Question

-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
We have a pond that's 6.5m x 2.8m x 0.8m and started with about 30 goldfish from somebody else's pond.  Nature's had it's way and they must have so far had between 80 & 100 little ones between them.  All seem to be feeding OK, but no real idea exactly how much to feed them, so far a pot 8cm x 8cm x 5cm of fish food, and the big ones don't seem to compete with the little ones, so do I need to get rid of some or leave them over the winter and see how they survive?

Many thanks.

Answer -
That's a lot of goldfish!  Unfortunately, I'm in a super rush at this moment and don't have Java at work so I can't calculate the volume of your pond in US gallons so I have an idea of how crowded we are talking about.  I've never removed any goldfish from my pond because I have a lot of natural predators.  Where do you live?  The smaller goldfish will eat microscopic plants and animals in addition to smaller fish foods.  Unfortunately, I have to rush off but thought it was better to say something now than not respond until I get on the computer again Saturday night after my 12 hours of chores.

Robyn
fishpondinfo.com

Thanks for your reply. We're in the UK in the south.  The water capacity works out @ 3850 US gallons if that helps.  Just to clarify, I'm happy to feed them I guess, until I can find another home for them, I was just wondering whether it's fair to leave them all in there over the winter.  The food bags all say to stop feeding after the water temp goes below 50 degrees F which will probably be in another month or so. The young will still be quite small so is that OK and just wait to see how many survive the winter?!

Thanks again...Nick

Answer
Oh, then that's a pretty big pond.  Since most of the goldfish are small, it should be okay.  It's okay to stop feeding when it goes below 50 degrees F.  Some babies will make it, and some won't.  If they all made it, you'd have way too many.  Nature takes care of things.  I've never brought in baby goldfish over the winter and yet I've had many generations in there.  It's up to you what you want to do.  Good luck!