Hi Nicole
I used a barrel with the liner you have for 3 small goldfish for two
years. A barrel really is only the right size for one small fish, so
to compensate you will need to run a small pump(I used a 75GPH pump).
Also, as the fish grow(they will grow, mine got to 8" in the barrel)
also add an airstone for oxygen or they will die, since the surface
area is what gives them oxygen and a barrel has very little water
surface area. You can get an $8 air pump at home depot or a local
pet store, that's what I used. Run both of these 24/7. You should
also keep a close eye on the PH, Ammonia & Nitrite since this is a
small volumn of water for the number of fish you have. I used to
check it twice a week. This is only a 5 minute job, no big deal but
important for the health of your fish. If you find any of the numbers
move even slightly out of the safe range, do a 25% water change right
away to keep your fish safe. That means remove 25% of the water from
the barrel and replace it with fresh water. Remember to use declor if
you have clorinated water. Then let it sit for a few hours and
recheck your numbers on whatever test was off. Do not over feed your
fish as that will stress them in such a small space by causing water
chemestry problems. I don't mean for any of this to sound
overwheleming, it's not, but it will keep your fish safe. I went from
one barrel with the three goldfish to 3 barrels (the other two just
had plants) and now I have a 18'X 8' pond where my 3 original goldfish
live and one of their babies plus 5 other goldfish amoung many
waterlilies and lots of other plants. In the barrel the original 3
fish always liked the water coming in from the splash of the pump, now
they have a 22' waterfall dropping into the pond which is where they
love to play.

BTW-My husband named the original 3 red goldfish "Flopsy" "Mopsy"
"Cottontail" (cottontail is a fancytail). Allright the other fish were
named by my husband also; there are 3 red and white comets named "Moe"
"Larry" & "Curly". And to finish it off he named the 3 babies "Hewy"
"Louie" & "Dewey" I know you're not supposed to name your fish, but
the hubby is not a pond person, so...

Enjoy your barrel garden and your fish.

Sue W

(WeileMom) wrote in message ...
Thanks for all of the replies!!
I checked the folds, thinking that this was the problem, but they were fine, so
we ended up draining the barrel and starting over. UGH!!
It turned out that when we added pea gravel we must have put holes in the
liner. So to fix the problem we did a couple of things, the most important
was going back to Home Depot and buying a pre-form plastic liner! I still feel
like we cheated. The new liner is working great. Yes, it takes up room from
the barrel but it ended up giving it a more polished look. The liner doesn't
have a "lip" to fit over the edge of the barrel like the one's at Lowe's had so
it isn't as obvious.
The weirdest part is that it gives the optical illusion of a very shallow pond,
thus making the fish MUCH easier to see.
---Nicole