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goldfish pond

ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
now nursery. Our goldfish have had babies. We found 4 today while cleaning out some lettuce..........pretty neat huh!
 

jakki

New member
ddrane2115 said:
now nursery. Our goldfish have had babies. We found 4 today while cleaning out some lettuce..........pretty neat huh!

:confused2: why would you keep ur goldfish in lettuce? Anyway, congrats to the new parents...:D
 

ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
lettuce...........a floating water plant used in ponds to control algea, and give the fish a place to breed I guess.

hi Jakki, first time posting to you. thanks for the question.

We put 2 of these plants in a month or two ago, now they cover the top
 

ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
I totally agree. Ever try to take a photo of a 1/2 inch long fish in a 2000 gallon pond, after say 7 in the evening.................and thanks for asking for them, I will have some very soon.

We thought maybe in a few years it would mellow out enough for them to breed, we were wrong!
 

jwstewar

Active member
We've got about the same size pond. We had cleaned it earlier in the year and had 10 fish (gold fish and Koi). We've bought a few and lost a few this year. But we now have a whole lot more fish then we have bought. Some of them are starting to get pretty big - maybe a couple of inches. Now we saw foam the last couple of days and smell. I guess rain gets them excited and we had what looks to be a down pour on Sunday (we weren't home). Looks like we'll be having some more little ones swimming around.:yum:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
How deep are these little ponds? Do they freeze in the winter? What happens to the fish?
 

Cowboyjg

Country Club Member
Site Supporter
Danny,

The house we bought in NE TN came with a fish pond. I'm going to guess about 125 gallons +/- . It's about as long and deep as two 55 gallon drums. This past Feb when I went up to do some remodel work on the Kitchen I strolled outside and saw that the pond was covered with leaves from the big maple in the back yard. I really didn't think I was going to find anything in the pond but debris so I left it alone. About a month or so ago I finally got around to having time to start on the pond. I noticed 3 golden orange fish swimming around. The pond had become overgrown with lilly pads. I decided to remove the leaves and about 4/5ths of the pads covering the pond. I was really concerned I was going to kill the fish by stressing them out. I wanted to catch and remove them but they didn't cooporate. Anyway, about a day after, when most of the silt had settled, there were now about a dozen fish of various sizes. There is still considerable work left to do. The previous owners had neglected the pond and I want to fix it so to speak. Any place in particular you go or have gone to for information? Also, any experience of your own you can share would be great.

Thanks, John
 

Junkman

Extra Super Moderator
jwstewar said:
............ Now we saw foam the last couple of days and smell. I guess rain gets them excited and we had what looks to be a down pour on Sunday (we weren't home). Looks like we'll be having some more little ones swimming around.:yum:

Foam and smell is the ammonia level rising and can be fatal to the fish. Stop feeding them and it should clear up. Also, you should have some live plants in the pond to help to digest the proteins of life........ Dr. Fishbones..
 

jwstewar

Active member
Nope, this isn't the ammonia & dirty foam. This is the good spawning foam & smell. We have several lily pads, grasses, water lettuce, and water hyacinths (sp?) in there. We've been monitor all of the levels and every thing is good.

We've had a blast with the pond this year. We've even had some frogs move in and join the party.

Bob to answer your questions. Ours is about 2 feet deep. We've had this particular one for 3 or 4 years now and before that one of the little drop in preformed ones. Got rid of it because it kept popping up out of the ground. So we then dug this one. We've never had it freeze solid (even the little drop in one didn't freeze solid). We have had a thin layer freeze over, but didn't stay that way long. We will stop feeding the fish around Oct. 1 and they will start going semi-dormant for the winter. The fish will then be find until spring (they even survived in the little preformed one). We hope to leave our water fall running longer this year just to keep the water circulating longer. I also want to find a caged water heater (normally used for cattle/horses during the winter) to keep an open spot to allow the gases and such to escape since we have a bunch more fish then we usually do. Believe it or not, we are actually looking for a good buy on a greenhouse so that the wife can over winter a lot of her plants for the pond and some of her plants in the flower garden. I think we are looking for something in the 30x50 or 60 range.

