Topic: Babies

[Grandma]

For the first time I have baby fish! They're really tiny - still small enough to be a snack for the bigger fish but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Very excited!

[Aden Roller]

For the first time I have baby fish! They're really tiny - still small enough to be a snack for the bigger fish but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Very excited!

That's brilliant! Me too  ;)

I noticed lots of little goldfish fry just as I was about to thin out the pond plants. It must be something to do with the weather in the south.  :)

[Grandma]

Wecome to the mad world of A4A, Aden Roller!

Congratulations on your fishy offspring - I'm so glad someone else finds it exciting!  :)

My biggest babies are about 2" long now - (and hopefully too big to be eaten!) -but I keep seeing really tiny ones that can't long have hatched.

I love my little pond - not just for the fish but for all the wildlife it attracts! I hope your babies thrive!  :)

[Aden Roller]

Thanks Grandma.

We're pleased with our littluns. It's only a tiny pond but fairly well stocked and no new fish have been bought for years. It takes quite a while for our baby black ones to turn golden although we did have one last year that started off carrot red.

What colours are yours?

[Grandma]

My littluns range from very light brown (almost transparent!) when really tiny to dark brown/black with a silvery underside at 2". I imagine it's nature's way of providing them with a bit of camouflage.

I would normally have thinned out the elodea but I'm leaving it for the time being as a safe haven for the babies.  :) 

Interesting to hear about your unusual carrot-coloured baby - no camouflage there!

[Aden Roller]

The very light carrot-coloured fish (almost pink) appeared last year along with one more orange as well as the more usual black ones. At the time we had an adult fish with similar light colouring as the bub.

It amazes me that any survive as I know we have at least one newt in the pond as well as frogs.

Like you I left most of the elodea canadensis for them to hide in. Eventually I must thin it out even more to give them some swimming space. 

[Aden Roller]

Hi Grandma...

Having just peered in our pond I was wondering what you do with your new tiddlers if you have loads?

Our pond is really little and normally home to about 5 goldfish. Now there must be 25 or more.  :o

[Nigel B]

Hi Grandma...

Having just peered in our pond I was wondering what you do with your new tiddlers if you have loads?

Our pond is really little and normally home to about 5 goldfish. Now there must be 25 or more.  :o

I've scooped some of ours out of the pond and into the water-butt next to the greenhouse where I've been able to provide a pump and air-stone to keep them happy. The have plenty of weed in there, and loads of that floating stuff to hide under....
No idea what they are yet as we have a range of different fish in there. Some gifts, some rescued from our lad who was going to use them as live-bait. One from the local 'music in the park' do in the field last weekend where you could win them on a stall. (I had thought that practice had been disallowed, but hey..)... and a couple from a local pond that is about to go under the developers' bulldozer....

Last spring we took a load of frog-spawn from the same pond to populate our garden with....
Mowing the lawn is an experience now they've grown a bit and left the pond.... Brrrrrrr...Thunk!...... Brrrrrrrrr...Thunk!....  :-[

[Aden Roller]

Thanks for the reply Nigel.

I just don't want to imagine the scene with your lawn mower  :o It sometimes worries me when the froglets are on the lose. I have enough bother with the cat and a free roaming rabbit.  ::)

I thought I might catch my new fish and take them indoors for the winter. I have a new 4'x2'x18" tank. It was to be for tropical fish but I'm concerned about the cost of running it so using it for cold water seems a reasonable alternative.

Your range of fish sounds interesting. I know more about tropicals than cold water fish. I'll have to do some reading up to see what else I might be able to keep in an indoor cold-water tank for interest.

[Grandma]

Hello Aden Roller and Nigel,

I couldn't guesstimate how many littluns I have but I don't thiink I'll have an overpopulation problem, this being the first year I've had babies. Having lost two of my bigger fish to bl""dy herring gulls - (ugly net over pond now) - the new ones are a welcome addition.

I used to have British natives in a tank indoors: they thrived and grew VERY quickly so I don't think you'll have any problem with golfish. Mine are going to have to take their chance outdoors. They're in for a bit of a shock anyway as I'm hoping to get my pond deepened and slightly enlarged later this year!

Have you any idea, please, when I can expect to see the babies begin to show their true colours?

(Nigel - I'm going to have nightmares about your frog-mowing!  :o) 

[Aden Roller]

From my experience of last year's lot some of the "black" ones began to have silvery gold undersides within the first year. Having said that I have two pretty big ones that are still 90% as black as the ace of spades and they must be in their 3rd year. I guess the colour of the parents will have a big influence.

This link says colour changes in 2 to 3 years: Bristol Aquarists' Society

[brown thumb]

year before last i took my babies in for the winter, not again,. now on they have to take their chances out of doors at least that way  you know only the fitterest  will survive   i had a spare tank bought a  new pump filter etc the babies was that small they kept getting caught in the pump then i covered all the pump etc in tight s and the little b.....s was getting trapped up against the net , so every few hours i had to go  and release them ,never again,  so now any new babies take their chances

[Aden Roller]

I guess your baby goldfish were very small?

Mine are more than 1.5" so as large or larger than many tropical fish. The tank is huge and the filter system safe enough for tropicals so I'll give it a go and let you know. But thanks for the warning - something to look out for.  ;)

[brown thumb]

yea they were very tiny must have been a late hatch i havent seen this years hatch lately but i knew they did breed this year as i saw some

[elhuerto]

I've been following this thread as we too now have about 60 baby fish in the pond, we only built it last Summer and maybe naively didn't consider this happening....or at least the amount. What's really surprising is that after returning from our hols we found two large bright orange goldfish that weren't there before - I think somebody is using us as a rescue centre  :)

[brown thumb]

thank goodness its not the other way and they were removing some

[goodlife]

I wonder if anybody knows..but..I've got this shred of info/memory that I remember reading or seeing in terry or something..
Its about fish population in ponds or other confined spaces. Is is true that fish sort of deregulate amount they make babies.
Place where I work..there is large swimming pool that is turned into pond..and they've got all sorts of fish there.
Other year we had disaster hit and majority of the fish was lost..few months after the surviving fish (koi, rod and goldfish) all produced babies and now 2 yrs after..the pond is FULL..shoals of small fish everywhere.
Before the incident they never bred..and since the 'big splash and rompy pompey' no more neither...not that there would be anymore room for more.
As soon as the majority of the big fish were gone..the survivors look like they've grown bigger too..they were HUGE then and now they are even bigger.
And other thing that surprised me..I thought different fish species would  eat each others babies..but no..they don't gobble them up.. ::)..and now we are having to try to fish some out as the population far too big for the available space.. ::)