Fall chores: bringing in goldfish

Geraldine in her flower pot

Every year I bring in some of our goldfish. This was a good day for homework as we both have a touch of flu!

I bring in the biggest fishies, as well as a few of the younger, to ensure that I have a nice population in subsequent years. When I put the indoor fish outdoors in the spring, I counted a total of 36 fish. They seemed to make whoopee over the winter, under the ice on the pond.

This year, I brought in about a dozen, with about 16 remaining in the pond. All of those outdoors are about 3" or so, or less. The challenge is to catch them. The kids caught 3 for their tank in the city.

Once I'd caught two, a large and a small, the other fish caught on to getting caught up, and hid in the deep, under the cement bricks which are meant for protection! This means I must drain the pond, and remove the bricks, in order to capture them. It's not so bad. I have refilled the pond all summer, despite the mouse holes, using the rain barrel.

Shirley 2

Anticipating rain all day today (Saturday), as well as last night, and enjoying a lovely sunny day Friday, it was a perfect day to do the chore. A cold front is moving in today!

The cats popped in, checking out my progress. The first step is to drain the pond, using the black hose. You can see how Daisy was holding the hose for me! Both girls came by to examine the receding water!

SC #44

Geraldine and Jerry weren't really happy with the project. It takes much work for Geraldine to get up into the pot (see the video below) when the water is low! She gave up and went into my flowers. I captured Jerry and popped him into the flowers, too. He was just too agitated. Geraldine doesn't worry about me too much. I weighed them in the summer and she wasn't too upset. Jerry was and is still quite skittish. (Out of curiosity, I weighed them both!)

The fish will take some time to get used to the indoor 60 gallon tank. Some of the big ones are 5 or 6" long. Shirley 2 has had babies, as I can see some with the white and orange colours she used to have! Shirley 1 I bought from Big Al's, for $10 and it was a good buy. She was an older fish, and quite healthy. Not all are, as they are often used for food for other fish.