feeding fish

[Jhn]

I don't mind harsh words, when defending the well being of innocent wildlife, but come on, how big do you really need to go? I reckon it's all down to the size of your land layout. But carry on with your good advice with those other newbys whom wanna have all kinds of fish in their ponds. Me, I'm just happy to stick with my tiddlers from the park pond, and look after their environment as best I can, I'm on the sea coast so freezing winters shouldn't be too much of a problem for these, wild carp, rudd, roach, or whatever they are

To me anything under a 1000 gallons is more like an outdoor aquarium. Which is fine but know what fish you want to keep in there and what it takes to keep them healthy. 1000 gallons is a small pond considering what most keep in there ie most goldfish that get 12-18”, koi that get over 3’, and it’s not like they keep just a small amount appropriate for that size pond and don’t take into account when they start reproducing and your biological filter is now overwhelmed and fish are dying

 

[Gazzas pool]

To me anything under a 1000 gallons is more like an outdoor aquarium. Which is fine but know what fish you want to keep in there and what it takes to keep them healthy. 1000 gallons is a small pond considering what most keep in there ie most goldfish that get 12-18”, koi that get over 3’, and it’s not like they keep just a small amount appropriate for that size pond and don’t take into account when they start reproducing and your biological filter is now overwhelmed and fish are dying

To be honest I only have room for what you'd call an outdoor aquarium, and having added some clear pond solution it really is like looking over an aquarium only better as the shallower edges boarders with the smaller smooth stones over which leads to deeper, cooler waters, which is still clear (at the moment) from 5days ago, looks fine in my modest rented back garden. The wild flowers provide, private bathing for some local feathered varieties

 

[SarahT]

OK, here I go, I'll stick my neck out. I had a 700-800 gallon pond for 15+ years, one koi (20"; he was such a cute baby) and 6-12 (former 1" feeder) goldfish 6 to 9" and generally, the pond was pretty clear, goldfish were healthy and happy (I guess - I mean, how can you really tell the level of fish happiness?) and I was happy because I have always loved goldfish. My fish have never grown more than that 9" and 1 is original to the smaller pond from 22 years ago (yes, 2 died, at ages 8 and 14). So, perhaps I am stunting their growth, but I've also never sent one down the plumbing (dead get a proper burial and living get re-homed) or released into a natural water source. So I think people are Ok with some goldies in a smaller pond.
Go Goldfish!

 

[CometKeith]

So I’ll weigh in too. I have had goldfish for over 12 years. I still have quite a few that are over 10 years old. I remember with my first pond I decided 6 or 7 was a nice number of fish and not to buy any more. Well that number swelled to around 40 with all their babies! I’m guessing I have around 50 goldfish and 9 Koi in my current pond which is over 3000 gallons. The largest goldfish are around 7-8 inches but I have never been accused of over feeding! I try to stick to the rule of not giving them more food at a time they can eat in a couple minutes. Even though I decided to add Koi a few years ago I would definitely recommend to anyone newer to the pond world that they stick with goldfish until they are very confident of their ability to keep larger fish in their pond. I waited almost 10 years before I tried Koi and by that time I had a much larger pond and I kinda knew what I was doing! Here is the ”happy” group of Koi and goldfish at feeding time.

 

[Gazzas pool]

That does look somewhat crowded, but maybe I'm gealous of the array of colour you have going on there and the plants and water flow looks well beneficial to their healthy look, may I ask the average depth of the pond, 3ft +, I trust

 

[brokensword]

That does look somewhat crowded, but maybe I'm gealous of the array of colour you have going on there and the plants and water flow looks well beneficial to their healthy look, may I ask the average depth of the pond, 3ft +, I trust

Crowded? You think that's crowded?? I'll show you 'crowded'! (hold my beer!)

