Hand painted BG are not hybrids and will reproduce same as BG. Offspring will be a mixture of BG and various versions of handpainted color pattern. IMO They are not the fish for a 1/4 ac swimming pond.
I agree. Just saying that because if the OP wanted RES, like you said, they need to be sorted to make durn sure there are no regular BG in there.
I like the RES/HSB mix for a swimming pond, and I'd make sure there were forage fish in there - i.e. Fatheads and maybe Golden Shiners because if the OP doesn't feed the fish, I don't know if the RES will produce enough to feed the HSB, and also the HSB and RES typically utilize different areas of the pond. HSB/GSH swim in the same area of the pond, so the GSH would be utilized more as prey than the RES.
