Topic: Over wintering baby gold fish....

[Aden Roller]

This year our tiny pond is full of baby goldfish. There's probably 20 or more.

As their pond is small and already contains several large older fish I'm considering taking the tiddlers in for the winter.

I have a new 48" x 25" x 18" tank so thought I might use this. If nothing else it might be interesting to watch them grow.

Any advice would be welcome.

 

[goodlife]

I'm not sure why you want to take the babies out..for protection against winter? If so..it not necessary..they are as hardy as their parents. It is the change of environment that often is more traumatic and kills them rather than staying outdoors the winter.
Couple of years ago I was involved with big job of emptying swimming pool full of fish, than included babies..and no matter how well we were prepared..we used pond water for the temporary nursery tank, we had pumps and air stones..kept the tank in shade etc...but still we lost 2/3 of the stock. Now all the bit larger 'babies' were fine with adults...it was the tiddlers that suffered.
Providing there is enough room in the pond and the water conditions are OK for larger population in winter..they would be much better were they are.
But if you do need to 'thin' the numbers down anyway...suppose they have to go somewhere..better give them chance of survival than having to just  get rid.

[antipodes]

Aden Roller I'm sorry, I just had to LOL when I looked at this - in the forum window it comes out as "OverWintering baby"
 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
"I'll just bring Diddums in for the winter, first frosts are here and it's getting so parky at night out in his pram..."

 ;)

On a serious side, I have friends with pond fish, they just let them live their lives over winter and their population has not suffered at all. As the temperature goes down slowly I think the fish just adjust to it and it is surely a good way to ensure only the very fit ones survive and thrive (although that seems a bit cruel).

[Aden Roller]

Antipodes... Must one bring babies in for the winter?  :( So much quieter with them outside. My mum always believed the fresh air would do me good.... even in London's smog I was stuck outside in the pram.  :-\

On a more serious note.... my reason for thinking the tiddly goldfish might be better indoors in a very large tank is that the pond really is small. Too small, I think, to provide a decent environment for more fish than it was stocked with at the start of the year especially over winter.

Come the spring, if all goes well, I may build a new pond in the place opposite us as the garden's bigger.

I am going to dither over this one. A new tank is sitting in the lounge (it's almost the size of the pond in the garden) - could be used for tropical fish but it would cost a bomb to run. Leaving it empty seems a waste so temporarily re homing the baby goldfish seemed a good idea.....at the time.