Baby and Fry goldfish questions
H. David Morrow
About three weeks ago, we took a number of plant pots out of our pond and
put them into a large kiddie pool. Prior to that, we had no goldfish babies,
that we are aware of.
The pool had plant pots in it about one week before we were able to get the
pond thoroughly cleaned. All 25 goldfish in the pond were put into a stock
tank during the cleaning because it would be easier to retrieve them instead
of putting them into the pool with the plants. The cleaning and refilling
took only one day and the fish were put back into the pond along with a few
plant pots from the pool.
Then the bad weather started again, so we delayed putting the rest of the
plants back into the pond. In the intervening time, we discovered both
babies and fry in the POOL. I removed them to a nursery aquarium and now
have about a dozen in varying sizes.
As far as I can guess, based solely on their size, the nursery population
represents 5 or 6 different birthdates. Here's the approximate census:
1: about 1.5 inches
4: about 1 inch
3: about .5 inches
2: about .25 inches
2: very tiny; a sixteenth long and the thickness of a straight pin.
Questions: How fast do these fish grow?
At what point can the largest one be put in with much larger goldfish?
All the babies and fry are in one 20 Gal. aquarium. Will this size inhibit
their growth?
Details on pond:
Approx 1850 gals. 11' X 13' X 1-3' deep.
Of the 25 goldfish, at least half are 7" or larger. Largest is at least 10"
maybe more.
Smallest is about 3".
Thanks for answering my questions.
David Morrow
Phisherman
Growth rate is largely dependant on food, temperature, water quality.
Goldfish fry of various sizes are cannibalistic, the larger eating the
smaller sizes. They take adult color and characteristic at about 6
weeks, sometimes much later than that. A 20 gallon tank is plenty
big for several dozen fry, although the 1.5 incher sounds like he's
ready for the big pond. A female goldfish can lay from 2 to 60
thousand eggs per year, and it's actually a good thing that not too
many of those eggs make it to adulthood.
H. David Morrow
Thanks for the information and for replying so fast.
We're having more storms here, so it'll be a while before we can put the
rest of the plants back into the pond. In the mean time, I'll keep looking
for more babies.
David
arlynsg
We are first year ponders and were shocked to find 9 baby goldfish in our
pond. We only have two adults - interesting that we ended up with one male
and one female. The fish are two different sizes. We are thankful to have
them and also thankful to NOT know how many we could have had if all the
eggs and fry had hatched and made it this far. It will be interesting to
see how many make it to adulthood.
My question is basically to get opinions. Our pond is only 75 gallons. I
have a phone call in to the local water garden and Koi society. Our
goldfish our just plain old 10 cent goldfish. How long can we safely keep
the 9 babies in the 75 gallon pond before it becomes dangerous to the fish
community to do so. And what other options do we have for the babies?
Tank? Another pond somewhere on our property (no space for that)? No one
in my family seems to want any fish.....
I would appreciate any opinions. I asked some of the people in the Koi
society what they do and they said their male fish eat the eggs before they
hatch so they really don't have this problem.
Thank you in advance.
ar
CBurrhus19
the babys to be of gold fish and not a mix of koi and gold fish, than maybe you
might want to keep the babys in a baby pond such as the kiddie pool for a year
or a bit more. It took mine a yr and a half to reach a safe size at about 2 1/2
in.
arlynsg
aren't able to put in another pond. Of course, nature could take care of it
all for us...
ar
"CBurrhus19" <cburr...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20020610144638...@mb-ft.aol.com...
Elizabeth Naime
>My question is basically to get opinions. Our pond is only 75 gallons. I
>have a phone call in to the local water garden and Koi society. Our
>goldfish our just plain old 10 cent goldfish. How long can we safely keep
>the 9 babies in the 75 gallon pond before it becomes dangerous to the fish
>community to do so. And what other options do we have for the babies?
>Tank? Another pond somewhere on our property (no space for that)? No one
>in my family seems to want any fish.....
According to this formula (http://www.koivet.com/crowding.html) 75
gallons will support 20-29 inches of fish. SO I think you have a little
time! You should think on what you would like to do with them long-term
though as "feeder fish" are usually hardy common and comet goldfish
which can be 10-12 inches at maturity. 75 gallons won't be adequate for
9 foot-long fish plus your parent fish.
An aquarium would work just fine for a while, but will run into the same
long-term issue. The aquariuim goldfish groups seem to go with the one
fish per 10 gallons rule of thumb; you don't need so much space when
they are half-inch babies, but if they reach pond comet size 10 gallons
each might be underestimating a bit.
-----------------------------------------
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arlynsg
Thanks for that great info.
We bought a 10 gallon tank for our 9 babies. Five of them are about two
inches long. The other four are much smaller. Now we have the tank set up
but have not been able to catch the babies! I guess we will have to drain
the pond about half way....
We were advised by a local fish expert to get the babies out soon because
the water quality will start to decline. And that is actually one of the
ways we discovered there were babies in there. The water suddenly changed.
I spoke to the owner at our local fish store and he said that he would take
the fish. So right now that is our best option. I hate to do that because
I want to make sure they get a good home, but I can't allow our entire
population (of 2 adults) to suffer. I figure we can keep two of them to put
back in the pond. The adults are about 7 to 8 inches long at this time.
Thank you for taking the time to answer.
ar
"Elizabeth Naime" <ena...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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