Hello!

[gloria]

Hi,
This is my second year with my 500 gallon pond. I live in CT and started with 3 koi and 2 goldfish. The koi were about ten months old last year and the goldfish came from a neighbors pond. I had about 50 goldfish babies survive the winter and I now need to move a few out. How do you suggest I do this without stressing the other fish? The babies are from 3-6 inches in size and are really fast swimmers. Thanks for any help!

 

[Dave 54]

You need to find a home for all your babies because at 500 gallons your pond is totally over crowded Most Aquatic outlets here in the UK will take them if your giving them away but they wont pay for them.
As to if its the same in CT I dont know you would have to find out .
Putting them in the paper means you may be selling them to a person who hasn't a clue what to do,,
Val always Vets people who buy our koi if they dont come up to our standards or cant answer a few koi questions then they dont get sold to them.
Seeing as koi live 80 years and goldfish 40 years you dont want to end their lives a week or two down the line because the person wasnt capable of fish keeping do you ?

rgrds

Dave

 

[gloria]

Thanks! My neighbor has a much bigger pond and will take them back. We were told only about two babies would survive a New England winter but that was not our case. My issue is how do I get them out? I don't want to stress the other fish and we can't catch them with a net.

 

[CometKeith]

Some people use a net that is made so the bottom of it drops down to the bottom of you pond and you hold the upper part above the water and you pull it to one side to catch the fish more easily. It's called a seine net.

 

[sissy]

welcome and that will not stress them out they will be happier

 

[gloria]

Thanks! We made a seine net and got out 10 babies and the female goldfish. The rest were too small and fast to catch. Hopefully that will stop the baby cycle for this year. We will try again when they are a little bigger. Our neighbors took back the fish but made us take 5 frogs in return. :cheerful:

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Gloria, That's great you were able to get some of the goldfish out. Thinking about your goldfish population explosion... that sounds like a lot of babies from just two goldfish. Did you by any chance get some plants at the same time from your neighbor that might have had eggs on them?

 

[Mmathis]

Maybe some of the babies were koi. Won't the neighbor be surprised

 

[gloria]

Actually we did get a lot of water hyacinth from the neighbors. So the eggs could have been attached. My koi were only 10 months old last year so the eggs did not come form them. The babies are not koi but I think one of them could be a hybrid. It's much bigger and is black and white. Does anyone have any experience with goldfish/koi hybrids? The neighbors have many large koi and goldfish in their pond. The babies in my pond are at two different stages of size and color so I think it was at least two different spawnings.

 

[sissy]

I have mixtures but no expert on any fish by any means .I just see them as my fishy friends :cheerful:

 

[CometKeith]

hi Gloria, That makes sense that the eggs were on the water hyacinths. In your neighbors pond there are so many fish to find and eat the eggs they probably have fewer babies. In your pond there are not as many hunters and that is why probably so many survived. I don't know a lot about hybrids other then they are sterile, but typically baby fish can change colors a lot and the black and white one can turn orange or some other color. I have a bunch of black colored goldfish and some of them are just starting to turn orange a year later. Also wondering what you are going to do with your koi when they get bigger? In my opinion any pond under 1000 gallons is too small to keep koi.

 

[gloria]

Thanks! The one black and white fish is striped. It's not the brown/black color that the babies stared out at. It's also much bigger than the rest. I will try to take a pic. I bought the pond as a kit from Beckett several year ago. It was billed as a medium fish pond kit. It has a 1150GPH pump and I have three biological filters and a water fall. It's probably closer to 600 gallons when at full capacity. When will koi be too big for that size? My neighbors have a much bigger pond so the can always go there. So far all nutrients are within range. The plants really help with the water quality.

 

[gloria]

Well, I just got the instructions for the pond kit out and it states the following:

Beckett Medium Pond Kit 750 gallons-Savio skimmer/liner -water garden-goldfish.
So my pond just got bigger!

 

[j.w]

@gloria

 

[IPA]

HAHA @j.w welcome @gloria . How are the fish, the pond, and the frogs doing today?