The goldfish pond activity

It's a good place of refuge for the frogs, since the wetland is dry and growing vegetation. The goldfish are growing, and I seem to have 10 babies. I have 7 adults, including Shirley 5, who turned white at one point. I feed them, from time-to-time, just to be able to count them.

 I love how the fish nip the froggy toes by mistake, and froggies hop away in surprise. I haven't seen the watersnake since I moved it.

 

The Alewives have procreated, as well. The waterlilies look lovely.

Invasive species: goldfish

indoors in winter!

There are quite a few invasive species in many parts of this continent. I never thought of the goldfish as invasive. Mind you, I was given 5 goldfish to add to my collection. I should have thought about it.

my (mostly) hand-dug goldfish pond

Mine were found by a biologist in a ditch, where there were thousands of them, dumped by somebody, but they survive our terrible winters. She collected them in a water bottle and brought them home.
I brought in about a dozen goldfish for the winter, they look lovely, but another 2 dozen survived in the frozen pond!
The local lakes are infested with zebra mussels. Another invasive species. The shoreline is terrible to navigate, and they wash up on the beaches. Boaters have been negligent, and these little guys have taken over. The last photo shows them attached to a clam shell.

Geraldine, last year

Leopard frogs

Kay asked about my buddy, Geraldine. She is off looking for love, and will return once she's laid eggs, methinks. She overwintered in my pond. I've had the odd leopard frog, but they are happy in the dewy grass. Once August comes, with the hot, dry days, they will come to my pond.

You can see the mix of species and colours.
Shirley, large with the white, has died.

In my goldfish pond I have goldfish, plus another invasive species, Alewives. They came with plants I transplanted from the frog pond, a vernal pond down beside our meadow. They have bred with the goldfish, you can spot them with the darker fins, but orange colour, and seem to be doing well!

They have interbred

Alewives, AKA shiners

What You Can Do(PDF)

• Learn how to identify goldfish and how to prevent accidentally spreading this invasive species.
• Don’t release any live fish into Ontario lakes, rivers or streams or flush them down the toilet. Return or donate unwanted aquarium fish to a pet store or offer them up on FreeCycle.org.

• Inspect your boat, trailer and equipment after each use. Remove all plants, animals and mud before moving to a new waterbody.
• If you’ve seen a goldfish or other invasive species in the wild, please contact the toll-free Invading Species Hotline at 1-800-563-7711, or visit Invading Species (Ontario) to report a sighting.

Trouble in the goldfish pond!

The pond is working well

Water lilies have HUGE leaves!

I love my pond. For my regular readers, you know I've worked hard; first to dig it, then to plug the holes, thanks to the dang field mice.

I regularly have to take the pump out and clean it. Daisy is my supervisor.

 The fish seem quite happy. The alewives (AKA shiners) have mated with the goldfish, and I have some interesting hybrids. Then, in the height of summer, the frogs move in from the wetland ponds.

Fuzzy, but you get an idea
of the goldfish sizes and the hybrids

As I fill the pond,
goldfish nip away at the algae

A fine specimen –the size of my hand!

Lo and behold, Jeremiah bullfrog came back this week. He couldn't have been in the pond more than an hour, when I spotted him. I walked by, and saw something hopping towards the pond. It was a wee leopard frog. It leapt into the pond, and Jeremiah hopped once, and swallowed it whole! We shall see how many wee goldfish it eats up. They lasted through his appetite last year. We shall just see!

You can see the legs sticking out of its mouth, on its left.

Now he lies in wait...

FIne little fellow

If you look you can see the leopard frog
just beyond Daisy's tail

My little helper!
She likes to watch the fish,
and take a drink!

I transplanted swamp vegetation,
now blooming.

Hard to get my work done,
with my little supervisor!

The oldest fish are about 8" long

Peer under the lily pad leaf, left of the flower,
Jeremiah is lying in wait in the shade!

A busy place

These are the yearlings

She is oblivious to the frog on the left of her!