Outdoor fish pond

[Virginia Galigher]

I live in an apartment complex and we have a really nice goldfish pond. No one takes care of it. The pump has been burned out for over a year now and the maintenance man says he's got to get a new one. Well......... in the meantime, the water is green from algae, but it has water lily plants growing in it. It had only five goldfish in it last year so I purchased 10 more. Well, they are all healthy and last spring about 3 of them had babies and I had about 40 little babies in there. Most of them survived. I am the self-appointed caretaker of this pond and buy the fish food (since most of them are ones I bought). They seem healthy and all wait for me to come feed them every day. I call them and they come to me and even get their mouths out of the water sometime. I want to take good care of them. I l live in northern Louisiana.

 

[MitchM]

Welcome Virginia.
Did you have a question?

 

[Lisak1]

Welcome Virginia!

It sounds like the goldfish are enjoying the pond, even if it's not as pretty as it could be! A little water movement would help, but in the meantime, be careful about how much you feed your fish - I know it's fun, but the food turns to fish poop which in turn feeds the algae growth. In fact, your goldfish would do just fine with no food at all from you - they can live on the algae that's in the pond and help keep the pond clean!\. I know it sounds cruel, but trust me - lots of folks have goldfish ponds for years and never feed the fish. That pond is teeming with things they love to eat!

We'd love to see pictures if you can take and post some!

 

[Virginia Galigher]

Welcome Virginia!

It sounds like the goldfish are enjoying the pond, even if it's not as pretty as it could be! A little water movement would help, but in the meantime, be careful about how much you feed your fish - I know it's fun, but the food turns to fish poop which in turn feeds the algae growth. In fact, your goldfish would do just fine with no food at all from you - they can live on the algae that's in the pond and help keep the pond clean!\. I know it sounds cruel, but trust me - lots of folks have goldfish ponds for years and never feed the fish. That pond is teeming with things they love to eat!

We'd love to see pictures if you can take and post some!

 

[Virginia Galigher]

Thank you so much for the information. I just bought $51 worth of fish food for them. Duh!!! Will defini tely ease up on the feeding. I have spoiled them rotten. When I go up to the pond I say, 'Here, babies, I'm here" and they come from all directions to greet me and get their food.

 

[Lisak1]

A few pellets now and again will keep them friendly without causing too much trouble.

 

[peter hillman]

Welcome Virginia. A community pond will pose challenges, you never know what people will put in there. Cigarette butts are really toxic to fish. Good job for trying to revive it, tell that maintenance man to come here for tips on installing the pump.

 

[Virginia Galigher]

A few pellets now and again will keep them friendly without causing too much trouble.

Thank you for this information. I am going to feed them a whole lot less now and will not feed them every day but maybe every other day until I can wean them down. It is so nice to see them all come up to me when they see me. I hate it that i'm so attached to them.

 

[MoonShadows]

I am a sucker for feeding my aquarium fish. When I walk by, they all swim to the top anticipating a treat.

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Virginia Galigher]

View attachment 98031

I am a sucker for feeding my aquarium fish. When I walk by, they all swim to the top anticipating a treat.

I know, it gets to you doesn't it......

 

[MoonShadows]

LOL...yup.

 

[CometKeith]

Welcome to the forum. Another downside of feeding too much is you are increasing the bio-load. Fish are getting larger. Also when fish are born not too many hungry mouth to keep the population down. A lot of times nature has a way of balancing things out on her own. By giving a helping hand with food and adding fish you can create problems if you are not increasing filtration and other procedures that will keep the pond water healthy for the fish. If there are too many fish they may suffer from poisening by ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate if there is not enough good bacteria in the pond to keep the harmful elements down to an acceptable level. It's possible there could have been too many fish at one time and it went down to 5 because that was a level the pond could sustain. Hopefully everything wil be okay but I would avoid adding any more fish!