Gail Futoran wrote:

"PamS" wrote in message
...

OK, so I built a pond last May and now a year later it is
flourishing.
I put in 3 goldfish thinking they would help keep the algae down
until the pond established.

Not really :-)

So in the meantime 2 of the goldfish have gone AWOL(presumed eaten
;o)
and we've had hundreds of stickleback fry.

Finally though today he saw it. Not only that but also a gold and
black
goldfish. So now we have 3 goldfish, 1 from last year and 2 others
from nowhere.

Your original goldfish might have produced dark bronze babies - the
original color of goldfish. They look black except under the right
lighting conditions. I have a bunch of them, mostly bothering my big
goldie, and I get more "black" goldfish as well as gold goldfish. The
genetics escape me...

Also, how young were the original goldfish? If they were still fry, it's
even possible these _are_ your originals. Much more likely though, that
they're newer. The one that is black & gold will probably become all gold
shortly (the gold color comes in in patches as they grow). The other one
is maybe a genuine throwback.
--
derek