My goldfish pond

[CometKeith]

Thanks Haver. I am picking up the survey this week and we are giving the architect a deposit to start on the plans. We have been visiting a lot of completed projects lately to get a feel for what we want to build.
I have a little bit of a problem with my current pond and have been losing water and am thinking of changing the liner next week. I know the last time i did that I lost some fish so if I go ahead with the liner change I'm going to take a lot of precautions like leaving the biofilter running in a container and putting some of the old liner back in the pond so it doesn't take so long to cycle again.

 

[CometKeith]

Well.....solved the leaky pond problem. Yey!!! i have been losing an inch or more per day for the last 6 weeks and was ready to change the liner. Last ditch effort I felt the bottom of the pond with my hand where I had dropped one of my flagstones from my waterfall and couldn't find any holes in the liner. Then I changed a hose on the biofilter and snipped all the ends so they made a nice tight connection. Also I found my extra gaskets I got with my biofilter and put one on where it was missing where it is capped for cleaning. Low and behold the pond is holding water and maybe went down a total of 1/4 inch in the last few days. My guess is it was one of the connections on the biofilter but I never really saw anything leaking. I guess its just good maintenance to make sure all your gaskets are in place and good fitting and all your hoses are tight. i just never believed this was the problem because I never saw any water dripping down.

 

[addy1]

I have found tiny tiny leaks that sure can suck water out of the pond.
Glad you fixed it.

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Addy. It has been holding water very well since then. Well I must have had about 15-20 babies this year. Every few weeks I see another one or two lurking that I haven't seen before. There are a bunch of black ones like usual but also I have some orange ones and some really interesting either colors of shubunkins and comets too. I have been feeding my fish this year more frequently and larger quantities and some of the younger ones that are 1-3 years old have really grown. I do have one red gold fish with a pretty tail that has been hanging out by herself a lot and finally today she decided to join the group during feeding. I hope whatever was wrong with her is over. Other than that I think i have been pretty lucky this year because i haven't had any sick fish at all since the ice melted in my pond in the spring. Another interesting thing is a bunch of my black goldfish from 1-3 years old finally started changing colors. I recently took out a bunch of plants and the weather has been hot and I noticed the water temp of the pond has gone up from mid 60's to mid 70's. I wonder if the warmer water temps has trigered something to make them changing color?

 

[CountryEscape]

Congrats on all of your changes to come, Keith! Can't wait to see pics of the before and after of the house! Bet your wife will have a great time deciding and making changes in the house to make it your HOME! Do you have a time line as to when you will be hoping to have the renovations done and begin to move? I can't remember if your current house is for sale, or if you will wait until you are nearly done with the new place before you put your current house on the market. Hoping you get to have your new pond built and the fish moved before you move! My sister sold her house in AZ, and moved to WI, and then had 6 of her fish shipped to her, but it was VERY costly the way she did it. You may be able to talk the new owners into taking care of your fish until you are ready for them to be moved. Just tell them they can pick out special fish for themselves then!

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks CE.The new place is about 15-20 minutes away from where we live now so moving them won't be a problem and I plan on digging the pond fairly early in the process so it has a chance to cycle before bringing my fish over.. We are closing next week and we are thinking of putting our house on the market next spring. The new place will be ready by end of the summer or fall. I think we finally decided to build up and not out so there should be room for a pond. My only concern is we will have tenants at the new place and I need to make sure they act responsibly. I'm not sure about what rules I might need to make or fences put up etc. It's a pretty big job to plan the whole thing. Also it looks like our youngest daughter wil be working next year for P&G in Cincinnatti and we don't want to put too much into this because my wife plans on following her. We could buy a summer home close to her so maybe I'll end up with another pond! Re current pond my fish are all doing great and I attached some pics I took last week. Not even one sick fish this year and tons more babies.I think I have over 50 fish now. If you look closely there are a lot of black goldfish. Some of them are starting to turn pretty colors. Oh... and I couldn't resist throwing in one of the pics I took last week of the lunar eclipse.

 

[CountryEscape]

Beautiful fish pics, Keith. Love the little Shubunkin babies you have!
What is the bright object in your eclipse pic that is below the moon? It almost looks like another moon, so wondering if it is one of the planets that is close and VERY bright. Lucky you to get to have seen the eclipse, as I looked many times that night, always totally cloudy. Boooo .... thanks for sharing your pic!

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks CE. Actually the light is most likely a reflection but it makes the picture interesting. That's why I left the house lights in it too to give the picture more character. Too bad it was cloudy by you. Most of the pictures I took were with no clouds but when they started rolling in it gave the moon an airy quality. Yes lots of babies. I have a few that I really like a lot and it's been fun finding new ones and then seeing them grow. My guess is there are over 50 goldfish now. I gave up trying to count them. Oh ...closed on the new place the other day so we are moving along with that project. We are not going to plan the landscaping/pond until we figure out what we are doing with the building itself but I was there the other day and have some ideas.

 

[tbendl]

Keith how old are the biggest shunkins? Everything looks so pretty!

 

[CometKeith]

Thanks Tbendl. I think my oldest comet which is red and white is about 7 years and the two biggest shubunkins are 5-6 years. One shubunkin that has a long tail I bought for $1.99 when it was a little over 1 inch. The other shubunkin is mostly black with some accent colors. It's kinds of interesting that I have gotten so much variety in colors in the offspring from just these three fish.

 

[tbendl]

I'll be curious to see if all my babies change colors. I just love all your fish.

 

[Ourkayak]

Just finished building my goldfish pond , raised wood with abstract design . Sorry did not introduce myself Richard from Cape Town .

 

[CountryEscape]

Wow, Richard, that is amazing! Now, you need to start your own thread and post these pics again, so everyone sees it. I was at a Covered Bridge Festival that is VERY large (12 days worth) in Indiana a week ago, and someone had tables that were similar to the ends of your top water area. Very unique, love it!!!

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Richard. Nice pics. You are welcome to hang out on my thread until you create your own. CK

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, all us goldfish peeps hang out with Keith at LOT! LOL Welcome, Richard, guess I didn't tell you that. Didn't mean to scare you away from this post, because it's a pretty active post, and lots of people comment here. I just want EVERYONE to see your beautiful creations. You'll figure it all out once you've been on this Forum for a while. Lots of great friendly people on here.