Middle of last week I was fiddling with the Orfe pond when I spotted what I thought was a tiny fish - just one - about half an inch long. I wondered where the heck did that come from. In fact wasn't even sure it was a fish (My eyes aren't as good as they used to be) so rushed up to the house for my little net to get a closer look at him.
Came back with net and cellphone to find this:
Dozens of them.
Caught a few and put them in a 4 gallon aquarium thinking I'd save some before the adult orfe could finish them off.
They're about half an inch long but perfectly formed tiny fish - fast too.
My orfe (4 in total) aren't very old. 3 of them maybe just 3 years old. Around 6 or 7 inches. The 4th one is a bit bigger. Maybe 9 inches.
There's no other fish in the pond. Just those 4 orfe so I think it's safe to assume these are baby golden orfe.
At half an inch how old would these young ones be? Adults are probably eating some but don't seem too bothered so, with that in mind, how many are likely to survive?
I've got 10 in the aquarium - picture above shows the ones in the aquarium are eating well maybe too well. When I first caught them they didn't have that fat pink belly. I think that's the red tropical fish granules I've been feeding them.
I also put 6 in another pond with shubunkins. Shubunkins don't seem bothered either - all 6 babies still in there 3 days later.
If the adults don't eat some I may end up with more orfe than I can handle.
Had a heron a couple of weeks ago who grabbed one of my favorite shubunkins so started netting the pond. If too many orfe survive I'll leave the net off the orfe pond and let the heron go for it - mind you, orfe are faster than greased lighting so heron will need to be quick.
Came back with net and cellphone to find this:
Dozens of them.
Caught a few and put them in a 4 gallon aquarium thinking I'd save some before the adult orfe could finish them off.
They're about half an inch long but perfectly formed tiny fish - fast too.
My orfe (4 in total) aren't very old. 3 of them maybe just 3 years old. Around 6 or 7 inches. The 4th one is a bit bigger. Maybe 9 inches.
There's no other fish in the pond. Just those 4 orfe so I think it's safe to assume these are baby golden orfe.
At half an inch how old would these young ones be? Adults are probably eating some but don't seem too bothered so, with that in mind, how many are likely to survive?
I've got 10 in the aquarium - picture above shows the ones in the aquarium are eating well maybe too well. When I first caught them they didn't have that fat pink belly. I think that's the red tropical fish granules I've been feeding them.
I also put 6 in another pond with shubunkins. Shubunkins don't seem bothered either - all 6 babies still in there 3 days later.
If the adults don't eat some I may end up with more orfe than I can handle.
Had a heron a couple of weeks ago who grabbed one of my favorite shubunkins so started netting the pond. If too many orfe survive I'll leave the net off the orfe pond and let the heron go for it - mind you, orfe are faster than greased lighting so heron will need to be quick.
