Hi all,
Relatively new to ponding, but I am an avid outdoors person/gardener and I have read an enormous amount about ponding. I love to bird watch and was thrilled to have a pair of nesting redtails in the mountain behind my yard. But alas, now I believe they have some hungry young mouths to feed and may ahve decided that my fish are just what the babies need. We purchased some comets and a few shubunkins about a month ago and someone was giving away mature 6-10" long goldfish, and we took 8. Our water was still fairly green and it was most difficult to find the fish. We weren't feeding them as the temps were still pretty cool for NJ in June and on the few rare occasions the sun peeked out, they seemed happy muching on the vegetation.
I know there are several hiding places and the smaller fish can be mia for a day or two. Got our new filter and the water is clear and we can see everyone... well almost everyone. We had 19 fish two weeks ago and my best count yesterday was 12, but now this morning I cannot find the big white goldfish. Last night it looked like it may have been laying eggs in the submerged plants.
I noticed one comet is missing the top half of his tail, my orange/white big goldfis looks like it has a slight injury on its side and has been hugging the bubbles and the waterfall when it is running and one other comet has white marks running up its side, almost like a claw mark. I know late last year before we did anything to the pond as we had just moved into the house one day a GBH swooped past my head and landed on the edge, never saw him again after that.
I am hoping someone has some ideas on what it is and what I can do to save the rest. I have about a trillion babies now swimming around anywhere from an eigth of an inch up to an inch, so I will not go out and replace any fish, but want to keep everybody safe.
Here are some pics I took last night with my camera phone, one day I'll take out the good camera and give you some better shots:
Relatively new to ponding, but I am an avid outdoors person/gardener and I have read an enormous amount about ponding. I love to bird watch and was thrilled to have a pair of nesting redtails in the mountain behind my yard. But alas, now I believe they have some hungry young mouths to feed and may ahve decided that my fish are just what the babies need. We purchased some comets and a few shubunkins about a month ago and someone was giving away mature 6-10" long goldfish, and we took 8. Our water was still fairly green and it was most difficult to find the fish. We weren't feeding them as the temps were still pretty cool for NJ in June and on the few rare occasions the sun peeked out, they seemed happy muching on the vegetation.
I know there are several hiding places and the smaller fish can be mia for a day or two. Got our new filter and the water is clear and we can see everyone... well almost everyone. We had 19 fish two weeks ago and my best count yesterday was 12, but now this morning I cannot find the big white goldfish. Last night it looked like it may have been laying eggs in the submerged plants.
I noticed one comet is missing the top half of his tail, my orange/white big goldfis looks like it has a slight injury on its side and has been hugging the bubbles and the waterfall when it is running and one other comet has white marks running up its side, almost like a claw mark. I know late last year before we did anything to the pond as we had just moved into the house one day a GBH swooped past my head and landed on the edge, never saw him again after that.
I am hoping someone has some ideas on what it is and what I can do to save the rest. I have about a trillion babies now swimming around anywhere from an eigth of an inch up to an inch, so I will not go out and replace any fish, but want to keep everybody safe.
Here are some pics I took last night with my camera phone, one day I'll take out the good camera and give you some better shots:
and would hate to harm a creature who is just doing what he is meant to do.
