Hi dee hi, thanks for all of that :-) The 55 gallon aquarium now houses
one, lonely, Asian red tail cat (not the south American one) it had other
fish in it up until a couple of months ago when they slowly died off. So,
there is a fairly decent biofilter in place already -- the tank is
definitely established and already has an airstone. I think I will clean
some gravel and change the filter cartridge.

I will acclimate the 4 goldfish to being inside, that's a great idea -- I
think I have a couple goldfish bowls -or maybe I'll just go to Pier One and
grab some kind of giant, makeshift goldfish bowl :-) They are probably 2-3"
long now.

I know all about the fish-waste problem and that's one reason I actually
(sorry to say it) hate goldfish, all they do is poop and eat and poop some
more. Mother Nature bestowed them on me when I bought the plants in the
pond, so I will take very good care of them - I'm just not excited by them
and the mess they will create in there (I guess this means more aquarium
maintenance, lol). With, currently, having just 1 fish in a 55 gallon it's
very low maintenance ~sigh~

My work is never done, lol
LeeAnne


"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...

"LeeAnne" wrote in message
...
Thank you Doc - I'll be bringing them in this weekend then.

And, thank you to the others as well! I'd keep 'em outside but the
"pond"
freezes solid in the winter.


Be very careful on theree counts. Even now the pond water will be at a
significantly lower temp than 80 degrees - suspect you are looking at at
least a 15-20 degree difference. Suggest you bring the fish into the house
in a large container of water from the pond and let that sit and warm up
to
room temperature of its own accord. When it gets up to room temperature
then
add an aquarium heater to heat it further up to the same temperature as
the
tank. Then and only then transfer the fish.

You havn't said how many fish you are bringing in but whatever the number
you will be putting a significant extra load into the tank's bio filter
and
it will take a few days for the bio filter to enlarge the bacterial
colonies
enough to deal with it. In the meantime you may see either an Ammonia or
Nitrite spike so test the water morning and evening for 3 or 4 days. If
you
are going to see anything it will appear in that time frame. If you do see
a
bad spike then change water.

Lastly, water at 80 degrees has a far lower capacity to absorb and retain
oxygen than water at 60 degrees. Also the surface area of your tank is far
smaller than that of your pond so watch for signs of oxygen deprivation.
You
may or may not see this depending on the number of fish. If you think it
might be an issue then add an Airstone to the tank.

In the spring then you will need to reverse the temperature equalisation
process & it may be worth taking the fish outside over 2 -3 weeks
(depending
on how many you have) to allow the pond's bio filter to kick in & process
the waste that they will produce.

HTH

I.