The Goldfish

[gemfyre]

In the front yard of our house is a fishpond. When we moved in the agent emptied out the pond and removed all the fish, so we wouldn't have to worry about caring for them.

Somehow, some survived. Possibly as eggs. A few weeks later we noticed a few small goldfish swimming about.

In spring there was plenty of mosquito larvae in the pond, Jakie scooped up some to feed to her Betas and I guess the goldfish finished off the rest.

It got hot, algae grew thickly and the water level dropped to about half - eventually I refilled the pond. It's now set up so every time we water the potted plants some water goes into the pond to top it up.

There are areas of sun and shade and even full on hidey holes in the pond.

I guess all these factors have provided the perfect environment for the goldfish because there are now at least 30 of them in there. I was just watching for a while and kept noticing little tackers in a big clump of algae, probably nibbling away at the abundant food source. There are 2 or 3 really large fish, quite a few medium sized ones and god knows how many tiny ones.

I think I'll put a seat out there and just watch them for a few hours. Anyone know how fast goldfish breed? From what we're seeing here it would seem pretty damn fast.

Comments

[alias_sqbr]

That's pretty cool. Hopefully they're not increasing at an exponential rate :) (though from the sound things they'd all be pretty inbred)

[jet-ski.livejournal.com]

inbred goldfish start getting scary looking! :P

[alias_sqbr]

This is beginning to sound like the premise for a horror movie. "A seemingly empty pond...a single goldfish appears. Soon, the pond fills with more and more goldfish, each larger and more mutated than the last!"

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I'll keep a close eye on them.

So far they look pretty normal shaped, just with speckled patterns.

Yay

[gushgush.livejournal.com]

Let's hear it for the persistence of natural processes in spite of the humans' best-laid plans to thwart them.
Those goldfish are a gift: treasure them.

[kitfoxx.livejournal.com]

I'd love to have a little pond with fish in it. (: