Are you a biologist?

No, just the area of ponding that really interests me. ;-)
And the 75+ reference books
I've collected (Barnes and Noble loves me!).

You can buy what are called feeder goldfish that folks buy to feed certain
kinds of pets. Ask at your local petstore when they get their shipments in.
You'll have the best chance of finding healthy fish. Be prepared for some
deaths. There are ponders who stock with feeder goldfish just to attract herons
(I suppose these are birders rather than ponders ;-)

Given the right conditions feeder goldfish could outbreed the raccoons and
herons ability to eat them up. Most people construct ponds to see and enjoy the
fish so they a wide open buffet for predators. Constructing a pond with that in
mind as in overhanging rocks, rock 'caves' marginal plants that trail into the
water (creeping jenny is good for that), underwater plants such as anacharis
(your state will dictate what aquatic plants are avaliable, many states are
banning popular pond plants because people dump them in natural waterways) -
the idea being places to hide and areas for the goldfish fry to grow up (their
parents will eat them too).
It will give the fish a headstart. Predators will hang around a long time
waiting for lunch to appear so it's all a tossup but many times they will get
scared off by homeowner activity.

Or on the other hand the mosquito fish have better protective coloring to
protect them from predation. They breed like crazy but don't put that big a
bioload on the pond as they stay fairly small.

we have a 1-way cat door,
chortle! I have a friend who had a skunk show up in her kitchen at midnight who
came through the cat door.



kathy :-)
algae primer
http://hometown.aol.com/ka30p/myhomepage/garden.html