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#16
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
On Tue, 13 May 2008 17:30:54 EDT, wrote:
I've been offline for the long weekend, but I've been busy.. I'm now the proud owner of: 1x Shubunkin 1x Sarassa 0x grid 1x almost empty pond :-)Frank Cool. You may have to order wakins, but they're well worth it. ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
#17
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
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#18
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
the minute I step close to the pond I have the swarm in the corner begging for food.
Ingrid On Sat, 17 May 2008 09:30:38 EDT, Gill Passman wrote: I know what you mean about the pond still looking empty - lol. I now have 16 small Shubunkins and 6 Golden Orfes and still need to look closely to see any fish....the Orfes have done a good job of getting the Shubunkins out a bit more but I still look at the pond sometimes and it looks totally empty of fish.... |
#19
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
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#20
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
The fish have acclimatized properly and now swim around quite happily
in the open. They are still quite shy but they do take their food once I step away. I don't think they'll be properly settled until there's a lot more of them in there, but it's a good start. I went to another gardening center and they had some gorgeous goldfish.. The all natural habit idea is nice, but not at all what we went for with the garden.. perhaps when we redo it in 20 years time :-) All the best for your project Gill! |
#21
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
I went to another gardening center and they had some gorgeous goldfish.. I suspect they won't really care a lot if there are many or few. In the wild, they don't school very much. Jim |
#23
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
I suspect they won't really care a lot if there are many or few. In
the wild, they don't school very much. Jim Goldfish in the wild? Or wild carp in general? :-) I know my wakins school, the 4 of them are always in pretty close proximity to each other.... now the fantails, they go off and do their own thing. Probably because they know they can't keep up, so why try? ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
#24
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
I was thinking carp in the wild. I have not seen goldfish in the
wild...I am very open to hearing that they are schoolers in the wild. In our pond, they do not seem to school, although sometimes a couple will swim in parallel for a bit. The only time I put one in the 'wild' (1969, before I realized the problems of introducing exotics) it was eaten by ducks before it could get out of the 60 yd shallows. Talk about heartbreak! Raised it 3 years through graduate school. Turned it into a large cemetery pond where it could thrive...but it lasted maybe 1 minute. As soon as I put it in, the ducks began heading for me (to eat duck food?). On the way, they saw the gold flash and began chasing my naive fish. I yelled and threw rocks...to no avail. I can still remember the duck head going down and coming up with an 8" struggling fish! It shook around until it could get it to slide down. Had I gun, then, the duck would certainly have been a target. I felt terrible that my liberation was to sudden death. From the ecological perspective, the pond did not have run off, so the fish would probably not have generated wild goldies in pennsylvania waters...but that option was certainly eliminated quickly. Jim |
#25
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
correct. I designed and built a pond for koi. everything else is secondary to
providing best healthy conditions for them. Ingrid On Sat, 17 May 2008 21:02:06 EDT, Gill Passman wrote: wrote: the minute I step close to the pond I have the swarm in the corner begging for food. Ingrid So, I take it from this that my fish aren't hungry enough yet to appreciate additional feed from a human source.....personally, I would prefer the fish to get the majority of their food naturally but I guess it depends on the fish that you are keeping and the environment that you want to create.....My dream is a natural pond that I just need to supplement sometimes with artificial food but the majority of the food comes from what they find grubbing around..... Gill |
#26
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
On Wed, 21 May 2008 10:09:12 EDT, Phyllis and Jim
wrote: I was thinking carp in the wild. I grew up in Moses Lake, WA, and it is full of carp. Unfortunately the lake is too murky to really watch the carp. There is one area where it is clear, where a natural stream enters and the carp were just swimming around. Similar to what I've seen in a koi pond, the large koi are swimming around looking for treats in the algae, but baby koi will school. The only time I put one in the 'wild' (1969, before I realized the problems of introducing exotics) it was eaten by ducks before it could get out of the 60 yd shallows. Talk about heartbreak! I can imagine. I turned several tree frogs loose in the D.pond, and was surprised when one of the goldfish tried to suck one of them down. About took my breath away. Thankfully the frog was able to use it's other foot to pull loose and get away. My koi, who could easily suck down a frog don't even give chase. Course I did have someone mentioned that pets pick up the nature of the owner, as in being mellow. My fish take one look at a frog or grasshopper in the pond and go, "Looks like too much work, I'll wait till the pellets are tossed in, they don't put up a fight." ;-) Why it surprised me to see a goldfish, not much bigger than the frog try to eat it. ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
#27
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
This is a very late reply but I so want to put my 2 cents in. When I first
