Question
I have a big pond on my land, about 1/2-1 acre. It was already stocked with bass, sunfish, and a few cats. the pond is about 7 years old and the fish are about that old also. some of them are on the large size. the sunfish, or bluegill or whatever they are have produced like mad. I wanted some color in there to brighten up the pond, and also I am having a problem controlling the algea, so I added 4 comets,4 Sarasa comets,2 shubunkins, and 2 domestic koi. They are all only about 4"-6". I have so much algea growing in there, and the pond is so big that after 10 minutes of their release, I can not see them anymore. My pond goes anywhere from 15'-20' deep. My fear is that I spent $100 in fish "food" instead of fish. Now there are tons and tons of the bluegill/sunfish in there that are half the size of the fish I added, and they are not being eaten. Did my fish swim to deeper water for cover, are they hiding in the algea, or did they get eaten? when I put them into the pond the bass swam up to inspect them but did not bother them. I understand that they are small yet and might not come out of hiding for awhile, but just wanted so advice on if they may still be in there are not? I check the pond everyday, at least 3 times and have not found any fish parts or dead fish, but would I? Any help would be great. Thanks so much, Deena

Answer
Goldfish are pretty good at surviving so I wouldn't be surprised if some survived predation.  Sicne your water is murky, the new fish are probably just out of view to you.  A few may have gotten eaten but there's no way to know.  Some predators leave fish parts (notibly the raccoon) while others swallow whole (birds, snakes).  If eaten by fish, the other fish would probably eat any leftover body parts.  Since you have a ton of sunfish, the bass probably weren't overly hungry.  Goldfish are good at reproducing like mad themselves so maybe one day you'll be worried about the sunfish instead.  Only time will tell.

My pages on algae and farm ponds may be of interest to you.

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/plants/algae2.htm
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/farm.htm

Good luck!
Robyn