Question for anybody with a backyard goldfish pond?

[McGoofy]

Need some help quickly please! I have a small backyard goldfish pond that I "inherited" when I bought my home a few years ago. Therefore, I was not the one who built the pond. I have only maintained it. On Friday we had to have our house sprayed with heavy termite chemicals, so to be on the safe side I took my fish out and they are temporary staying in a friend's pond. Thank goodness that I did that not because of the chemicals but because of this: Saturday I discovered that the filter tubing had flipped out of the pond, and basically the pond drained itself. There's approximately 4 inches of the original water and then during the night, we got a little bit of rain, so I'd say maybe I have 6 inches of water. My question for any of you that have pond experience is this...what is the best way to add new water to my pond? Can I take a garden hose and then add de-chlorinator to the water or is there a better way? I don't want my fish to die when I bring them back to my pond this week.

[Ed]

We had a huge pond in our old home's backyard. It really requires very little attention. You can safely add tap water. If your water is from a well, nothing further is needed. If it's chlorinated, you can either add dechlorinator or just let the water circulate for a day or two before putting the fish back in. Try to let the water come to ambient temperature before putting the little guys back; if the water is very cold, it can harm the fish.

:shark: :eek:

[McGoofy]

Thank you, Ed, for your quick reply this morning. I was grateful to read that before I went out and bought some supplies for the pond. I filled up a 20 gallon bucket twice with water from our garden hose. (We do have city water, not well water.) I treated the water with dechorinator, and then let it sit out in the sun a while before putting in the pond. Now I have added the water to the pond. I do still have guppies in there that I couldn't fish out before the termite treatment, so I guess if they survive, I will know it is ok for my goldfish to go back in the pond.

P.S. One of my gold fish is not so little. He's 5 years old, and is about 8 inches long! He's pretty fat too. He didn't even fit in a goldfish bowl when I was trying to transport him to my friend's pond. He started out as just a regular pet store 25 cent small goldfish. Everybody always asks if he is a koi. I'd hate to lose the big guy, so I'm trying to be extra careful!

Thank you again for your help!:nemo::thanks::nemo::thanks:

[Ed]

No problem! Glad to help.

We always had MUCH better luck with cheap goldfish than we did with Koi and other "exotics". Several of our goldfish grew to pan-frying size! And they proved to be quite prolific in the breeding department; every year we just about doubled our pond's population.

:fish: (Just kidding!);)

[McGoofy]

Pan frying size! WOW! I would put my hands over my goldfish's ears....if I only I knew where they were!!:nemo: Seriously, they say goldfish can live up to 25 years if put in the right environment. I imagine that they could get really big in 25 years!

Ummmm...would you believe after adding all that water that now it is pouring rain, and my pond is filling up with rain water now!:rain: The weather forecast didn't call for any rain over the next 7 days, that's why I thought adding the water was going to be an urgent need! Oh well.

[MsMin]

Hey, I was out of town. I'm glad you got it resolved. I have a double layer (a smaller pool above a 125gal one) I put it in last summer. I add hose water to the upper level very slowly and since the filter dumps into there first I have no problems adding water w/o dechlorinators. The chlorine does dissipate very fast especially in the sun. I usually lay the connector where my hoses join and let the trickle fill the pond slowly. I had the same problem the wknd before leaving with my pump falling over and spraying water out of the pond.
I have a problem with raccoons eating my fish especially in the winter. Does anyone know how to keep the coons out of my pond? I find big puddles on the side with my favorite fish missing :mad: Summer is usually not a problem, maybe because there is more food around for them to eat.

[Jeff G]

Hey, I was out of town. I'm glad you got it resolved. I have a double layer (a smaller pool above a 125gal one) I put it in last summer. I add hose water to the upper level very slowly and since the filter dumps into there first I have no problems adding water w/o dechlorinators. The chlorine does dissipate very fast especially in the sun. I usually lay the connector where my hoses join and let the trickle fill the pond slowly. I had the same problem the wknd before leaving with my pump falling over and spraying water out of the pond.
I have a problem with raccoons eating my fish especially in the winter. Does anyone know how to keep the coons out of my pond? I find big puddles on the side with my favorite fish missing :mad: Summer is usually not a problem, maybe because there is more food around for them to eat.


I worked at a pet store that specialized in ponds. We sold a kit that was similar to an electric fence that could be wrapped around ponds which is about the only thing we found that kept raccoons out. Since these pesty fellas eat fish, up root plants and tear holes in the liner we sold a lot of the hot wires. The zap these give won't harm the animal and feel very much like the zap given by an invisible dog fence. Many of my customers kept these on a timer so they were only on after dark so that they wouldnt get zapped during the day.

[Ed]

Beth, your pond sounds similar to what we used to have. We had a problem with blue herons flying in, landing in the yard and walking over to the pond to help themselves to our fish. :mad:

We were told to string fishing line around the perimeter of the pond about 8" above ground, the theory being that the long-legged thieves would hit the line with their legs as the strolled toward their favorite snack food and it would scare them off. It worked! (I love it when a plan comes together!)

Don't know if it would work with your little masked bandits, but might be worth a try.

Good luck!

[MsMin]

I do have to try something. I was wondering about birds but I haven't seen any around the pond, just lots of feathers around so I think that's the big owl we have back there snacking around the pond when birds do try to dine there. I just added a fence at the end of my patio to keep the owl from eating the dogs (under 3lbs) they could look like a long legged rat.
I like the idea of a timer b/c I wouldn't want to shock the dogs when they get curious.