Steve wrote
I'm new to this whole pond thang, so my question is. What do I do with all
these fish, once they get larger?

A perennial problem for pond keepers.
Eventually the fish will cause water quality problems and disease and death
will set in. Mother Nature most often handles this problem with predators.
Herons, bullfrogs, snakes, raccoons, kingfishers and other critters take care
of the excess, somebody might show up at your pond and eat them up for you.
Some folks stock their ponds with golden orfe fish who will eat up many of the
fish fry.
(KenCo carries them and will post if you page him). Check with your state
wildlife page to make sure they aren't illegal.
You can also call around to pet shops and see if they are required to take in
unwanted goldfish. They most likely will sell them for feeder fish. You can
always try adopting them out. Or you can put them 'to sleep', I've never kept
the instructions on doing that but someone has, I'm sure.


Does all this hanky panky mean the fish
like their environment?

They like the sunshine and the fresh water and maybe the moon ;-)

My friend gave me about 1,000 small tadpoles also. Will the goldfish eat
them?

Depends. If they are frog tadpoles they will probably nosh on them. If they are
toad tadpoles they won't much like them. Toads taste nasty and so do their
tadpoles. But the good thing about tadpoles is that they will eventually leave
the pond. If they are bullfrog tadpoles they will hang around over winter and
then leave the following year. Some greenfrog taddies will do the same. Much of
it depends on what part of the country you live in. Wisconsin - they'll winter
over.
Speaking of winter.... another problem with lots of critters in the pond is
winter kill. If the pond ices over, which it should in your area of the
country, you'll want to keep a hole open in the ice. Water movement, floating
heater, bubblers - come fall we'll go into all that.


kathy :-)
A HREF="http://www.onceuponapond.com/"Once upon a pond/A