 

[CometKeith]

That does look somewhat crowded, but maybe I'm gealous of the array of colour you have going on there and the plants and water flow looks well beneficial to their healthy look, may I ask the average depth of the pond, 3ft +, I trust

Thanks. I think it’s a little crowded too, but really it only gets that way when I toss the food in and it becomes a kaleidoscope of colors! It’s 42 inches deep. It’s fine in the Chicago winters with a small pump/air stone to keep the water moving and a pond breather. The wild growth of plants just past the lilies is my bog which is 7’x3’ and 42 inches deep and has over a ton of rock in it! 2400 lbs to be exact because I still remember carrying all the sacks of rock last year when I built it! Also I have a beed filter running all the time too. It and the external pump for it are hidden in the garage. The fish are all healthy and active. Maybe at some point I’ll start giving some of the goldfish away because I have so many now, but need to find a good home. I’m not interested in giving away live food to someone‘s lizard or having my goldfish die by goldfish bowl to someone who isn‘t experienced. This is a bigger picture including the bog on the left and how the fish normally are when they aren't all trying to eat the same bits of food!

 

[Gazzas pool]

Mme,, very nice, bet your well proud, and enjoy your rewards with healthy fish of such colour
My little pond/aquarium is crying out for a bit of fish colour and funnily enough whilst having a bbq at me brother in laws his neighbour boasted of his goldies breading this year so he must be doing something right he tells me. Cover your ears, , he's not even got a pump going or had a bog in place, tho he did say there is lots of oxygenating plants in there. I told him I could be doing him a favour by having a couple out of there but I suppose two wont make much if any difference to the levels of oxygen in there
I must take a look next time I visit, and a net. I think my current fish have decided their bottom feeders since I spooked them by netting out all of the sticklebacks including a few of those 10 tiddlers of what variety, I'm still not sure, hopefully a couple of goldies will encourage them to surface feed

 

[Criscar]

After seeing the recent news article about the giant goldfish found in a Minnesota lake, I decided to do a little research about how big goldfish can get, especially shubunkins. According to the web site Aquarium Source:

"Like other goldfish species, Shubunkins will grow based on their environment. In a standard aquarium, you can expect the average Shubunkin Goldfish size to reach five or six inches when fully grown. However, when they have access to a spacious pond, they can grow to lengths of 12 to 14 inches. Some Shubunkin Goldfish have even surpassed that, measuring upwards of 18 inches long!"

I'm guessing the two shubunkins I have in my ~700 gal outdoor pond are at least 6 inches in length now. That's after purchasing them last September when they were probably around 4 inches. I do feed them (and the 8 other assorted goldfish in the pond) a couple of times a day.

What on earth re:the size of shubunkins? That’s not correct at all. Mine even got larger than that in a tiny and overstocked aquarium while waiting for their pond, never mind having them actually in a pond. The expected size in a pond for a shubunkin is 12-18 inches.

 

[Criscar]

After seeing the recent news article about the giant goldfish found in a Minnesota lake, I decided to do a little research about how big goldfish can get, especially shubunkins. According to the web site Aquarium Source:

"Like other goldfish species, Shubunkins will grow based on their environment. In a standard aquarium, you can expect the average Shubunkin Goldfish size to reach five or six inches when fully grown. However, when they have access to a spacious pond, they can grow to lengths of 12 to 14 inches. Some Shubunkin Goldfish have even surpassed that, measuring upwards of 18 inches long!"

I'm guessing the two shubunkins I have in my ~700 gal outdoor pond are at least 6 inches in length now. That's after purchasing them last September when they were probably around 4 inches. I do feed them (and the 8 other assorted goldfish in the pond) a couple of times a day.

Perhaps you missed the important author’s note on aquarium source, which still seems bizarre advice because it’s not like goldfish will stop growing in an aquarium…:

 

[FishRFriends1]

I think you need to try marine foods like seaweed and liquids to feed inverts

 

[Jhn]

I think you need to try marine foods like seaweed and liquids to feed inverts

Why? Just adding extra nutrients to the pond for no reason. These fish aren’t in an aquarium, they are in a pond with plenty of things to nibble on.