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RE: Mini-pond

renosteinke — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:48:30 GMT

I won't speak as to your fish choices ... I'm no expert, and my current mix horrifies many others here! I'll speak to the rest of the set-up, though ....

I'd definitely get a canister style filter. Mine draws its' supply from an under-gravel filter in the pond. I have only "mechanical" filtering elements in the filter .... no charcoal or zeolite.

I chose a filter sold as appropriate for the size of my pond. With hindsight, I should have got the next size up; I could use the larger pump.

Leaving the filter, I pump the water through a UV light (kille algae) and an in-line heater. I can control this heater as low as 62; many heaters 'start' at about 75 (no matter what the dial says).

My water is aerated as it enters the pond.

Goldfish produce plenty of "plant food." The trouble is, they also destroy plant roots. Plants need to be in baskets, and securely anchored in the gravel.

One advantage to a canister filter is that, with the appropriate fittings and tubing, you can use the filter to pump out old water and add new. This avoids stirring everything up during water changes.

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:33:07 GMT

What kind of filter would you recommend for my 35 gallon mini-pond?

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:54:30 GMT

If you take good care of them, be ready to wait for a long time. Common goldfish can live for decades. I would trade them in for the smaller goldfish you would be better off with (feeders are cheap, so you could give them away to someone willing to care for them rather than feeding them to bigger fish if you'd prefer).

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:14:37 GMT

Well I figure I will let them die and then by some smaller fish to replace them. Of course that is after I clean the pond.

RE: Mini-pond

Maraqua — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:26:26 GMT

My friend who gave me my fancy goldfish months ago, bought 2 common goldfish the 29 cent kind. I saw them 2 months ago and they were 1.5-2 "s and now they are like 4-5"s and are bigger then my fancy now. I was sooo shocked. I told them how much bigger they get then fancies and he should give them back to the pet store he has 2 in a 5 gallon. I guess in a way they are sold as feeders so probably would have been worse off but still

Anyway just pointing out that yes the common's get big, and they get big fast!! ;)

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:58:03 GMT

Any of the fancy (round-bodied) types. You just want to avoid common/comet goldfish, koi, as well as shubunkins and wakins which are large too. These all have streamlined bodies so they are easily spotted.

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:09:04 GMT

What other kinds of goldfish would you recommend?

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:17:19 GMT

Do you know whether that fish is dead or not.

RE: Mini-pond

Armand — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:41:08 GMT

good luck

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 20:19:02 GMT

A single oranda, with no other fish, would be fine. You could get away with keeping two when they are juveniles, but when that start looking anything like that one in the pic, one needs to go.

By the way, I should have credited that pic (I meant to and forgot). I got it from cellar.org, but it was uncredited there.

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:52:14 GMT

Would an orando be fine for my pond?

RE: Mini-pond

princessotfu — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:32:50 GMT

Love pics of Bruce. Last I heard he was 14 inches long, roughly the size and weight of a small cat, and living in a huge pond with about 15-20 other 10-14 inch orandas. They REALLY do get huge.

RE: Mini-pond

David Lass — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:59:11 GMT

That is the biggest oranda I have ever seen!! Cool pic, Hailey.

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:52:05 GMT

This is kind of interesting. Just to give you an idea how big goldfish get, here's a photo of a fancy goldfish, which is a lot smaller than a common goldfish (the kind they use for feeders).

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:42:14 GMT

I wouldn't trust their answers, given their shoddy products. I get my fish profiles from two generally very reliable sources, fishbase, and mongabay (when the two don't quite agree, I trust fishbase most. They are a very accurate scientific resource, and they list the common goldfish as 59 centimeters or just over 23 inches). Here are the links.
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=271&genusname=Carassius&speciesname=auratus+auratus
http://fish.mongabay.com/species/Carassius_auratus.html

RE: Mini-pond

Miller — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:35:39 GMT

I asked the tetra people about how big feeders grow and they said 8-10 inches?

RE: Mini-pond

Hailey — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:34:08 GMT

I totally agree. First I would get a filter of some sort (goldfish really are messy fish and should have powerful filtration), and then I would exchange those two feeder goldfish for two fancy goldfish, which will stay much smaller (8 inches as opposed to up to 24 inches) and could live out their lives in the pond. That would be a full bioload for that tiny pond, so if you want more fish you should be looking at small fish like minnows and mosquito fish instead of goldfish.

RE: Mini-pond

princessotfu — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:46:27 GMT

Definitely not.

You have feeders, which require quite a lot of water to grow properly. You need around 100gallons minimum for two of those "feeders" to grow properly. If you had 2 fancies, it would have been okay.

You definitely shouldn't keep them in there with no filtration of any kind unless you have a crazy amount of plants. Goldfish produce a fantastic amount of waste.

Sorry.

Mini-pond

Miller — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:10:13 GMT

I just wondered if the two goldfish will live in that small of a pond withought a filter. Yes or no. Can I fit more than just those two goldfish in the pond? Thanks