new guy, inherited pond

[pond-luver]

Hi All, just bought a house. it has a small pond. it's approximately 4ft x 3ft x 6in.
I'd like to put some goldfish in it, and I'd like for them to have a reasonable chance at survival.
any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mmathis]

Hello and welcome! That is adorable, but might be too small for more than a couple of goldfish. You say it’s 6” deep. If you live in an area with either extreme heat ( or extreme cold, in the winter), the water will heat up and be dangerous.

Of course, like most of us here.....there is this disease that we all seem to come down with. Don’t know its official name, but the main symptom is the desire to build a bigger pond. It’s extremely contagious!

 

[brokensword]

Hello and welcome! That is adorable, but might be too small for more than a couple of goldfish. You say it’s 6” deep. If you live in an area with either extreme heat ( or extreme cold, in the winter), the water will heat up and be dangerous.

Of course, like most of us here.....there is this disease that we all seem to come down with. Don’t know its official name, but the main symptom is the desire to build a bigger pond. It’s extremely contagious!

L.P.S. (larger pond syndrome). Seriously, there should be doctors and pharmaceticals for this...

 

[addy1]

Welcome,
If you put in goldfish, stick with fantails. Where do you live? Hot or cold? Ice etc or not?

 

[pond-luver]

Hi, Thanks for the responses! I'm in Houston Tx. almost never freezes, well except this year... July, the warmest month, the average day time temperature rises to 93.6°F. the pond only gets about an hour or 2 of direct sunlight per day.

I'm beginning to wrap my head around the idea that it's going to need to be much bigger and deeper to be able to support several fantails.

but i'd like to get my feet wet with a couple of little ones, and just see how long I can keep them alive. let's assume (2) 2in fantails

from the little bit of reading i've done so far, i gather:

pump needs to circulate x gallons of water per hour - how do i solve for x?
the pump seems to have some sort of filter, do i need another one? got a recommendation?
i filled the pond up w a hose. is that fine?
I'll plan on feeding the fish everyday.
i'll fence off an area around the pump (w wire mesh) to keep the fish from getting sucked up into the pump.

what else do i need to think about?

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Mmathis]

I would recommend that you get a water test kit (a liquid kit, like API Freshwater Master) and learn about the nitrogen cycle. For a low volume of water, keeping this balance is more crucial, but will be a good start for your fish-keeping education.

 

[brokensword]

Again, I concur with MMathis. The thing about small ponds is they can very easily get out of whack and you have little time to rectify the situation. I thought 6" was a typo; you really should consider how much easier all this learning will be without risk of losing fish, by going larger. And if this pond is in the sun at all, it's going to heat up tremendously at 6" depth. You should consider shade for the summer. Winter should be fine, normally, as I doubt you'd get 5" of ice in Houston and goldfish are pretty hardy re low temps.

 

[TheFishGuy]

L.P.S. (larger pond syndrome). Seriously, there should be doctors and pharmaceticals for this...

I am used to that meaning large polyp stony, but I guess it has a new meaning!

 

[mrsclem]

With your measurments, you are at about 45 gallons. Using tap water can be a problem if it contains chlorine, there are several chemicals that you can use to remove the chlorine. Can you post a picture of your pump and filter? Guessing it may just be a foam underwater filter. If you have plants in your pond the fish do not need to be fed every day. Too much food= too much waste= water quality issues. Do read as much about ponds and keeping fish before actually buying any. We bought koi before we knew what we were doing and it was an expensive mistake.

 

[GBBUDD]

The bigger the pond the easier it is to keep and maintain. That is untill you get so big it then requires a bit of work in landscaping.

 

[brokensword]

I am used to that meaning large polyp stony, but I guess it has a new meaning!

it does now! We'll let you coral guys have the small version; lps

Also, isn't it large stony polyp? which of course means you can have LSP too! heh heh