Goldfish fry question - pond

[Nicole Thompson]

The last couple weeks, I've noticed a few goldfish fry in my pond.
(and I did a happy dance I might add) :-)
I'm quite surprised b/c this is my first attempt at a pond.
(See "story" below if interested.)

However, I'm wondering if the older goldfish would eat them......
Everything I've found on-line says they'll definitely eat the eggs, but will
they eat the baby fish once they've hatched?

Thanks,
Nicole
--
Life is too important to be taken seriously. - Oscar Wilde
There is nothing like a dream to create the future. - Victor Hugo

How I got my pond: We purchased a home in December and the previous owner
made an elevated "pond" out of cinderblocks - he only had a statuary
fountain in it. Well, when we first looked at the house, there was ONE
lonely goldfish in there - and no vegetation. After closing on the house and
waiting for spring to see if it survived (which it did), we decided to add
some "friends". The water immediately got cloudy and we feared we'd made a
HUGE mistake. Well, after reading extensively on-line (as well as other
sources), we made our own biofilter, calculated the pond holds roughly 550
gallons and purchased a 700 gph pump w/fountain, added plants, and tested
the water (which we were thinking of draining and starting over - SO glad we
read up first b/c the water was just fine - other than the algae cycle
making it cloudy). Soooo, to make a very long story short, I'm elated that
my goldfish are so happy in their revamped accommodations that they've
actually had some babies! (We added 4 more fish to the original and he/she -
haven't figured out which is which yet - was very happy to have "friends".)
But I'm concerned b/c it seems there are a few fry I haven't seen in
awhile - perhaps they're hiding?

[jammer]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 20:27:50 -0400, "Nicole Thompson"
> wrote:

>The last couple weeks, I've noticed a few goldfish fry in my pond.
>(and I did a happy dance I might add) :-)
>I'm quite surprised b/c this is my first attempt at a pond.
>(See "story" below if interested.)
>
>However, I'm wondering if the older goldfish would eat them......
>Everything I've found on-line says they'll definitely eat the eggs, but will
>they eat the baby fish once they've hatched?
>
>Thanks,
>Nicole

GF parents do eat their babies until they are too big to fit in their
mouths. Having just gone through my first OOOH! BABY FISH!
...TO.....Who wants fish?? I dont want to have to kill them!, i can
only say "have fun, enjoy your pond life, but be careful what you wish
for by way of babies"

[Charles]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2003 20:27:50 -0400, "Nicole Thompson"
> wrote:

>The last couple weeks, I've noticed a few goldfish fry in my pond.
>(and I did a happy dance I might add) :-)
>I'm quite surprised b/c this is my first attempt at a pond.
>(See "story" below if interested.)
>
>However, I'm wondering if the older goldfish would eat them......
>Everything I've found on-line says they'll definitely eat the eggs, but will
>they eat the baby fish once they've hatched?
>
>Thanks,
>Nicole
My experience, by the time the babies swim like normal fish, the
parents leave them alone. While they act like mosquitoes, all bets
are off.

If you decide to try to move them, be advised that fry are very
delicate, I've killed many trying to be good to them. capture them in
a bowl, move them gently, and release them even more so. Nets, no!


--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

[NJ]

"Nicole Thompson" > wrote in message
...
>
> However, I'm wondering if the older goldfish would eat them......
> Everything I've found on-line says they'll definitely eat the eggs, but
will
> they eat the baby fish once they've hatched?

Congratulations on your "living pond", Nicole. I am currently raising 15
goldfish fry indoors because the first time I found fry in my pond, they got
eaten. The next time we found eggs, I caved in to the whims of my
15-year-old, and removed about 30 eggs from the pond. About 18 of them
hatched. Raising fry independent of the pond is very worky: aeration
device for fry tank, liquifry food, frozen brine shrimp, frequent water
changes, etc. You can search my earlier post from last week in which I
detailed the ways in which these "Small Fry = Big Project!" The fry in
question are now over 3 weeks old, and they are still mosquito-sized,
although they are getting appreciably bigger. I guess I'm saying that if
you really want to save the fry, it will take lots of work.

NJ

[Nicole Thompson]

Thank you for all the responses/info.
I've seen some of the babies in recent days (they do tend to "hide" in the
floating plants, so when I move those around a bit, I get to see one or two
occasionally) - my they do grow fast!
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how many survive into adulthood.....
Several of the ones I've seen are now 2" long, so I'm guessing they're
pretty safe at this point.
Now I have to figure out how many fish the 550 gallons can support (and sell
the rest I guess?).

I'm just thrilled we have any babies at all.......it's just amazing to me
considering what we started with! :-)

<<knocks wood>> Thankfully, the electrified "strapping" we've surrounded the
pond with seems to be keeping out predators too.

Nicole
--
Life is too important to be taken seriously. - Oscar Wilde
There is nothing like a dream to create the future. - Victor Hugo

"Nicole Thompson" > wrote in message
...
> The last couple weeks, I've noticed a few goldfish fry in my pond.
> (and I did a happy dance I might add) :-)
> I'm quite surprised b/c this is my first attempt at a pond.
> (See "story" below if interested.)
>
> However, I'm wondering if the older goldfish would eat them......
> Everything I've found on-line says they'll definitely eat the eggs, but
will
> they eat the baby fish once they've hatched?
>
> Thanks,
> Nicole
> --
> Life is too important to be taken seriously. - Oscar Wilde
> There is nothing like a dream to create the future. - Victor Hugo
>
> How I got my pond: We purchased a home in December and the previous owner
> made an elevated "pond" out of cinderblocks - he only had a statuary
> fountain in it. Well, when we first looked at the house, there was ONE
> lonely goldfish in there - and no vegetation. After closing on the house
and
> waiting for spring to see if it survived (which it did), we decided to add
> some "friends". The water immediately got cloudy and we feared we'd made a

> HUGE mistake. Well, after reading extensively on-line (as well as other
> sources), we made our own biofilter, calculated the pond holds roughly 550
> gallons and purchased a 700 gph pump w/fountain, added plants, and tested
> the water (which we were thinking of draining and starting over - SO glad
we
> read up first b/c the water was just fine - other than the algae cycle
> making it cloudy). Soooo, to make a very long story short, I'm elated that
> my goldfish are so happy in their revamped accommodations that they've
> actually had some babies! (We added 4 more fish to the original and
he/she -
> haven't figured out which is which yet - was very happy to have
"friends".)
> But I'm concerned b/c it seems there are a few fry I haven't seen in
> awhile - perhaps they're hiding?
>
>
>
>