Goldfish pond feeding

Legacy_user

We have three ponds in our garden, two of which have goldfish.

In the patio pond there are two fish, which have had five young this year. We don't have pumps or filters, yet the water is clear and the weed flourishes so we must be doing something right. There are a few water snails.

Next week we will be away and instead of asking a neighbour to feed the fish every day or so, we thought we'd not bother as we feel there must be sufficient nutrients for them to forage and survive.

What do you think?.

In the main pond, there are about eleven fish. No young as far as we are aware, but there are four which were born last year, so again, things must be ideal there. Sixty plus newts were put in there last year and frogs return there to breed every February. We feel this pond could be left too.

What do you think ?

dogmaryxx

http://pondlady.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/feeding-your-goldfish.html

wallbash

Guessing that author does not live this side of the 'pond'

quote .....

do not know the difference between you and a raccoon or a heron, so will come to the surface thinking they are going to get dinner and end up being dinner.


I feed my fish , and yes they grow ! But even I now start cutting down there feed , water is getting colder and in another month will stop completely.
So to answer your question ........ forget the fish , just enjoy your hols.

Cally_Smart

They'll be fine. Mine only get a bit of food when I remember ,(which isn't very often )Nature has a wonderful way of taking over & getting the perfect balance. I guess pondlady lives ,as you say,on the other side of the 'pond' (I've noticed a distinct absence of raccoons in Gloucestershire as well )but they have some greater extremes of weather than we do so she looks very knowledgeable on the subject so don't worry!

cyclonebri1

I've kept a variety of pond fish all my life.

Do not ask the neighbours to feed the fish, they will over do it just to ensure they don't under do it if you get my drift.

They are slowing down now and will have put on weight to get them through winter so don't worry, fish can survive an amazing length of time, years almost, living on nothing other than the natural food in your garden pond.

Regardless of what they would have you believe, pond fish dealers keep their fish on a starvation diet to make them look fit and active, but mainly to take the weight off their over worked filtration systems.

Oh, and don't worry if you don't have filtration, goldfish will easily thrive without, it's only when you start with the less hardy varieties, koi carp etc, that you need to go the filter/pump route