My Goldfish are growing!!!

[LD1]

This is kinda an update to the thread I did last year on building this "water garden"

Heres last years thread http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/photos/176772-water-garden-deck.html

Anyways, I thought I'd update with some new photos now that its been a year, and the vegetation has grown as well as the fish.

Last year, I tried lilys from HD and NONE of them grew And I tried to keep the stream/waterfall going all winter. But that didnt work because it froze, causing the water to run out of the pond (overtop of the ice) draining the pond and killing last years fish:confused2:

So this year, I am going to kill the smaller pond and waterfall. These fish started life in this pond back in april or may as just feeder goldfish @ $1.19/dozen at the pet store. ~1" long. They are now ~4-5" long:thumbsup: And the lilys from menards are great as well. No pics of the blooms, but midday, they are just beautiful.

Hopefully, this year, I wont "drain" the pond and be able to "over winter" these fish.

So, without further ado, the pics

 

[LD1]

A few more to show the whole scene:thumbsup:

 

[Robert_in_NY]

We built a good sized pond for my friend, it was integrated into the deck we built for him. It was 6' wide by 20' long and 3' deep with stone work up the end wall 8' tall with a waterfall there. He had goldfish in there but for winter he put all the fish in his basement to winter there, drained the pond and we build a cover system to keep leaves and rain out over the winter. However, there was always a couple inches of water left in a few places and the last year we opened it back up in the spring there were a couple gold fish that were hidden in the rocks swimming around in the little bit of water left.

At our place we have a half acre pond thats spring fed year round. We put gold fish in there and they are around 12-14" long now and very fat. They live year round in there but the pond never freezes solid as the spring flows so heavy the inlet and outlet are always thawed. The ponds 10' deep so they just hang out year round in there.

 

[easygo]

Very nice pond LD1.
I think goldfish grow according to the space available or let's call it amount of water. We have a goldfish named Larry who was given to us when a former neighbor was doing away with her very small outdoor pond. It was about 1 year old at that time. We have kept it in a 10 gallon fish tank and it has not grown past about 4-5" overall length. Larry is now 11 years old living alone in the tank as he (she?) has far outlived every other fish we have bought or were given over the years.

 

[mjw357]

As long as your pond doesn't freeze solid, there is no need to take them inside for the winter. When the water stays consistently below 50°F, shut your pumps off. And they don't need fed when it gets that cold, they just kind of go dormant. Having the pumps running just makes it harder for them because they have to swim against the current, which burns up calories. Search online for winter pond preparation and care.

 

[JoelD]

Very nice pond LD1.
I think goldfish grow according to the space available or let's call it amount of water. We have a goldfish named Larry who was given to us when a former neighbor was doing away with her very small outdoor pond. It was about 1 year old at that time. We have kept it in a 10 gallon fish tank and it has not grown past about 4-5" overall length. Larry is now 11 years old living alone in the tank as he (she?) has far outlived every other fish we have bought or were given over the years.

I had a gold fish (red comet) named sparky. He was about 1 inch long when I got him at the pet store. He lived for 2 years in a pond in my bedroom (33 gallons), when I moved he was about 5 inches long. Then he lived in a 40 gallon tank with two others I purchased. By the time sparky died (about 12 years old), he was somewhere around 8-10 inches long and weighed the better part of 2 pounds I bet.

They can get big and old.

Best friend I ever had, never argued with me, ever.

Joel

 

[Don87]

Nice pond LD1.

I built one myself 7 or 8 years ago. Mine is 19' wide X 22' long X 3.5 feet deep at the deepest point. I did have a 50' stream with a 4 tier waterfall, but this spring I cut the stream down to 25' so I could make my garden bigger.

My Koi stay in the pond year round, and I currently have 6 generations living together. I started with Koi that were 2 inches long, and my largest ones are 30 to 36" inches long.

I'll see if I can get some photos later on today and post them.

Here is a good place for info on ponds: http://pondalgaesolutions.com/blog/ Lot's of videos to watch.

 

[LD1]

Yea, I have read all that info on how to properly "over-winter" the fish.

I need to get one of them little de-icers. My thought was to keep the pump running, because that would keep a hole through the ice, which it did, but the water circulation lowers the temp of the water down LOW where they hibernate.

So instead of freezing on top, and then 3' of water that acts like insulation to keep the "lower" water at ~40, by circulating it, I was getting ALL the water down to 33-34, which is too cold as well.

Thanks for all the complements to everyone by the way:thumbsup:

 

[nikdfish]

When setting up our small goldfish pond in WV for winter, I'd turn off the pump/waterfall/filter system & add a airstone & air pump. That was to keep an opening to let waste gases out. You don't want the water to turn over too much or it can freeze to the bottom, so I would put the air stone on one of the shallower planting shelves rather than the 3.5 foot deep center well.

An alternative method to maintain an "exhaust port" is a floating heater (even an incandescent bulb in a covered floating housing can work).

It is also a good idea to clean up the bottom at the end of fall to remove debris that can deplete oxygen when it decays. I would cover the pond with birdnet tent to keep out blowing leaves & discourage critters. That last was not perfect, a deer hoof punched a hole in the liner one year & pretty much wiped out the whole pond when the water level dropped down below that of the planting ledges. There just wasn't enough water in the deep well for the fish population.

Nick

 

[Don87]

I shut my pumps down in the winter also, but I usually keep one small air pump running, at one end of the pond(I use the el-cheapo one for aquariums and cover it good).

I picked up a de-icer at TSC, all ya need is a small hole to keep the gasses from building up.