You are hilarious! On the point of caging, though... I'll probably take flack for this, but I firmly believe that caged animals with enough leg room and proper care are actually pretty happy. If you observe an animal in the wild that has found a stable, dependable food source, you're not going to see that animal traveling very far away from it. The ones that do are hunters. It's all about the food. So, what does freedom mean, exactly? Ponders usually take great care of their fishies, and try their best to grow happy little communitites. Now, predators would be a problem that I would worry about too. Maybe if you just got some small mosquito fish. Have you every seen a Rainbow Dance? I put some in my pond to add variety. Those guys move extremely fast, and they are pretty small. Predators would have a hard time. They are colorful too with bright reds and blues. I know you can get some online at livekoiforsale. Just a thought... Oh, and if you don't feed them, they will simply go after your algae and mosquito larvae.
