That sounds like mating activity to me.

Here is a link that might be useful: matt's koi pond

Mike,

Congrats on the fish. I agree, they are fun to watch. I don't know if they are mating or not. My fish that are too young to mate swim together. Your pond is big enough to hold the babies when you do have mating fish.

Are you going to post new pictures of your pond? I've been wondering how it looks this year. The plants should be well settled in now.
Anne

I think it is wonderful that you have fish. I love mine and get so much enjoyment out of them. You have enough space for a lot of goldfish. Don't think you have to worry about over-population for a good while, in the mean time just enjoy. Glenda

Mike, they do seem to just like each others company. My office had one little goldfish in a small tank. A client showed up one day with another fish because he said our fish was lonely. Well, maybe he was. they immediately began swimming about together side by side. Those 2 10 cent goldfish are what led to my 700 gal pond. Turned out to be male and female but they didn't do the spawning thing until they were a year in my pond.

I now have 5 big goldfish (those first two grew a lot) and a bunch of minnows. I keep checking ammonia and whatnot but I never see a trace. Plenty of room in there and my pond is a fraction of yours. And they all have different personalities. I wouldn't have believed it, either, but I do now!

Vanessa

Hi - Thanks for the info, experiences and encouragement.

One reason I resisted fish is because I don't want endless babies. When someone suggested mating behavior I was pretty miffed. I'm thinking fish run wild: they behaved themselves at home, got here, took a shower under the falls and got excited away from home!

I agree that I have plenty of room so far. My water is a bit murky from a chronic siltation problem so I guess I will need to consider better filtration.

For all my grumbling, the fish are addictive, really interesting, and a great addition. Also have toads trilling all night and at least one pretty big frog that might be a bullfrog. No predators yet-after two days. I realize I finally have a pond.

Anne, I do plan to post some pictures of my pond--quite a change too--if there ever is any good light.

How to's of overwintering of fish and lilies is next dreaded project. I worry too much.

Thanks for sharing.
Mike

I bought 35 15cent goldfish last summer. 12 were in it when I turned of the pump and it froze. Halfway through winter we had a warm spell,the ice melted, and there were my fish. I did not put in a bubbler or a heater. The weather turner cold again and I got 6" of ice. Spring came and there were my fish still swimming around!
They now are 3"-4" long (about 3-4 times larger). They have mated once and I now have 12-15 babies. My pond is about 1800 gal. with 3 water falls.

Good luck with your pond. It will take care of itself once it is balanced ecologically.

George

You may get lucky and have that bullfrog eat some of your fry.

Worrying about too many fry is a valid concern. Goldfish usually spawn much faster than rabbits breed.....

Congrats Mike--Adopted Fish are more gratifying--Don't worry about too many babies yet, just enjoy--fish are fun to watch!!
I have 15 assorted goldfish, most bought as feeder fish for 10cents, some adopted from an overstocked school aquarium.
Knock on wood, I have never had babies, don't know why?? Maybe they got eaten?? I have never seen any fry, so don't know??
At any rate, just enjoy them each day & take what comes...Life is too short to worry about things you don't have any control over. I'll be watching for your pictures.
Dianne

Hi Everybody - thanks for the encouragement. You all are so right about the fish. Three days and already I am enchanted and spend time just watching them swim and play, nip at my lilies, just cavorting and seeming to have a grand time. They obviously were somebody's pets and I can tell handfeeding will come soon.

Both love to swim around the waterfalls--at first I feared they were looking for oxygen but with a high hourly turnover of water it is hard to believe. They nose around the skimmer but seem to be big and strong enough to resist getting pulled in.

Here is my question: if I decide to add a couple more fish, what do I do--I remember about quarantines and all that, but I'm a sink or swim type. Any guidance?

I will be posting some pond pictures if we ever have a sunny day (doubtful).

I take the advice to heart to not worry, go with the flow. I have all I wanted and more than I expected in my pond. It is fun to share this experience with other ponders.

Thanks, any suggestions on increasing my brood, or not, are welcome.

Mike

Since you only have those two now and not much invested in them, you could get away with no quarantining....as long as you are prepared for loss. QT really becomes critical when you have a collection of fish that are valuable (either in the dollar sense or from an emotional standpoint) because the new additions can come complete with parasites that can threaten or kill your whole collection. If you want more goldies, go for it!! If you are planning to leave them out for the winter, do not get the fancy round bodied type (orandas, pearlscale, ruykins, lionheads, etc). They are much less cold hardy. You could get sarassa comets, shubunkins, or wakins though and not have a problem overwintering them.

thanks for good infor ccoombs. I have been looking at calico shubunkins.

No stores right around here have stock that looks good to me--I guess I could go to Pittsburgh.

Someone recommended Springdale and I like what they have altho limited in variety

Anyone recommend sites for on-line fish? I suppose the risk of infection etc is the same anywhere.

Now, I already have quite an attachment to my fish and wouldn't like to lose them. I'll see about quarantine etc

Any suggestion welcome--what a great change in my ponding!

Mike

Fish make ponding what it is for me. I spend endless hours by my pond, just watching and feeding the fish. They are all so pretty and some have wonderful, friendly personalities.

the only on-line places I know that sell goldies are pretty (very) expensive. The fish they sell are show-quality. Pet Smart has nice goldies from time to time, and I think the mail order place Drs. Foster and Smith sells them as well. Anytime you buy fish, no matter WHO they come from, assume they have parasites. Most fish have low levels of parasites all the time but their immune systems keep them in check. When the fish is subjected to a lot of stress (such as moving to a new home), they put all their system resources into stress control, and the immune system drops which permits parasites to take over. I always let a new fish settle into the QT for a couple of weeks or so (watching it for signs of parasites), then add a fish from my existing pond into the QT with it to make sure there are no incompatibility issues (bacterial or parasitic). If I see any signs, I scrape a bit of slime coat off and check it under a microscope to identify any parasites, then treat accordingly. Not something the average hobbiest can usually do though, so treating them for parasites while in QT is not a bad idea. ProformC handles most parasites, Prazi treates flukes and dimilin treats lice and anchor worms. Because I have koi and there are fatal viral diseases specific to koi, I normally leave fish in QT for at least 6 weeks or longer but that is not usually necessary with goldies.

wow ccoombs, a nice course in quarantine etc. I have read a lot over the years here and understand the ideas but never absorbed the details (because I would NEVER have fish)!