put my pond in well over a decade ago (but not 17 years ago since that is as long as I have been here), I put some feeder fish in from the local pet store just to keep the mosquito population down. I had about 50% die off but was not heartbroken about it since the poor things were meant to live only a week or so anyway (being intended as someone's dinner). Once my pond was established I went out and got the koi of my dreams. Beautiful butterfly in yellow, platinum and orange/gold. I bought them as little 2 inchers and they within a couple of years were incredibly long and graceful. I enjoyed them for some time but then tragedy struck. I went on a trip, leaving my son in charge of the pond. He did not notice that the hose had been pulled out of the pond and the water was pumped out to a depth of 6 inches. Needless to say in the heat of August my 3 koi were fried. A remarkable number of my goldfish though survived. I never replaced those koi and probably never will. Every year I have another favorite in the pack of goldfish that I watch and admire. This year I have an intense red and white beauty with a tail twice as long as her body. She is probably 9 inches long. Coming up in the babies is one that is truly bizarre looking - he looks like a black and gold tiger. I know he won't stay that way for long so I enjoy him while he is what he is (kinda like children). I never know who will be around next year but there are always survivors. When the kingfisher or heron stops by for lunch I don't run and get the shotgun but instead enjoy their beauty as well. Every once in awhile I think of the beautiful koi I once had but for me they are just not worth the worry. My goldfish thrive on benign neglect, keep our yard mosquito free and give the pleasure of a beautiful thing to watch. I also enjoy my little mosquito fish in the smaller pond by the back door. Nothing spectacular, they just come in gold or black but they swim in schools as babies, dart about frantically and add life to the pond. Donna P.S. Please post how things go. |
#28
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
I started my pond with feeder fish. Over the years the hardy have survived
and reproduced giving every kind of goldfish imaginable. The colors range from gold - orange - Chinese red - black - white and mixtures of those colors. I just assumed those feeder fish were common comet. Apparently not. Donna "~ jan" wrote in message ... On Wed, 7 May 2008 08:30:56 EDT, wrote: First question: Substrate or no Substrate? No substrate. It will soon be covered in algae and crud. Goldfish, look at wakins, shubunkins & sarassas, rather than just the common comet. ~ jan ------------ Zone 7a, SE Washington State Ponds: www.jjspond.us |
#29
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 17:29:46 EDT, "D Kat"
wrote: I started my pond with feeder fish. Over the years the hardy have survived and reproduced giving every kind of goldfish imaginable. The colors range from gold - orange - Chinese red - black - white and mixtures of those colors. I just assumed those feeder fish were common comet. Apparently not. I had a similar experience with shubunkin. Apparently they retain the genes of all their ancestors and uncontrolled breeding allows many colors to appear. I once read that it is a practice of some breeders to milk the fish of their eggs and sperm and mix manually, so there is no chance of multiple parents in a batch of fry. I don't have room for such controlled conditions, even if I knew what I was doing, so I've made the adjustment to enjoy whatever appears in my pond. On that note I have a most interesting "trash" fish that has reverted to solid color like the original wild carp, except she (I think), has blue in the color as well as the dark back, viewed from above. Since last July when I moved her to the hot tub pond, it has been a very timid fish until the past few days and she has begun to dart from just below the lily pads and grab a bit of food while I stand watching instead of waiting until I leave. I hope you enjoy your many colors too. -- Hal Middle Georgia, Zone 8 http://tinyurl.com/2fxzcb |
#30
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Newbie: Goldfish pond requirements
I do enjoy it all. Thank you. One of my biggest surprises were some black
gold fish that turned orange when they were quite old - they were probably 6 inches (body not tail) by the time they changed. There is one now that I would like to catch and separate into the smaller pond just so I could watch the color change more carefully. He is more blue than black and has hints of vertical gold stripes. The oddest color I have ever seen. Donna "Hal" wrote in message news On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 17:29:46 EDT, "D Kat" wrote: I started my pond with feeder fish. Over the years the hardy have survived and reproduced giving every kind of goldfish imaginable. The colors range from gold - orange - Chinese red - black - white and mixtures of those colors. I just assumed those feeder fish were common comet. Apparently not. I had a similar experience with shubunkin. Apparently they retain the genes of all their ancestors and uncontrolled breeding allows many colors to appear. I once read that it is a practice of some breeders to milk the fish of their eggs and sperm and mix manually, so there is no chance of multiple parents in a batch of fry. I don't have room for such controlled conditions, even if I knew what I was doing, so I've made the adjustment to enjoy whatever appears in my pond. On that note I have a most interesting "trash" fish that has reverted to solid color like the original wild carp, except she (I think), has blue in the color as well as the dark back, viewed from above. Since last July when I moved her to the hot tub pond, it has been a very timid fish until the past few days and she has begun to dart from just below the lily pads and grab a bit of food while I stand watching instead of waiting until I leave. I hope you enjoy your many colors too. -- Hal Middle Georgia, Zone 8 http://tinyurl.com/2fxzcb |
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