Just found a fish!

Hi all, I'm a new gardener who has taken on a rather run down garden with a new house. The frount garden has a small pond, it's quite neglected like just about everything else, so imagine my surprise when two goldfish appeared as I stared into the gloom this morning! I can hardly see in there and I know the pump isn't working so how they have survived I really don't know! We were going to clear everything out of it and replace the pump once the weather warmed but now I have living things in there I'm at a loss. Should we still clear the lot or go gentler? Also, I read on an older thread that the fish shouldn't be fed unless they are active, but how active is that? I have spent quite a lot of time in the frount garden over the weekend and has only just seen them (Monday), do you think I should leave them a bit before feeding? And I suppose I can get their food at a pet shop? Sorry to go on so....

 

The weather is due to get a bit warmer this week (and wetter!) so if your pond is ice free at the moment try spinkinkling just a small pinch of fish flakes on top of the pond and see if the goldfish take it. If so you can gradully start increasing feed from weekly to every second day then daily for the summer

The main thing is not to overfeed. They will only take what they need and the rest will sink to the bottom and decompose leading to green algae or even worse nitrite problems form waste products.

 

I dont think I would start feeding just yet, What looks overgrown to us can be pretty good for goldfish, as long as there's some clear water for them to swim.
Also vegetation means natural food, its supprising how they can cope in conditions that a lot of other fish cant.
If the pond is a reasonable size, a pump is not necessary to their survival.
Yes you can buy food at any pet supply shop and most garden centres. I would buy it according to their size, if they are small, go for the flake food, I think there are a couple of sizes of pellets also, but they're not fussy.

[ 06. March 2006, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: pete2255 ]

 

Thanks, I'll take a closer look at the vegetatian in there tomorrow, to see how much room they atually have to swim. It's a really small pond, just a rigid liner filled with several types of plant that I wouldn't even try to name! There is a black shoot attached, I presume the water is supposed to trickle down when the pump is working, but it doesn't look anything like natural, any ideas on disguising it a bit?

 

Just a thought. If you really want to clear it out and do a stock-take, it may be easier to do it before frogs and newts produce thousands of tadpoles.

They are late here and haven't congregated at my pond yet because of the cold spell, I don't know about the weather in Devon, they may have been and gone and done it already.

 

I have only seen one frog and it was dead. They have to climb my frount steps to get to the pond so i don't know how many would do that. i know they can jump but do they climb steps? Daft question probably!!

 

yes they can climb steps - so watch out when going up them in the evening!!

 

They can climb the stairs, we had one in our bathroom. The cat may have bought it in, but it was funny when my wife found it. Boy, did she scream.