Newbie

[Annette]

Hi Everyone

We bought a house that came with a pond. I love ponds but have never had the pleasure of having one of our own. This pond is a large formal cloverleaf. It may well be as old as the house (built in 1915)

I pulled out a ton of overgrown plant to give the fish (lots of mosquito fish - running the gamut from teeny tiny to 2.75 inches - more room and to help clear the water. It is looking much better now.

It was suggested that I add some goldfish. I picked up a few dozen at the petshop. Once in the pond the mosquito fish went feral. Chasing and biting the goldfish. They have killed 3 already. I'm guessing the others are better at evading and hiding.

Any suggestions? Let nature take its course? Intervene? Is this an example of darwinism, with the smart and strong surviving and the slow and weak succumbing? If no one makes it, do I try again with bigger fish? Should I get rid of the bigger mosquito fish before I do?

And here I thought I was doing the goldfish a favour by re-homing them into a nice big pond. It was a little unsettling to watch.

Ready to learn
Annette

 

[dieselplower]

How big is this pond? Throwing a few dozen fish into a pond at once is almost always a terrible idea. Does the pond have a Pimp and filter? Welcome to the forum!

 

[addy1]

to our group! Never saw mosquito fish hurt goldfish.........

 

[Fishylove]

Wow didn't know mosquito fish were territorial Welcome by the way !
If you do try more gold fish, I would deffenantly get bigger ones. The gold fish you got, were they feeders? I would think, like everything, fish have a pecking order too. So yah bigger gold fish and maybe remove some of the larger mosquito fish; IF you can catch them lol

 

[RobAmy]

Welcome, here is the picture. It was not showing up

 

[j.w]

Annette

 

[Annette]

How big is this pond? Throwing a few dozen fish into a pond at once is almost always a terrible idea. Does the pond have a Pimp and filter? Welcome to the forum!

1350 US Gallons. Water is still, no pump, no filter. Refreshed every few days with irrigation water. Irrigation water is from a private well so there is no chlorine. The house was unoccupied for 2 years. The mosquito fish have thrived on their own.

 

[dieselplower]

Well thats a nice pond you have there. At this point I would not recommend adding any more fish until you get a pump and filter going. I fear more of the feeder fish will die and may also kill the mosquito fish since I assume you did not quarantine them so they probably brought sickness from the fish store.

 

[Annette]

Thanks, RobAmy for reposting my pic.

 

[Annette]

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to wait and see what happens. At the moment getting power out there for filter and pump is not an option. There is a fresh water feed that flows through the fountain, but we've never needed to top up the pond as it is kept full by the lawn irrigation system.

 

[Fishylove]

Ok, well the problem with having goldfish is they need filtration to keep the water clean. If you can not have a filter, that pretty much eliminates goldfish or koi. You could keep it as a wildlife pond. But if you are wanting a clean pond (ie no algae etc). I would take all of the fish out and just use it as a fountain feature. It's very pretty

 

[Annette]

Interesting Fishylove. I'm getting conflicting info on this. I've been told by more than one person that Koi need the filtration and moving water, but that goldfish do not. /-) It's hard to know who to believe. I don't need it to be totally clean. I don't have power out there so cannot run it as a fountain. I have to keep mosquito fish in there to prevent mosquitos from replicating. I was hoping to add interest and find a natural balance as it is. Several have said that goldfish do well in a natural (and still) pond providing it is deep enough and they have a place to hide from avian predators.

 

[dieselplower]

I would not suffer goldfish to live in a pond without a pump and filter. You would poison them to death unless you had a very low stocking density. When you said you added an additional 30 fish, I almost choked. Believe us on this one. Whoever told you goldfish don't need a pump etc has no clue.

 

[Annette]

Sorry to have caused you distress, dieselplower. Would that I had found this forum earlier. Why don't the mosquito fish need a pump and filter?

 

[Fishylove]

You are correct, I do know a ponder that has no filtration in her pond and has goldfish. BUT. Her pond is full to the brim with lilys and other aquatic plants. AND. Her pond is 8ft deep. I continually tell her she is lucky, her fish are alive only because of how deep it is and because of the plants. Fish, especially, goldfish and most certainly Koi, expell a lot of ammonia, which if not filtered out or converted by a bio filter will cause burns on skin and eventually cause fish death if the fish waste and ammonia is left to build up. It would not be advisable to keep goldfish in a concrete pond with no filtration.