Hi Gail,

Thank you for all the information - I live near Boston, so I can't take you
up on your waterfall offer :-( but I will take a look around my local Home
Depot to see if I can take advantage of some year end sales on pond stuff
:-)

I have no idea what kind of gold fish they are - I haven't been able to get
a good look at them, fast little buggers they are. I would say they aren't
the fancy schmancy type you see in the pet stores w/the flowing fins - they
are sort of torpedo shaped. As far as I can tell one is almost all gold,
one is mostly black and the other two are a combination of black and gold,
one having more of one than the other.

The 55 gallon right now only has one catfish in it - the rest died off
slowly and I've not added more stock due to a planned move of the tank -
figured less fish = easier to move, less fish to stress, etc.

The only filtration I have now is a Tetra pond fountain that sits on bottom
of the pond w/the tube extending above the surface -- I have the 'shower
mode' on right now - so it has filter media that I take out a couple times a
week and hose down (gets clogged w/goop) -- it gets plenty of aeration and I
add water to it daily due to evaporation and I had a small leak where the
liner fell, but I fixed that.

Have a great weekend,
LeeAnne


"Gail Futoran" wrote in message
news:vk46b.127074$

I picked one up at Home Depot a few years ago. If you live
anywhere near San Antonio TX you can have it! I was using
it as a bird bath but not now. Anyway, I don't remember
what it cost but don't think it was that expensive (or I
wouldn't have bought it).

2. Goldfish are pretty hardy, right?

The common goldfish & shubunkins, sure. Probably the main
thing is not to overstock.

The 55 gallon they will go into for
the winter is kept at a constant 80-ish degrees (to keep
Ick away) Ph is
usually a little high, very high phosphates and very hard
water.

I have hard, high pH tap water and my common goldfish &
shubunkins do fine in their pond. I also add some rainwater
but I don't know how much that changes water chemistry.
Temps get into the low 90s (w/ shade) during the summer, and
to the 50s or below during what passes for winter in
Southcentral TX. As far as I know I haven't had any cases
of ick. But maybe goldfish fare differently in ponds than
in aquariums. I only have pond goldfish.

It's the
same town water in the tank that's in the pond, but the
pond, of course,
gets rain water and has live plants in it that the 55
won't have. I usually
keep the light off to prevent algae growth (have very high
phosphates and
the algae grows like nuts). I just want to make sure they
will handle the
transition OK.

I'd check water chemistry carefully, and if that's similar
in both settings, plus water temp is the same, I don't see a
problem in moving your fish indoors. One problem I can
foresee is the much larger bioload in your 55 gallon, so you
might have to do more frequent partial water changes for
awhile.

I'm still not looking for a 'pond-pond' that will attract
all manner of
great blue herons and raccoons. It'll still be a
bird-splashing pool, I'm
going to just dig it out a little deeper and make it a bit
better for the
fishies I have. I also don't want to really have to deal
w/the filtration
and yadda yadda yadda that goes w/a larger pond (mucking
about in it, etc.)

I'm not sure if you can have a goldfish pond without some
kind of filtration (or a heckuva lot of plants) and/or
regular partial water changes. Two of my small ponds have
no filtration, but they only have minnows, tadpoles and
occasionally baby goldfish. The goldfish pond has a
filter/fountain.

Yikes, here I go....
LeeAnne

Sad, isn't it? What is it they say about boats, a hole in
the water into which you throw your money? Ponds are a hole
in the ground into which you throw your money. But IMO
it's well worth it!

Gail