DIY Quarantine and order of adding fish

[Criscar]

I have a newly set up small pond/water garden that will be ready for fish in a few weeks. I'm planning to transfer all of my current aquarium inhabitants to the pond: 3 mildly stunted long bodied goldfish (they are only two years old so I think they will recover from the mild stunting and grow quite a bit more), some zebra danios, some guppies and a couple bamboo shrimp. Once everyone is in the pond, the aquarium will be set aside as a hospital/QT tank as needed.

I also want to add another young shubunkin slightly smaller than the current goldfish (one common, one comet and one shubunkin) to the new pond. Some time ago when I went from 2 fish to 3 in the aquarium the first two fish that had been raised together were not nice to the third and it took a lot of managing and a couple months before everyone got along, and they all happily school together now. To avoid having more bullying issues, I was thinking of adding the new shubunkin to the new pond a few days to a week ahead of the three goldfish I currently have, so my three fish don't feel like it's their territory and the new fish is an intruder, and hopefully the lots of space plus everyone being new will limit any aggression issues.

Problem is, I don't have a separate tank large enough to act as a quarantine tank for the new fish while the old fish are still in the aquarium waiting for their turn to go live in the pond. I do have a 20 gallon tub and a small fountain with filter I was thinking I could use to quarantine that one new fish (the shubunkins I can get locally are typically only 3-4" long at most) but the water temperature seems to fluctuate too much in the tub for it to be safe outdoors, and I have a dog who is canny enough to remove a net from something at a comfortable height for her like the tub is and will use it as a drinking fountain and try to catch the fish if I bring it inside. The last thing I want to do is buy another aquarium tank just for a few weeks for the one fish, but I'm also hesitant to just throw the new fish into the pond without quarantining and then have to treat the whole pond.

Anyone have any ideas for untangling what seems like a minor gordian knot of issues? I'm assuming I'm overthinking this and there is some simple solution I've overlooked.

 

[mrsclem]

I've read your other posts- is this small pond? water garden a stock tank or have you dug an actual pond?

 

[brokensword]

I have a newly set up small pond/water garden that will be ready for fish in a few weeks. I'm planning to transfer all of my current aquarium inhabitants to the pond: 3 mildly stunted long bodied goldfish (they are only two years old so I think they will recover from the mild stunting and grow quite a bit more), some zebra danios, some guppies and a couple bamboo shrimp. Once everyone is in the pond, the aquarium will be set aside as a hospital/QT tank as needed.

I also want to add another young shubunkin slightly smaller than the current goldfish (one common, one comet and one shubunkin) to the new pond. Some time ago when I went from 2 fish to 3 in the aquarium the first two fish that had been raised together were not nice to the third and it took a lot of managing and a couple months before everyone got along, and they all happily school together now. To avoid having more bullying issues, I was thinking of adding the new shubunkin to the new pond a few days to a week ahead of the three goldfish I currently have, so my three fish don't feel like it's their territory and the new fish is an intruder, and hopefully the lots of space plus everyone being new will limit any aggression issues.

Problem is, I don't have a separate tank large enough to act as a quarantine tank for the new fish while the old fish are still in the aquarium waiting for their turn to go live in the pond. I do have a 20 gallon tub and a small fountain with filter I was thinking I could use to quarantine that one new fish (the shubunkins I can get locally are typically only 3-4" long at most) but the water temperature seems to fluctuate too much in the tub for it to be safe outdoors, and I have a dog who is canny enough to remove a net from something at a comfortable height for her like the tub is and will use it as a drinking fountain and try to catch the fish if I bring it inside. The last thing I want to do is buy another aquarium tank just for a few weeks for the one fish, but I'm also hesitant to just throw the new fish into the pond without quarantining and then have to treat the whole pond.

Anyone have any ideas for untangling what seems like a minor gordian knot of issues? I'm assuming I'm overthinking this and there is some simple solution I've overlooked.

I've found through the years that when I introduced new fish to an existing community, it really helps to move the furniture around. Territories are destroyed and there's an equal amount of confusion such that the newcomer doesn't get more attention than necessary. So, I'd say intro them all at once. I'd just use the tub for the newbies and bring it inside, somewhere. As long as the temps of inside to outside is within 5-10 degrees, you should be okay to transfer. Less differential is better and of course, decent acclimation time to allow both water and fish to adapt.

 

[Criscar]

I've read your other posts- is this small pond? water garden a stock tank or have you dug an actual pond?

300 gallon stock tank with two small header pools/bog filters. Marginal plants and bog filters will be about 20-25% of surface area of main pool, if you are trying to calculate how many fish I can fit in the pond. I'm not trying to put 20 goldfish in there, just 4 in a heavily planted and filtered system.

 

[Criscar]

I've found through the years that when I introduced new fish to an existing community, it really helps to move the furniture around. Territories are destroyed and there's an equal amount of confusion such that the newcomer doesn't get more attention than necessary. So, I'd say intro them all at once. I'd just use the tub for the newbies and bring it inside, somewhere. As long as the temps of inside to outside is within 5-10 degrees, you should be okay to transfer. Less differential is better and of course, decent acclimation time to allow both water and fish to adapt.

so, I'm going to use my aquarium water, gravel, etc. to help cycle the new pond but it's a much smaller water volume, do you think I could have cycling issues with adding 4 goldfish all at once to a relatively small system (about 330 gallons)? I was going to transfer my few small fish first, but their bioload is miminal compared to the goldies.

 

[brokensword]

it isn't really the water you want as much as the surfaces with established bacteria on them. You may have issues but if you don't feed much initially and have surfaces for the bacteria to colonize and replicate, you should be okay. The filter material from your aquarium will help jumpstart the system. Plants will help keep the algae from becomming obnoxious. Goldfish are tough and can easily survive not eating for a bit, if necessary.