A tale of two fishies

[michey1st]

First, a little backstory. Last July, I bought 2 calico shubunkins, taking our total fish count from 8 to 10. We placed them in the middle pond to acclimate, as it's a little bit cramped in the lower pond (preform is 120 gallons, middle pond is around 450). The next day, one of the new shubbies was in the lower pond (presumably gone over the waterfall), and the other was GONE. We searched as thoroughly as possible amidst the water lilies and plant pots for him/her and not a trace. At the time we weren't netting/protecting the middle pond, so we chalked it up to a predator. A few months later, we caught a heron trying to fish and rationalized the disappearance to him.

Fast forward 10 months to yesterday, when what do we see from our deck vantage point, but a shubie in the middle pond. WHAT?!?!?!?!? At first, I thought the other shubie had somehow hopped the waterfall, but then we spied the other shubie in the lower pond. Note that we are out there A TON, always looking for frogs or toads or what have you, and this was the FIRST TIME he made an appearance in almost a year. NO CLUE where he was hiding or what he was doing that whole time.

The poor fishie had been in that pond by himself with no winter special treatment. That pond was completely iced over for probably a month (we didn't keep a hole open since we didn't think there were any fish in it). Somehow he not only survived but actually THRIVED as he is HUUUUUUGE (compared to the other fish).

He was very VERY skittish, so we "upgraded" a few goldies to the middle pond and he immediately started schooling with them and visibly calmed down. I try not to name fish (as they are usually the ones that disappear, lol), but I think we may have a Chuck Norris in our midst.....

 

[Dave 54]

First, a little backstory. Last July, I bought 2 calico shubunkins, taking our total fish count from 8 to 10. We placed them in the middle pond to acclimate, as it's a little bit cramped in the lower pond (preform is 120 gallons, middle pond is around 450). The next day, one of the new shubbies was in the lower pond (presumably gone over the waterfall), and the other was GONE. We searched as thoroughly as possible amidst the water lilies and plant pots for him/her and not a trace. At the time we weren't netting/protecting the middle pond, so we chalked it up to a predator. A few months later, we caught a heron trying to fish and rationalized the disappearance to him.

Fast forward 10 months to yesterday, when what do we see from our deck vantage point, but a shubie in the middle pond. WHAT?!?!?!?!? At first, I thought the other shubie had somehow hopped the waterfall, but then we spied the other shubie in the lower pond. Note that we are out there A TON, always looking for frogs or toads or what have you, and this was the FIRST TIME he made an appearance in almost a year. NO CLUE where he was hiding or what he was doing that whole time.

The poor fishie had been in that pond by himself with no winter special treatment. That pond was completely iced over for probably a month (we didn't keep a hole open since we didn't think there were any fish in it). Somehow he not only survived but actually THRIVED as he is HUUUUUUGE (compared to the other fish).

He was very VERY skittish, so we "upgraded" a few goldies to the middle pond and he immediately started schooling with them and visibly calmed down. I try not to name fish (as they are usually the ones that disappear, lol), but I think we may have a Chuck Norris in our midst.....

Sounds like he had a very lucky escape .
Ive a feeling something spoked him and he found a really safe hiding hole and though you know what I love it here its safe, food must have dropped down to him for him to thrive like that .
Adding a few Goldfish was probably a good idea , we are koi people and koi do not do well on their own we even add a companion fish during QT and treatment .
@bettasngoldfish or @CometKeith may be able to help you here or even @Mmathis they all keep differing varieties of Goldfish.
I dont know about Chuck Norris more the Terminator if its female hows about Ripley from Aliens she survived freezing and everything else thrown at her .

Dave

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Michey.That's great your shuby showed up. It just goes to show you that goldfish can do very well and even thrive with minimal care. When my pond freezes there is typically a bubble of dense water around 38 degrees at the bottom they sit in over the winter. With just one fish in your middle pond there was probably no issue of low dissolved oxygen or bad gasses. I'm sure there was plenty of algae to eat so the fish was not starving without man made food. This is the classic case of less is more when caring for fish.