Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain goldfish in pond

my pond construction was complete in june( 3/4 acre). My buddy has a goldfish pond at his house. i thought it was neat so i got about 12 goldfish from him. i out them in my pond when it had just a small hole of water. well about a month or so ago i stocked my b/g and shellcrackers and planned on stocking bass in spring. i started to feed the b/g everyday, after about the 3rd day 1000's of goldfish started eating. i have a pond full of goldfish. never would have dreamed they would have repropduced so quickly. a friend of mine caught 7 small lmb sunday and we put them in the pond. they are about 8" each and one is probably 12". do you think this will help control my goldfish and not screw up my b/g?

will b/g eat the small goldfish babies?

Bass will likey eat all of the brighly colored ones first. The drab individuals will survive longer. It will be very interesting to see how this combination developes in a couple years.

I have a pond that is full of bass. I have stocked goldfish in it numerous times and have still not had a single goldfish live long enough to reproduce to my knowledge. I think Bill is exactly right. The big orange goldfish are just like a big piece of candy to a bass that is eaten in one bite. The bass prefer the goldfish to the bluegill due to the color, soft fins and the goldfish are easy to catch. I bet you will have some very fat bass and very few goldfish very soon!

I imagine BG will go after goldfish fry and eggs.

how long was it between the initial 12 goldfish and the stocking of BG RES, or how long was it to have a population of 1000's of goldfish?

they have been in there about 2 months before b/g stocking........i have been throwing a cast net and catching some. my net is small and i am not the best in the world at throwing it. they seem to be faster than the net. i think they spook when the net hits the water.

the gold fish are longer than my finger and really fat. i am curious how big the original 12 are?

my b/g are growing super fast. i have been catching them in my net also.

wow thats a really short amout of time for all that to happen. maybe a new food source for bass in new ponds. thanks. keep us updated on the ratio of bass: bluegill: goldfish.

I just remember a small 1/8 acre pond where I grew up in NJ. It had tons of goldfish and nothing else for years. A new person bought the house and added BG and LMB. Withing 3-4 years, there was about three goldfish left that were huge - 16-18 inches and a LMB of the same size would follow one of them around like they were buddies. I think it was just a massacre at first (when LMB were added) due to their color and slow swimming. Then, any babies born would just get eaten (probably by BG and LMB) and eventually only a few large goldfish adults were left - i.e. they probably spawned each year, but all babies were eaten right away. This is all in a pond where goldfish were established. My cousin has a 2 acre pond (with BG and LMB) and has tried adding goldfish many times over the years and we have never seen one last for more than 52 seconds. We used a blocking net one time to "grow" them out and came back a week later to find a 8 inch LMB swimming around (fat) and no goldfish left.

I've got a sediment settling pond several hundred feet from my main pond. I've tried several times to grow rosy reds and goldfish in this 10 x 25 foot watering hole. I was hoping I could use the small fish as bait or extra feed.

No such luck. Within just a few days of putting in a couple dozen of either type, they all disappear. This happened at least four or five times earlier this year.

I found at least a couple of the culprits. Northern water snakes for one -- I actually saw one of them chasing and gulping down my rosy reds.

I also suspect a pretty healthy supply of big bullfrogs could be part of the problem. They seem to prefer the settling pond to the main pond -- probably because there are no bass to enjoy them for dinner.

This same pond was full of frog and toad eggs in the springtime. I never saw a single polliwog swimming around.

these last few post make me feel better. i was afraid i was going to have any extra expensive goldfish pond. when i added them i was figuring that the original 12 might be fun to watch while i was feeding the others. i never dreamed i would have 1000's........there is a truck that comes thru our area every month or so selling fish at local feed stores. i told them about my goldfish and they said it is common for them to over populate quickly...they also said it will cause the white birds (egrets=spelling??) to come to the pond to eat the easy prey, but at the same time they will get my desirable fish.

how big were the original 12 when you stocked them if you don't mind me asking.

they were probably 2" maybe 3" long. i think they are comet goldfish. they were a little bigger than what i have seen in the pet store. i think those comet goldfish in the store are for feeding other fish.

they are fast. i can throw a cast net pretty good now. it will land on hundreds of them and i usually never catch over 12 at a time.

how often will lmb eat? i am curious if i could go ahead and stock several bass in there to eat on the goldfish????

