins in with them too. Shubunkins have calico colors and come in a lot of different color combinations. There are some other interesting goldfish that would mix in with these like wakin and watonai. These are harder to find and generally more expensive. You definitely want to stay away from fancy goldfish like ryukin, oranda ,lionheads, bubble-eyes etc because these don't mix well with the faster fish and have a harder time competing for food. Also they have difficulty surviving really cold temperatures. Good luck with your pond!

Thanks, I didn't realize you couldn't mix them... but I kinda like the ones you're talking about better anyways. Last night we bought 6 rosy red minnows and 6 feeder goldfish. The goldfish are the long fin kind, a few look like comets with the orange and white and some have black on them too. I have them in an indoor tank for now, I figure I save money buying the tiny ones and let them get bigger while we plan and build the pond. I got the 12 fish and food for less then $5! The big gold fish are $3/ea and up!

 

[CometKeith]

Rintintin, that sounds like a great start. My nicest shubunkins were originally purchased for $1.99 at Petsmart. Once your pond gets established you may want to stay away from feeder fish. Feeder fish tend to be more stressed out and diseased than other fish. Thats smart to get your pond going first. You definitely want to cycle it and do water tests before adding a lot of fish. Good luck with the planning and building!

 

[addy1]

My little feeder fish survived the winter and have doubled in size, under 8 inches of ice all winter. The petsmart guy picked out some nice ones for me with colors and fins.

 

[CometKeith]

Addy, One year I bought 3 feeders and I couldn't get over the fact that I paid one penny tax on each fish. There are not too many things nowadays that you can buy and only pay a penny tax! (Sorry koi owners you probably cannot relate to this conversation)

 

[addy1]

Laughing cometkeith................I want fishes I don't have to stress over. And love the price giggle.

I do want to get a few shubies, I have one with a triple tail, the rest are goldies.

 

[rintintin]

Rintintin, that sounds like a great start. My nicest shubunkins were originally purchased for $1.99 at Petsmart. Once your pond gets established you may want to stay away from feeder fish. Feeder fish tend to be more stressed out and diseased than other fish. Thats smart to get your pond going first. You definitely want to cycle it and do water tests before adding a lot of fish. Good luck with the planning and building!

I got these at Petsmart, I went looking around today and I didn't find any store who had nice healthy goldfish. I would have rather bought at a smaller place, but what can you do when none of them seem to take care of them anyways. I did avoid the really nasty petsmart tank with tons of dead ones, but what gets me is that they ALWAYS take water out of a random tank and then put all my fish in bags by species, not by what tank they came OUT of to begin with... so what the heck. So I just feel like I have a few months to know if they are okay or not and then once the pond is up I will know if they are still around then they are okay. I'd buy them online and spend more money if I could pick them out, but I don't know where I could pick the Goldfish out before purchasing except locally.

My little feeder fish survived the winter and have doubled in size, under 8 inches of ice all winter. The petsmart guy picked out some nice ones for me with colors and fins.

That's where I got mine too.

Addy, One year I bought 3 feeders and I couldn't get over the fact that I paid one penny tax on each fish. There are not too many things nowadays that you can buy and only pay a penny tax! (Sorry koi owners you probably cannot relate to this conversation)

Lol... no sense in starting with Koi anyways until you get all the kinks worked out and know your ready for a more expensive fish.

Laughing cometkeith................I want fishes I don't have to stress over. And love the price giggle.

I do want to get a few shubies, I have one with a triple tail, the rest are goldies.

Yes those are pretty.

 

[CometKeith]

rintintin, you are totally right about them taking water from another tank and putting it in the bag. That shocked me too. You can usually tell the stores that have fresh looking tanks. I actually have been pretty successful with the $2-$6 fish from petsmart. I think they get their fish from breeders that know what they are doing and they keep their tanks in nice shape. They usually get shipments once a week and they will be happy to tell you what day they arrive. I have my heart set on getting a watonai from a breeder in Hawaii that sells them for my next fish, but I am probably overstocked now and will have to wait.

 

[riparks]

I put 10 feeder fish in my first rebuild (4-5 years ago) and all of them are still alive. I went to a locally owned store, the owners let me and my daughter sit on the floor and scoop out the exact ones we wanted. I love them, even if they did start their lives as feeder fish.

 

[sissy]

I go to a koi farm in Reidsville North Carolina he has all kinds of fish in one huge greenhouse in tanks

 

[addy1]

We have a nice store here with fish plants etc, But I would rather pay 1-2 dollars for a shubunkin instead of 10-15 dollars they charge for the same size of fish.

 

[sissy]

the koi farm is where I get my plants and fish most of his fish range in price from 1 dollar up to 7 dollars and thats a good price for healthy fish and his plants he charges now are 2.50 a plant .I am going monday to get plants .I have been so busy buying that house that I have not had the time to even tend to my pond .They are doing the well and septic tank inspection next Thursday .So figure Monday will be a good day to get plants and set them aside in storage tank with water to protect them .You never know about the weather