ZmanArt007
Fish Keeper and Filmmaker
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2009
- Messages
- 526
- Reaction score
- 248
- Hardiness Zone
- 5a
- Country
This is the story all about how my pond got flipped turned upside down. Now I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I got some goldfish I really don't care.........(about).
In Eastern Nebraska, born and raised, in the backyard is where I spent most of my days. Digging, landscaping, acting like Bond, building myself a KOI pond, when a couple of fish, who were up to no good, found themselves swimming in my neighborhood. My dad spent 80 little cents and I got mad, cuz these goldfish would make my pond look bad!
That was absolutely awful.
Anyway, when I first built my pond I already was raising koi in a huge indoor tank. I told my dad that we had to wait a week or so after filling the pond before we put the koi in the pond in case something was wrong with the water and what-have-you. Basically, he got impatient and decided when he happened to be in the city to pick up 8 or 9 little 10 cent feeder goldfish. He put them in the pond and I decided they were alright for now. Half of them died in the Great Corn Leaf Epidemic of 2011, but now I still have 4 six inch common goldfish, which spawned last year, bringing the number up to six. I don't have that many fish, and I don't have the heart to kill them when they are this large, so I figure I should still keep the goldfish, but all the fry from last year were either orange or brown. Chances are that since these goldfish came out of the same feeder tank at the store, they very well could all be siblings, so the color palette probably isn't going to change much. Basically, if these things are going to raise the population in my pond, I want them to be less boring. I need to update my goldfish breeding stock.
I have had subunkins once and I really liked their look, more that these anyway, so I figure I will get one or two of them as well. But my real interest when it comes to goldfish is the ornamental varieties, like Lionheads, Moors, and Ranchu goldfish. I live in Nebraska and we have cold winters, so I have some questions about these fish.
1. Are these fish, like, guaranteed to not make it through a winter, or is it just more of a possibility than with the common species? What causes them to not handle the winter exactly?
2. I've heard that they can't compete with food as well because they aren't as fast, but my fish are usually very shy, so if none of them come up to eat while I am standing over them, will the ornamentals be smart enough to come up before the rest? Would this also give my other fish more confidence maybe?
3. Do ornamental and common goldfish interbreed? While I'm at it, do common, comet, and subunkins interbreed? Do various ornamental goldfish interbreed as well? Could a Comet, Moor, and Lionhead have a successful threesome?
Basically, I don't know much about goldfish compared to koi, especially the ornamental kind. All information and feedback is greatly appreciated!
In Eastern Nebraska, born and raised, in the backyard is where I spent most of my days. Digging, landscaping, acting like Bond, building myself a KOI pond, when a couple of fish, who were up to no good, found themselves swimming in my neighborhood. My dad spent 80 little cents and I got mad, cuz these goldfish would make my pond look bad!
That was absolutely awful.
Anyway, when I first built my pond I already was raising koi in a huge indoor tank. I told my dad that we had to wait a week or so after filling the pond before we put the koi in the pond in case something was wrong with the water and what-have-you. Basically, he got impatient and decided when he happened to be in the city to pick up 8 or 9 little 10 cent feeder goldfish. He put them in the pond and I decided they were alright for now. Half of them died in the Great Corn Leaf Epidemic of 2011, but now I still have 4 six inch common goldfish, which spawned last year, bringing the number up to six. I don't have that many fish, and I don't have the heart to kill them when they are this large, so I figure I should still keep the goldfish, but all the fry from last year were either orange or brown. Chances are that since these goldfish came out of the same feeder tank at the store, they very well could all be siblings, so the color palette probably isn't going to change much. Basically, if these things are going to raise the population in my pond, I want them to be less boring. I need to update my goldfish breeding stock.
I have had subunkins once and I really liked their look, more that these anyway, so I figure I will get one or two of them as well. But my real interest when it comes to goldfish is the ornamental varieties, like Lionheads, Moors, and Ranchu goldfish. I live in Nebraska and we have cold winters, so I have some questions about these fish.
1. Are these fish, like, guaranteed to not make it through a winter, or is it just more of a possibility than with the common species? What causes them to not handle the winter exactly?
2. I've heard that they can't compete with food as well because they aren't as fast, but my fish are usually very shy, so if none of them come up to eat while I am standing over them, will the ornamentals be smart enough to come up before the rest? Would this also give my other fish more confidence maybe?
3. Do ornamental and common goldfish interbreed? While I'm at it, do common, comet, and subunkins interbreed? Do various ornamental goldfish interbreed as well? Could a Comet, Moor, and Lionhead have a successful threesome?
Basically, I don't know much about goldfish compared to koi, especially the ornamental kind. All information and feedback is greatly appreciated!
