Fish (etc) for small pond

Mine jumped on the night they all died, the fish were still in the pond, dead, but the water was splashed all around.
I'm guessing they only jump if stressed or short of oxygen.

 

Here's how to feed your fish, Clueless.

http://www.wimp.com/duckfish/

 

Went to the aquatics shop today, and am proud of myself having only spent about £20 over what I intended (I spent about £55).

I'm afraid despite my earlier decision to not get some Golden Orfe, I came away with 3 erm, Golden Orfe. I got various plants as well though.

They had Golden Rudd which on paper sounded like a better candidate, but the Orfe were swimming at the surface of their tank, the Rudd were right down at the bottom. I figured if they stay at the bottom when I put them in the pond, we'll never seen them, so I left them in the shop.

The orfes are magnificent looking fish, and seem very confident.

When I was in the shop, I caught myself my own personal shop assistant and made him stick with me for the entire time I was in their choosing. I explained from the outset that I'm new to the whole world of water gardening and aquatics. I told him how the goldfish mostly stay out of sight, and he asked how long they'd been in there. I told him just a few days and totally matter of fact style replied 'they'll be hiding then are they?'. He explained that they sometimes stay under cover until they find their confidence. Then when choosing 3 more fish, I asked about the orfe, and he said I'd probably see more of the goldfish too if I put orfe in their, because the goldfish latch onto the orfe for their confidence. It seems maybe true. Within a minute of releasing the orfe into the pond, the goldfish appeared and joined their shoal. Its clear the orfe are top dog (or fish), because if the orfe change course, the goldfish change course and quickly catch up. Not the other way round.

 

Absolute disaster. I was putting some more plants in and rearranging a few of the stones when the lad spotted a dead, squashed fish on the beach part, right in the centre of one of my size 9 foot prints.

It was one of the brand new orfe's, only put in today.

I think what must have happened is it must have been investigating around the overflow part, which I'd deliberately arranged to flow into the beach area, exactly where poor squashed fish was found. Then with me disturbing the water, probably made a wave that's washed it out, then I've stepped back, and squish. Poor thing. It could be said its only a fish, but I'm quite gutted about it. Not as gutted as I would be if it had been a long term family pet or anything, but a bit gutted.

Guess I'm going to have to rethink the pond perimeter to make it harder for the fish to get washed out by accident or otherwise stranded.

 

Guted clueless, it's always horrible when something dies. No matter the size.

And congrats on your purchases.

 

I've been on the steep learning curve of fish keeping and aquatic gardening for a week or so now, and I've observed something that totally surprises me.

Fish seem to be incredibly lazy creatures. They are like teenagers. They don't get up until at least noon. If I go out and look for them in the morning, there is no sign, but if I look in the evening, I'll find them easily.

This morning I even tried tempting them up to the surface by feeding them early, but nothing. I have a theory that they have no interest in the food because they wait til evening when the mozzies try to colonise the pond, and then fill their faces on them, then retreat to the cover of the rocks and pond weed to sleep it off.

Is this a plausible theory? Mozzies have so far failed to colonise the pond, but I've seen them trying, so something is stopping them.

 

Orfe will soon become the bolshy kids on the block Clue. They will be up there before the others and can be a bit intimidating to gentler chaps like Goldfish and Koi.
Tetra Fish flake is one of the most tempting of feeds - like Maltesers to us ladies...
Jenny
bless you and James - need a bit of patience Clue.
Ever sat on a riverbank with a fishing line?

 

They seem to get on fine with the goldfish and vice versa. In fact the goldfish seem to latch onto them for their confidence and go everywhere the orfes go.

 

They follow the Orfe as they know they are the "top dogs" in the pond . It will all become clear in due course. It's lovely to watch a pond develop Clue,
Jenny

 

Its addictive too. I went back to the aquarium shop today with the intention of buying one golden orfe to replace the one that sadly met a tragic demise yesterday. I was a good lad all the way there, in that I didn't falter in my resolve to only buy one fish. We got the counter, I opened my my to say 'please could I have one golden orfe', but the words my ears heard leaving my mouth were 'please could I have one golden orfe and two goldfish please, oh and some of those additive things to help keep the water clear'.

Well, I figured the orfe are bigger and braver than the goldies, so if there were 3 of each, the goldies might feel a bit intimidated. Even if they didn't, orfe being a social fish, they could do with more buddies. The additive stuff was probably a good purchase because I haven't got a filter in there yet, and the man said it contains all the good bacteria and enzymes needed to help establish a balanced eco-system, which is of course important for the welfare of the fishes.

I've just been out and had a look, and was please to see that they are all having a swim together, the whole group sticking together.

 

THEN CLUE

piccie please....
Jenny

 

I would stick away from Orfe - they grow absolutely huge and tend to jump out of the pond.

Goldfish are a good idea - Sarassa's are lovely deep red and white, then you have your lovely common comets or various orange/yellows (and white if you like) and shubunkin's with their lovely individual mixtures of colours. I have found Shubunkin's to be the hardiest of them all - my common goldies have had problems (mainly caused I admit by my own misunderstanding) but the Shub's have never shown any afflictions. I now have a common orange goldie with a white face (and orange lips!), a lovely blue and white Shub with a bright pink cheek - called Ghost because the bluey silvery colouring, and another Shub with a bright deep red head with black spots and blue pattern.
Goldfish too will grow big, upto about 10-12inches (so definitely look to the idea of 5 at the most - they may well breed and produce more fish as the years go by so overstocking is a big risk you need to avoid).

Goldfish are lovely, messy fish (not as bad as Koi, but the messier fish compared to Tropicals) and are very entertaining to watch. Good move in getting some
Make sure you have a good external filter if the pond has not biologically filtered itself by plants.

 

People keep warning me that my fish will grow huge, and I'm sure this is true. However, I thought fish typically wont grow bigger that their environment allows?

In any case, can I not simply sell/give away any fish that get too large and replace them with smaller ones again, so that the pond is always stocked with suitably sized fish? It would be great to have them at different sizes. When I was little there was an indoor pond in the local library that had some massive fish and lots of little fish in it, and I loved it. The poor fish probably didn't, their pond was a very formal affair, just a brick box filled to about a foot deep and with no features in it, except the coins that people used to throw in. Poor things, when I think about it, the only thing warding off boredom for them must have been the fear of being bombarded with metal disks the size of their heads raining down on them.

 

That is true, clueless1, but it is only because they release a hormone to stunt their growth.
It causes a lot of physical problems, as their organs remain growing, and basically causes them to deform or become ill, and die prematurely. I could i find you some photo's which demonstrate this if it would help.

You could do that, certainly rehome fish if it starts getting overstocked with reproduction, but I would try to avoid buying more fish, as you are risking introducing disease and bacteria.
If the fish reproduce you will get the big and little fish effect.

If you can ever get close enough, the males have white spots on their gills when they are in season, thats how you can tell the sexes apart easiest. But if they are young you won't know until minimum next year (earliest for maturity is a year).