Fish (etc) for small pond

They're out of their bag and at large in the pond. It was quite funny really, I thought goldfish just did their own thing, but they all stuck together in a group. At first they stayed in the shallow bit where I released them. They seemed nervous. Then one slowly set off and investigated the start of the deep part. It was several minutes before they plucked up the courage to go and have a good look around their new territory.

I was hoping they'd all be best buddies (its why I'm after orfe, which I've read hangs out in groups) rather goldfish, but once they found their confidence, they soon drifted off to do their own thing. One, which is very multicoloured, a bit like the second to last pic in Sal's post above, found a gap in the stones I'd put in, and just went to live in there. He seems most amusing so far when he comes out, he's already savaged several flies that landed on the pond surface. The other two are regular orange ones, one of which seems to like the pond weed, and the other seems to want to explore more.

I'll see how they get on, and maybe buy them a couple of buddies to join their posse.

 

Clueless, please dont buy orfe, I did initally put 10 in my pond and it was disastrous.
They were ok for a year or so, grew very fast and all died on one hot humid night when the pond oxygen levels fell too low, even with a water fall running.
My gold fish survived.

Stick to goldfish unless you want to make the pond your lifes work.

 

Thanks for the warning Pete.

I'll not put orfe in the yet. I'm going to by a bubbler thingy, like you'd put in an indoor tank but a bit more beefy meant for a pond. Later I will also add a waterfall, although only a small one. If I put orfe in there, I'll just put a few in, and if they grow too large, I'll just find them a new home and get smaller ones in.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=sarasa+comets&_nkwusc=sarrasa+comets&_rdc=1

 

I like this bright yellow chap. I searched for 'yellow goldfish' and the results just showed ordinary orange ones.

 

As has already been said please don't put orfe in your pond they will grow quickly & need much more space & have high oxygen requirements, they also have a tendency to jump out of the water so the pond will need a net covering it.

 

Ok, I'm convinced. No orfe. I didn't know they jump out.

I've been reading about nitrites and ammonia from fish poo and wee poisoning the pond. Is there something I need to do about that?

 

Hi

I used to have Shubunkins , great for a small pond , I also had a magpie that used to like them as well !!!!

Spruce

 

Hi, I dug a pond (9ft x 5ft and 4ft deep) at my mum's house when I lived at home, 20 years ago now. I put Golden & Blue Orfe in and to be honest they've always been absolutely fine, initially there were 10 (always better in shoals as they are quite timid when small). Over the years some died, but there are still a couple in there and they are approx 20-24 inches long, the largest one died last year (old age) and it weighed 6lb 10oz and was 23 inches long. I never had any experiences with orfe jumping out and although they do need well oxygenated water they are more sensitive to pH changes/levels.

Other fish you could consider are Golden Tench, a bottom feeder most of the time but more visable due to its orange colour, Golden Rudd, a shoal of these peaceful colourful fish would be ideal, they don't grow big and are surface feeders. Of native fish, Sticklebacks, Minnows and Bitterling are ideal but are not very visual fish.

If you can find them the traditional strain of goldfish with short stubby tails and stocky bodies and bright orange/red colouration are far more attractive to me than the strains and hybrids you see everywhere now with large fancy tails and somewhat washed out colouration.

Hope this helps

 

It does, thanks. I've just been reading about Golden Rudd. Sounds like everything that made me want Orfe, but better suited to a small pond.

 

You can either keep the number of fish low in a well planted pond or else you will need a filter to deal with the ammonia & nitrites.

 

The filter is coming a bit later, but I'm aiming to stock up on planting for the pond more or less immediately. There's a few oxygenating plants in there already which, unless its my imagination, have already grown noticeably since I put them in less than a week ago.

As for fish numbers, I'll keep that low too. I checked a bit earlier just before dark, and it seems the 3 fish are buddies again, and I found them in the shallow end again, which makes me think they're getting a bit confident in their new home (when I first released them, they stayed in the shallow end, then eventually investigated the deep end and seemed to be testing all the hiding places, before finding the nerve to come out to the more exposed shallow end again. My point is, if they're going to show themselves and actually go about happily, then I guess we don't need loads.

As for the ammonia and nitrites for the short term, am I right in thinking that they are actual plant nutrients? I believe one of them is ammonium nitrate or something, and nitrite is some other molecule of nitrogen, so hopefully the plants will take all that up as they grow. Or am I getting it wrong?

 

Also if you aim to keep up to 2/3 of the pond's surface covered with lilies, floating plants etc, you'll go a long way in avoiding that problem that many pond owners come across - green water (too much alge growth through too much sunlight getting in the water)...

 

How odd, I've never seen or heard of Golden Orfe jumping out of a pond. The ones we had (6-7) were quite happy for a number of years (lost them in the flood) and didn't grow very quickly . The pond wasn't very well maintained either. O well.

I'd get some if I had a pond.