So pond water in a decent size Rubbermaid tub, an airstone? or other water circulator, fish, treatment, keep from baking in the sun--there I am? Oh, and talk to my fish.

A friend brought a bag of fish food and insists I have to feed the fish three times a day. I don't remember reading that. What is a good amount to feed (handful or more?), frequency? No algae in the pond for them. Don't want to starve them or turn them into gluttons.

I should have learned all this first, but the fish fell out of the sky, leaving me scrambling to insure their health and longevity. They are nifty!

Thanks - Mike

Mike,
I took the hobby-level version of ccoombs advice and quarantined in a rubbermaid storage tote with an airstone on the covered porch. I also covered half the tub to give them a place to hide. I lasted 2 weeks (of the 4 I planned) because I was eager to get them in the pond. While they were in the tub, I treated with a broad-spectrum parasite treatment. That was a 10 day treatment. They spawned near the end of that and the water got cloudy and smelly so, on the 11th day, I did hook up a small filter. That helped but they kept on laying eggs convincing me it was time to go in.
Everyone is just fine. They might have been without all that but I'm glad I did it.
Vanessa

Vanessa - I will follow your example. Seems a prudent course of action. At least I had the parts right.. even have the covered porch close to the pond.

Everything was fine in your note until I came to the part about spawning. I guess at least you can cull out the unwanted more easily than in the pond.

I'm on the fence right now--I have two quite pretty fantail fish, friendly, lots of fun. Maybe instead of rocking the boat I will just have two for a while--time will tell.

At least I am armed with good information to make a decision. Thanks a lot.

Mike

Lol, I see you got hooked, Mike, just like the rest of us. Ignore the friend with the bag of food. Three times daily is way too much as I am sure you know by now.
Dimlin has Prazi in it already. Don't use Prazi at the same time you use Dimlin. Don't use it casually. It seems to be pretty potent from what I read and my fishies react very quickly, regaining color and increased activity. In addition to the parasites brought in by new fish, they can be brought in by birds, storms and new plants. Just assume it is 99% sure your fishies have something. I had a call this week that a woman found leeches in the rain gutters on her house after a storm. Neither she nor her neighbors have ponds.
Fish do have personalities which makes it hurt when they are lost to disease or herons or other things you never thought of. This spring a pump stopped and I found a large goldie in a tube that had come loose on the prefilter/pump connection. It was too big to go through the 1 1/2 inch opening. Sandy

for smaller sized fish, a rubbermaid container should be fine for QT, just watch water quality and don't feed much (feeding will contribute to poor water quality). Make sure they have an air stone. If there is no filter, do frequent but small water changes (10% every couple of days should be fine). Try to make sure the fish in QT has a buddy....they don't like to be alone. Make sure you net the top!! Fish love to jump out, maybe thinking a nice stroll around the ground would be nice, but they usually can't jump back in which is not a good thing for them at all.

Sandy, unless you have found some strange form of dimilin, dimilin has no prazi in it. It is indicated only for fish lice and anchor worms. the active ingrediant is diflubenzuron which only affects crustations and nothing else, which is why it is such a safe product. I have used it in combination with all other parasite treatments with no ill effects. It really should not be needed routinely though, since the only parasites it affects are visible to the naked eye. All the other parasites are microscopic though, which is why treating for them as a preventitive may be a good idea. Ich is the hard one to get though. Ich goes through 3 life forms. First, the larva live together in a free floating cyst. The cyst protects them from the chemicals and they cant be killed. The cyst bursts open, releasing the larva (called tomites). Tomites are easily killed with proformC or salt. But give them some free time, and the tomites burrow under the skin of the fish where again, they are protected from the chemicals. the whole life cycle takes around 7 days, which is why repeated treatments are necessary for ich and why ich seems to appear out of no where. They must be killed while they are tomites or they are not really gone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dimilin

Well, yes, I have gotten hooked. But seeing all the details of tending fish reminds me why I didn't want them in the first place. Read all the posts on sick fish and said, "Nah."

I have been reading but a concise, clear picture here of the process with basic goldies makes it all come together.

I can do this, I am not too old to learn: remembering is another matter!

I've decided to wait a little before adding two more fish. I want a better handle on the afflictions, the treatments, and balancing my water, test kit etc. All the treatment meds or whatever tout themselves as the best since snake oil, so learning is needed. Then I might be better prepared for more responsibilty. Or I will be impatient and impulsive and go for it unprepared. Who knows?

Working on hand feeding, watching them nudge pea gravel out of my lilies. I'll report if I do get more soon.

Many thanks for invaluable info and lessons
Mike

First fish, first problem, already? My larger fish appears to have one eye slightly distended more than the other. In watching, the fish sometimes has, or seems to have, a depth perception problem in taking food.

My water is quite clear for observation but the fish doesn't exactly cooperate. Lying on the edge looking into the water, I am fairly certain this is what I see.

Is this a known problem condition with these fish (I think I recall something about it) and is there a treatment that might be possible on the 4th of July?

Mike

You might find this website helpful. Glenda

http://mysite.verizon.net/bonniehill/ponds/pages/symptoms.html