Carassius auratus:, Gold Fish The Latin here is quite generic as there are at least 4 types in this pic alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GoldfishThese guys are about two years old. all around 10 to 15 cm long. There are Koi as well but none in this pic. Gold Fish are easy to have in a pond but be careful. The biggest single mistake we all make and I included is to over stock your pond with them. This leads to much grief for the fish and for your self. The more fish in the pond the greater the up keep. My rule of thumb is about one to every 400 liters of water or 100 USA gallon. Fish in nature do not usually live a crowded life. These guys do tolerate a lot where other fish will not. Still to keep them healthy that is a great way to go with little cost.
Big thing for these guys is to give them lots of protection. The reason that these are all two years old is that my neighbour feeds the seagulls and when they spotted the fish they had an extra treat on the side. In a few short minutes they where all gone. Lots of side cover plants floating plants and places for them to hide under water are ideal. Also avoid ledges and slops in your pond as this helps the raccoons. My pond is less than 1 meter deep and it works for me. however it really should be deeper.
Remember kids love ponds and there are kid hazards involved with any water feature
yes but sonny, i thought that seagulls feed on dead stuff.
ReplyDeletei think if i had seen a whole flock of them attacking my pet fish, i would really have a fit and gone out and chased the monsters away!
and what about the neighbours "pet" homeless cats that she feeds. don't they try murdering those lovely fish too?
too bad that the sea gulls couldn't carry THEM away...problem solved!
you say that you can't keep too many sonny...what about if they increase in population?
how do you weed the extra out? and where do you put them?
in my beloved manitoba, it was just the thing to have a couple of gold fish in a little fish bowl.
i had a couple that i named "salt and pepper"
well i made the mistake one time and put them high on my closet shelf when i had to go out babysitting, i didn't want that monster hero of yours, gary to bother them.
when i got home both fish were floating dead on the top. i think dad golden told me the reason was is because it was too hot in that closet.
we had a funeral for them and gary was invited..and so were the collins...
ah!! parting is such s weet sorrow.....love terry
yes this year it was stray cats that got the fish. However only about 6 of the total. so it was not a wipe out. My neighbour are wonder people, However they feed everything. actually not a good thing for their neighbours. The number of cats here are amazing because of it. Those little bowls are great to see a fish in, I had one as well, but horrible for the fish them selves.
ReplyDeleteWatching seagulls clear your pond is a shock and it is fast. By the time I realized what was happening it was game over.
Poor Gary got the blame for something before he even had a chance. yep a State Funeral for Salt and Pepper !!!!!!
I forgot to answer one of your Questions Terry. Okay the answer is that the pond will always keep itself in balance if you do things right. One of the first things that will happen is that most eggs will not hatch. Next when they do the fish will if given a chance eat them, till they get to a certain size. also there are other predictors in the pond, such as frogs and so on. Also there are illnesses and so forth that will take their tow. So big picture the pond will will flux in population, but should never get over populated on its own.
ReplyDeleteIn my case I had maybe 10 babies make it threw to about an inch this year. However a cat took at least 6 fish larger ones, a few more died for unknown reasons. and a couple I have no idea what happened to them. So at the end of the year I was down by one.
thanks for the explanation sonny.
ReplyDeleteyou have learned so much from your pond!
sonny, i had a friend once who bought a small gold fish and he put it into a really big jar of water and that fish was two years old already when i first saw it and it had grown really big! why was that sonny?
love terry
despite common knowledge some gold fish types do continue growing beyond their space allotment.A good example are Koi they never stop growing till the day they die. In this case that person was doing everything right for that fish. Probably at some stage it either did stop growing or slowed right down.
ReplyDelete