Regular Member lclayton Posted January 9, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted January 9, 2008 I have 3 goldfish in a tank, due to bad LFS knowledge I am overstocked. The goldfish are all heatlhy, the water quality is good and well filtered, etc, I just know that the yellow common and the red comet would be far happier in a pond, given the amount they have grown in the past year. The shubunkin I will be keeping - she is about a year younger and a bit smaller and more delicate. My friends's dad has a goldfish pond with large goldfish in it, all around a foot long, give or take a few inches. I'm not sure how many are in there, or the capacity of the pond, but he has been keeping them for many years and knows how to care for them. My questions basically are: 1) At what time of year would be best to transfer the two fish? I live in the UK so the weather is quite mild. I was thinking maybe April? Obviously they are not used to cold temperatures so I wouldn't do it yet. 2) They are around 3"-4" long (hard to measure!) so would they be able to hold their own against the larger fish until they have their well needed growth spurt? 3) Are there any special quarantine/aclimatising measures to take? What about feeding? Thanks very much, and any other advice is always gratefully received! Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member nickie73 Posted January 10, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted January 10, 2008 Laura, This, too, is something I will be faced with soon. Although the pond is in my backyard and there will only be my fish in there. I have many questions has to when I can transfer them, how to feed, etc. I would be scared to put my 3-4" fish in with fish that are over a foot long, though. The bigger fish may eat your smaller fish if they can get them in their mouths. Hopefully, someone else will answer soon that has more experience with ponds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member lclayton Posted January 10, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted January 10, 2008 I hope so too! My fish are quite speedy and I've been told the existing pondfish are quite sedate and peaceful with each other, so maybe they would be ok. I guess you never know, though. So, fingers crossed someone can help us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member TheFishMan Posted January 10, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted January 10, 2008 Well the koi in my friends pond are about 6inches long, and my friend put a few roach in, who had babies and their were loads of baby roach, less than an inch long and the koi started swimming around with them under their fins, as if they were ther own young! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Carli Posted January 11, 2008 Regular Member Share Posted January 11, 2008 I leave mine out all year but they start getting active when the water temps are 55-60, and the water plants are putting out new growth. Ideally you would want the filter bio to be active and growing. Acclimate the fish carefully and slowly. Try to match water parameters as closely as possible..temp, ph. Fish will eat their spawn more so than the 3-4 inchers. I keep big koi with small Wakins and they do fine. They ignore each other but when the adult Wakins spawn the eggs are gone in a flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member lclayton Posted January 17, 2008 Author Regular Member Share Posted January 17, 2008 So assuming that the fish would be able to live with larger fish ok, how would I really go about acclimatising them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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