One fish or two that do not breed

[Big Lou]

As most of you know we only have Gambusia's in our garden pond. If we put two of the same ornamental fish in the pond there is the risk of waking up to scores of new fry. One option would be to put in only one ornamental fish. Call me silly yet I think the one fish would get lonely. Another option is to put in two fish, possibly different species, that will not breed.

Three questions.

1. Will the fish waste load become significant with one or two fish?
2. What two non breeding different fish could be put in the same pond?
3. Would it be cruel to put in only one fish?

 

[j.w]

You could put all female or all male fish but telling the difference might be hard. If you put in goldfish and there is not many places for the eggs or fry to be hidden then you will not have hardly any over breeding of fish. If tho they have hiding spots you might get some that make it. You could also put in w/the goldfish a fish that is known to gobble up the eggs. And Orfe would but they get kinda large. Also if you don't feed your fish much you won't get many eggs that survive either cuz the goldfish will gobble them up fast! I did not feed my goldfish for years and they lived off of bugs, worms and anything that fell into the pond. They did not over breed at all. I myself love the Shubunkin goldfish the best! The orange/white ones are cool also. Oh and then the fantails are pretty and I want some of those next for my pond.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

If your pond is populated by Gambusia, the chances of having a progeny from other fish is minuscule. Gambusia are voracious carnivores and will eat anything small enough for them to handle including each other.

 

[Lisak1]

@Big Lou - am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? Fish in the pond! Yay!

 

[Big Lou]

@Big Lou - am I hearing what I think I'm hearing? Fish in the pond! Yay!

Not to sure. Have to convince my good lady wife.

Janice, we love fan tails. Use to have some about 6 inches long. Lots of hiding places. Hundreds of Gambusia's. I'll have to research the Orfe. Are there two different species of fish that will not breed? And how about the waste load?

Thanks y'all

 

[Big Lou]

The Orfe, 1.5 to 2.5 feet is sizeable!

 

[j.w]

All the carp family will breed together. Not sure what else will live in your winters. You have a good sized pond at 2300gals so you could have 5 - 10 fish I would think and all you might ever have to do is a few water in water out flushes every once in awhile to keep things tidy. You wouldn't even need a filter. I do that w/my pond. Just put a garden hose from my excellent well water and then run a small pump to pump out some pond water while fresh is going in at the same time. Set yourself a timer of some sort on your watch or whatever to remind you to stop at some point or you will be sure to forget it is running. My pond is about 2400 gals and I have about 100 goldfish in there now. I started w/12 14 yrs ago and bought a few more from the store and did have some babies but then my fish have lots of hiding places and I started feeding them every day in the Summer. I wanted babies tho. I do have a filter in my pond but it is just a prefilter that is attached to a pump. I pull out that prefilter once in awhile and hose it off and throw it back in. If you do those once in awhile water in water out plans you won't need to do anything else. If you have city water which is treated you will need to add chlorine remover when adding new water. It will be more of a water garden than a fish pond. 5 would be nice to start w/or even just 3. If you have plants in there they will eat up the fish poo and help keep it clean also but that will make hiding places for eggs and babies. If tho the Gambusia are egg/fry eaters you will prolly never have any babies.

 

[sissy]

fat fantails are best 2 that I have had have never had babies . shubbies breed like crazy .I saw a pond with over a hundred of them and they only had 4 of them 3 years ago and goldfish are just as bad

 

[pecan]

If your pond is populated by Gambusia, the chances of having a progeny from other fish is minuscule. Gambusia are voracious carnivores and will eat anything small enough for them to handle including each other.

The first fish we had put in the pond were Gambusia by the local mosquito abatement people. They bread like crazy and the entire pond was covered with them. I then added a dozen comets. The comets bread like crazy and within a couple years I had close to 50 comets. If the swarms of Gambusia prevented fry from surviving, I never noticed.

The mosquito abatement people told me the Gambusia would not survive our winters, but they did. However last winter I left the pond running for the first time and to my surprise I have not seen a Gambusia since. I thought it would take napalm to get rid of them.

The comets I have been slowly removing and donating to a local fish store for resale. I am down to about 12 again and if I don't get them out ill be back up to 50 in no time at all.

Some advice I was given is if you don't feed, your pond will never become over populated. this only works for comets though, koi must be fed. Comets can find enough food in a pond to survive without supplemental food. Comets keep their population in check for the specific pond, but only if you dont feed.

I feed them so it doesnt help me much.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

"Meffe (1983, 1985) found that mosquitofish are very aggressive, even toward larger fish. They often attack, shred fins, and sometimes kill other species. Mosquitofish are known
to prey on eggs, larvae, and juveniles of various fishes, including those of largemouth bass and common carp; they are also known to prey on adults of smaller species (Meffe 1985; Courtenay and Meffe 1989)"
USGS Fact Sheet-Gambusia affinis

 

[pecan]

"Meffe (1983, 1985) found that mosquitofish are very aggressive, even toward larger fish. They often attack, shred fins, and sometimes kill other species. Mosquitofish are known
to prey on eggs, larvae, and juveniles of various fishes, including those of largemouth bass and common carp; they are also known to prey on adults of smaller species (Meffe 1985; Courtenay and Meffe 1989)"
USGS Fact Sheet-Gambusia affinis

I agree completely from my experience, but I still had a comet population boom with mass amounts if these little terrors in my pond. At feeding time the Gambusia would swarm the comets and koi and take the food from them! They are bad little fish.

But please dont count on them from preventing your pond from getting overstocked by comets because I can tell you they dont. First hand knowledge and last 5 years of trying to get rid of way too many comets.

In fact I even had koi fry live (only had koi fry once in 5 years) with a heavy Gambusia population. That shocked me.

 

[sissy]

I guess I am glad I have the fish I have .only fancy tails two fantails and 2 koi .Gave some of them away .Mike called me from the other house and told me the pond over there has a bunch of baby koi .He only had 2 koi in the pond there .

 

[j.w]

Yep for sure if you don't feed the goldfish they don't seem to multiply but it is fun to feed them and see them come running to you w/their little mouth's wide open

 

[Tula]

When I was a child, I had a single gold fish, for many many years......he didn't seem lonely and he lived a long life

 

[j.w]

Yep but I think it would look kind of strange to have just one fish in a 2300 gal pond, but that's just me