I dug a small 30' x 30' "vernal pool" about 5-8' depth with some shallows, for the frogs and amphibians. Due to mosquito issues I put 2 dozen feeder goldfish in just for fun. Within two years I had approximately 3-400 goldfish. 5 years out they were to numerous to count and some were over 9 inches long. I found it cool to see the genetic variation that occurred, with color from white through gold and all black with every combination in between, along with fan tails and regular tails. One major drawback is that they keep the bottom stirred up all the time so the water stays really muddy. This is a little different though since the only predator pressure on the goldfish is from bullfrogs and herons.

Scott69,
How about an update on this thread? Have the goldfish survived?

they are still some in the pond, but rarely see them. i have an auto feeder now and the bg are so aggressive i kinda think they keep the goldfish ran off. i see a few underneath the bg when the feeder goes off. they rarely eat at surface now. same thing with the tilapia. rarely see them, last year tilapia and goldfish were the main ones feeding on pellets. water has had a heavy algae bloom all summer, maybe when the water clears i can tell more about how many are left. i do have about 100 or so goldfish in the hole of water below the pond.

Scott69,

Has your water cleared up any, or have you noticed anymore Goldfish?

Wondered how big they were now and how many you have seen.

I have thought about adding some to one of my ponds as well, or maybe trying to start them off with the FHM and BG.

I had considered raising them and working out a deal with the Bait Shop to swap them for Minnows, BG, Crayfish, or better yet CASH!

Does anyone know what Goldfish go for in today's market?

water did clear some when the water cooled. however i do have something on the surface now (until we got 4" of rain yesterday). looks like euglena pics that i have found on here. pond has a real pondy smell recently.

yes i did catch goldfish a few weeks ago. seems as the water cooled they started feeding a little more near the surface. i was catching them on stubby steve. they are about 12" long and big around as a beer can never see or catch a small one anymore. too many predators!!!!!

You will have to post some pics if you get a chance I would like to see some of them.

Did you say they were just a few inches when you stocked them and had 1000's of babies within just a few months?

i put in 11 gold fish when the pond was just completed and nothing but a mud hole. when it was half full i stocked my bg and started feeding them. thats when i noticed the goldfish explosion. on a few months to go from 11 to 1000's.. i'll look for pics now..

i cant remember how old these pics are, there are larger ones now in the pond.

those are som fat fish. Neat looking ones too. Do you think these are just some feeder goldfish or what?

I know there are many kinds just thought I would ask.

You got these to bite a hook?

What did you do with them?

i am not very educated on goldfish, but i was told that some are comet goldfish which have a "v" shaped tail and the other are common goldfish. you can definetly see the difference in their tails. they cost about 10 cents at the pet store.

i have caught them on bread, crickets, and stubby steves.

most of the time i release them in the hole of water below my dam. i also have an area in the upper part of my pond partitioned off with rip rap rock that i sometimes put them in. i thinbk they quickly become otter food.

some indonesians came and caught a bucket full last year and ate them.. the mexicans tried them and said they had way too many bones..

the pond was completed in june of 08. after discovering the explosion of goldfish (probabaly september) i put in about 12 bass appr. 12" in length to help control them. needless to say my pond got off to a bad start. this bass was caught in februaury of 09. he came from a very old,crowded, stunted pond. looks like he had been enjoying a few gold fish.

right now my pond is full of skinny bass and large bg, which is exactly my goal. my only problem is otters. they got the goldfish i was putting in the 2 holes of water seperate from the pond. i caught one. i hope they didnt eat too many of my bg!!