Saturday 28 September 2013

It's that time of year: come on in, goldfish!

Who, me, mommy?
What a job! I drained the pond, since the goldfish weren't inclined to come in from the cold. I couldn't find them.

Using an old garden hose, and that miracle of gravity: hydrostatic pressure, AKA the syphon effect, I got rid of the green water. The algae isn't so bad, it protects the fish from sun, and the osprey that likes to circle above!

The water lily is doing fabulously well, with great leaves and flowers. The fish are doing well, too. I brought in the big ones, a few medium and a couple of smaller ones, just in case the others do not survive the winter!

These fish will be outside for winter!
I wrote a post about caring for goldfish. It's a pretty easy task, but they do poop a lot! Indoors you need a good filter. Plus, they grow to a decent size!

I had great supervisors, two wearing white fur coats and one with
a black coat, although they had a short attention span. Dorah came back with a field mouse and was having a grand time. It bit her on the nose and it bled!
I chucked it into the tall grasses and Daisy found it later. It's ironic, as there are holes in the pond liner from the mice chewing it.
There were three green frogs helping, too. Geraldine Bullfrog heard there was work involved and steered clear of us all day. I haven't seen her in two days. Here is a photo from a couple of weeks ago. 
I'm loathe to use so much water refilling it,
but we had 46mm of rain last week. 
Once I shut it down for the season,
I will soak the pump in vinegar to remove the skunge!

Three babies, plus two shiners!
I tossed them back.

Daisy is keen on the
goldfish coming indoors!

10 comments:

eileeninmd said...

I am sure your goldfish will be happy to be inside for the winter. Great post and photos.

Ontario Wanderer said...

I like the idea of soaking the pump in vinegar. Can't figure out why I had not thought of that before.

Olga said...

Aw, the annual goldfish migration.

Kay said...

How funny! Somebody was just mentioning how much goldfish poop the other day. Your goldfish are beautiful, Jenn.

Billy Blue Eyes said...

I take it you have bad winters there then

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari Om
Glorious Gold! I have always admired aquarium/pond situations, but from experience know that these are not the life forms I best manage! Definitely more your shepherdess and dog-wrangler and like yourself have been 'managed' by a few felines along the way!

That is one beautiful tank though... YAM xx

Yogi♪♪♪ said...

I know a few people here in Oklahoma who let their fish winter outside. Even though our winters are a lot milder than yours it is amazing to me that the fish make it through the winter.

Powell River Books said...

I never thought about having to winterize a pond, but it makes sense when you think about it. Fortunately, our lake doesn't freeze over in the winter, but little ponds do, even in town on a really cold night. When I had a horse, the stable kept gold fish in the water troughs to keep the algae down. Hopefully none got sucked up into those big mouths. - Margy

VioletSky said...

(I had a little laugh at Bill's comment!)
I once bought goldfish for my turtle who ate a few then promptly went into hibernation. I then had to buy goldfish food to keep the remaining three alive all winter. It was rather nice to see them all together. but alas, one day the turtle woke up and saw food. I missed the goldfish terribly and had to buy more plus another small aquarium to keep them in.

Anonymous said...

I think I'd bring ours in if I could just so I might enjoy them during the dark days.
Our pond is probably a good 4 times bigger and really deep too, so catching them all would be hard; emptying the pond would be impossible.
Still, considering it...