Attached is some pictures of Monica's flower garden and a wide shot of the pond. We are in the process of putting a fence up to keep the critters out.
 

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jwstewar

Active member
Here are some pics of the pond itself and of the fish. Most of the fish are named - though I don't know them. Monica and the kids do.

The fish in the first picture I do know his name. It is the "The Eric" after the guy that gave him to us. He was in an aquarium but he out grew it.

The other 2 pictures are just some of the fish. Along with the turtle spitter we have.
 

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jwstewar

Active member
Last picture is of the water fall. Thanks go out to Inspector507 for a lot of the rocks. A couple of trips to his house to get them all.

Now a little bit about the mechanicals. We have a skimmer (which right now isn't skimming because of the rain having raised the water level too high - we need to lift the skimmer but that is a project for some other time), with a 4500 GPH submersible pump feeding a small water fall and providing water fall to a homemade Skippy filter, also then a bottom drain with a 3500 GPH External pump, this also feeds the Skippy filter. The Skippy is a 100 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank with floor scrubbies and quilt batting. Everything we have read says this is just as good and a whole lot cheaper then commercially available filters. So far we've been happy with it. We also just put a new 57 watt UV sterilizer on it, replacing an Laguna 35 watt, (BTW, don't by Laguna products) this is used to kill algae bacteria in the water. It is so bright it makes the PVC lines going to it glow a bright blueish-green color.:a1:
 

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ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
Cowboyjg said:
Danny,

The house we bought in NE TN came with a fish pond. I'm going to guess about 125 gallons +/- . It's about as long and deep as two 55 gallon drums. This past Feb when I went up to do some remodel work on the Kitchen I strolled outside and saw that the pond was covered with leaves from the big maple in the back yard. I really didn't think I was going to find anything in the pond but debris so I left it alone. About a month or so ago I finally got around to having time to start on the pond. I noticed 3 golden orange fish swimming around. The pond had become overgrown with lilly pads. I decided to remove the leaves and about 4/5ths of the pads covering the pond. I was really concerned I was going to kill the fish by stressing them out. I wanted to catch and remove them but they didn't cooporate. Anyway, about a day after, when most of the silt had settled, there were now about a dozen fish of various sizes. There is still considerable work left to do. The previous owners had neglected the pond and I want to fix it so to speak. Any place in particular you go or have gone to for information? Also, any experience of your own you can share would be great.

Live plants and plenty of filtration. We filter 2000 gallons an hour, over 60% covered in plants and at the center about 3" deep. Ledges are anywhere from 1 foot to 6 inches deep, which gives them plenty of room to get the things that stick there. Some algea growth for them to eat on, we dont feed them daily and they do fine. I also plan on the filter running all winter. We run 2, one 1000 gal an hour (under sized I know) and the falls is actually a bio filter with lava rock plants and a foam filter in a cage.
 

ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
here is one of the new little boogers. We have found 5 so far, couple of orange, one black, one peach and this one.
 

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OhioTC18

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
Jim,
The pond really looks great. I'm glad to hear the rocks went to such a nice looking project. Phyl hasn't seen the pics, but I just saved them and will forward them to her at work.
 

jwstewar

Active member
Told you we would be having little ones. Daughter saw a teeny-tiny one the other day. Not sure if it came from the "smell" the other day, but we have new ones.:hide:

Now we get to spend more money though. We started kicking the GFI outlet the other night. I figured it was just getting hot (it is in a shed and has done that before). I reset it a few times. Still kicking. Figuring we had kicked it enough it had gotten weak. Got a new one and installed it. It immediately started tripping. Gradually got it narrowed down to the submersible pump. Plug it in and it will trip it right away.:burp: :pat: Now we get to buy a new one and of course it probably won't match up to the plumbing fixtures so I'll get to redo that as well.:puke1: :toilet: :(
 
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