The goldfish are in!

27 babies
1 calico
4 orange
3 orange/white
Shirley the 5th

In the fall, I bring my fishies in for winter. Sometimes, I leave it too long and I'm fishing in the cold water. The kids already have 10 babies at their house.

It's a chore. Every year. Sadly, I can't leave them in the pond, only because it can freeze, thaw, refreeze, depending upon the weather. The first year the (surprise!) babies made it through the year outside. Last year, the frogs kept moving in, I kept moving them out to the natural pond. I can't do that this year as the frog pond is quite dry.

I grabbed all the fish I could, then removed the water plants. These protect the baby fish, and the large, adult fish like to hide under them in the hot sun. They also put oxygen into the water. Once that was done, I captured only 2 big fish, and decided to drain it. Since we are in a drought, I took the opportunity to use the water for some nearby plants, while the main drainage hose (an old piece of defunct garden hose)  drains it beside the trees.

Over the years: October can be too cold to be playing in water.
Oct. 7th, 2015: The goldfishies are in!
Oct. 4th, 2014: Fall chores: bringing in goldfish
Sept. 28, 2013: It's that time of year: come on in, goldfish!

Day 1

I had helpers. Annabelle didn't like getting her paw wet. Good thing!

I took these fish in, ran back for more. The empty bucket was fair game.


Two elders in, plus 19 babies. More to come...

Day 2 We drained the sucker!

Below you can see the water barrel. I have that hooked up to the eavestrough, and rain runs from there to fill the pond. Rain is forecast later in the day, Saturday, and I am hopeful!
Day 2 brought TWO helpers. You can see that I put the pond weed in the large tub. I put it back in, after I was done.



I have a large water lily plant (above, middle photo), and I am hoping for rain to cover it. It should be OK, as there is some water in the bottom. It has a huge root and produces beautiful flowers. Bye bye, water lily!



And we are done!

27 babies
1 calico
4 orange
3 orange/white
Shirley-the-5th

Last night (Saturday), it rained, as predicted. Heavily. The goldfish pond is half-full, again, with 13.46 mm (0.53") of blessed rain. (We are still, officially, in a drought.)

It's a full tank, and I'm not sure how long I can sustain it. I'm thinking of putting a few babies back outside!
It's a 60-gallon tank, which is a good size. They do tend to grow to the size of the container. Shirley-the-5th is doing well, although she has turned all-white. I think she is about 5 years old. But I can't remember!

cat, fish and deer!

I fed the fish. Daisy likes the fish food. She stuck her paw in and Shirley fish thought she was getting more food!


One of our regular visitors.


 And, yes, we still have a tree frog in our plant!

The goldfishies are in!

60-gal. fish tank

Goldfish pond update:

Nov. 5th –very warm days (18 C. today Daisy and I put another 8 green frogs into the frog pond.

Oct. 22

• ~Today, removed two more, one dove deep = 22 moved to the big pond!
• ~I've removed 20, one got away on the way to the frog pond below = 19 relocated.

BTW
My contact dermatitis is still healing. Thanks those who asked. I think it was on my clothes –unworn since the cooler weather. I washed them in Ecru (from MEC), and then washed them again. Crikey, it's awful. I put on my cream, then realized the stuff on my inner arm was rubbing off on the bed sheet. Anyway, we'll see how it goes.

My fishy tale

Last winter, the small goldpond froze and thawed, froze again, and I had quite a few frog deaths in spring, as well as a few goldfish deaths -those who refused to come inside. It was gruesome and stunk so badly as I cleared it out. I couldn't get the smell out of my head for days.

Contemplating this over the summer, I figured out that when I removed the goldfish, I might as well remove the frogs and take them down to the pond. It took me hours to drain.

Daisy helper!

I had helpers. Daisy was fascinated with the frogs in the bucket.

Hubby helped, as I was hovering around the pond all afternoon, looking for rebel fish. He made two trips with a total of five frogs, talking to them all the way, assuring them that they would be happier in the big pond! It was so cute.

I removed 18 frogs, 6 still remained. Sigh.
Two toe biters, one small leech, similarly removed.
On Tuesday, I couldn't see any. I hope they abandoned ship!

Down to the pond we went. They gave a giant leap, and jumped for joy!


Back at the goldfish pond. Daisy was still looking for the frogs. Annie was supervising.


Ten fish recovered: Shirley IV (she's gone all white, tho), 5 orange/white ones, and 4 all-orange fish. Shirley is a Shubunkin, although she doesn't have the black.
I bought 3 of the orange/white fish in the spring to add to their numbers. They don't have Shirley's fancy tail. They could be Ryukin Goldfish. Who knows? Here is a list of goldfish species.
They are a hardier species than the feeder goldfish I'd had for a time. They didn't reproduce this year. I'm not sure why.

A couple of older goldfish
now gone!

Shirley Goldfish

Here it is Nov. 3rd. We've had some subzero overnight temperatures.
Geraldine has gone into the water. She sleep under the water in the winter. The goldfish who chose not to come in for the winter are looking pretty happy on Oct. 24th. Soon they will understand their mistake!

The biggest goldfish are in for the winter. Shirley 3 (a cross breed Shubunkin and common goldfish, with orange and white) seems to be changing colour. There was some ice on the frog pond yesterday.