they usually nest in pond plants around here. Haven't seen liner damage yet

Gypsi said:The easiest way to handle birth control on goldfish, for me anyway, is to not feed them. Then they eat their eggs and no babies to chase. We have enough mosquito larva the most I feed is a little bit 2 or 3 times a week.

I was going to say....
A girlfriend's fish pond required removal of the eggs to get babies.... And I certainly never see babies at my house..... nor any tadpoles or newts or any other cool critters... ravenous fishies!
Very surprised that you can't just offer the (extra) fish to other people...

Well my pond has all sorts of rock I assume the fry hide in until they are large enough the goldfish can't eat them. Offering the extras would require a place to house them until they could be advertised and picked up. Then I would have to meet w crazy people I don't know, and answer a lot of phone calls ect. It would be time consuming and it would be every year. I also do not want the fish going from huge pond to tiny fish bowl, so I feel it is best for all involved to euthanize them in a quick manor.

Gypsi, really neat that you are able to keep turtles, but don't they eat your fish?

Frillylilly, I agree on all points. But there is a store here that takes 'unwanted' fish. They offered mea a 2' koi a couple of years ago but it was winter and it never would have survived the transition. I didn't want a dead koi that big (or any size) in my pond all winter. It has happened, especially in the early years before we figured out the method for keeping them healthy all winter while they were dormant and the pond was almost iced over.

The big guy of ours, who can't fit into the caves very well any more just sticks his head in the cave entrance with most of his body outside. That way he can feel safe (?) and have the company (I guess) of the other fish in the long winter months.

Turtles kind of come and go in my goldfish and mosquito fish pond, they usually go back to the creek, but so far no snappers. Only carolina or red eared sliders. They like to eat my purple water lilies. I object. But I don't worry too much about the ponds they are in.

Unwanted koi here - my first place is a public pond, I ask and get permission. If I get desperate they go on Craig's list. but I have a tank I can put them in and strap them in with aeration and 110 gallons of water, and then they are easy to catch when I know where they are going. I have 43 koi in the biggest pond with the biggest filter right now. Hope to get it down to about 20 before winter. We cleaned it this summer. I had like 40 of the smaller koi in the 110 gallon tank getting fed every couple of days, and a partial water change, for a week. I donated my biggest and most beautiful koi as they had outgrown the pond. Many came in too large. I pick up orphans and take them home.

While this is not a pretty pond, it is prettier now that the lilies are in it and plants fill the filter tray. Should get some cherokee purple tomatoes off it later this year. and the bees are using it to get water to take back to their hive. New photo later.

This pond is a compromise between the city and I, as a large in ground pond on a lot without a house, constitutes a secondary structure on a lot without a primary structure and would require an application for a code exemption and a lot of money. I get ready to move that whole pond will go on my trailer in about 6 hours

I think it's nice. Is it a stock tank?

Frillylily said:I have some goldfish in my pond, and this spring they had a kajillion offspring and most of them are now at least 1 inch long. I can finally see them now, some of them are starting to color up but many of them are just gray colored. I am afraid there will be WAY too many for the size of my pond, I counted at last 40 one day at feeding time and I am sure there are many more I can't see. I am wondering if using a minnow trap would catch them? How do you all thin out your unwanted fish?

Invite a heron for supper?
Honestly, nature will take care of the problem if you stop feeding your fish. (which, you should never feed them anyway. i never do and things work out just fine.)
If you don't give them away/sell/trade them, plant them under your corn. Old Indian trick. You're welcome.

I don't grow corn, I am allergic to it.
I don't want herons, I do want to keep my larger fish!
I do feed my fish, they are in an unnatural environment, (man made pond) and I am responsible for them. They come out of dormancy in the spring before there are very many insects here.
Also if I let the pond become too populated, they will run out of oxygen in the winter when it freezes over and they will ALL die. Also too many fish use up too much oxygen in the summer when temps get up to 100F. So yes, I needed to take some out. I felt it cruel to give them away to 'goldfish bowl' homes after they had been in the freedom of a large pond.

Also if I start putting dead fish in my plants, my dogs will go nuts digging them and that would end up super gross in my house.

Sallymander said:

Invite a heron for supper?
Honestly, nature will take care of the problem if you stop feeding your fish. (which, you should never feed them anyway. i never do and things work out just fine.)
If you don't give them away/sell/trade them, plant them under your corn. Old Indian trick. You're welcome.

"Should never feed" that's a big statement. IF you choose to not feed your fish they will find a natural equilibrium in the environment you provide. How ever many people choose to take on the responsibility for the fish they acquire and the environment they provide. They may choose to feed the fish to provide the best they feel they can.

There are reasons for both viewpoints.

Oberon46 said:Don't blame you. I doubt he could get into the liner though. Digging in soft mud is one thing, but the liner. Don't think so. I would love to have turtles. Even thought about putting a tub of mud in the bottom of the pond for them to sleep in but we only have tree frogs here and not near where I live.

I'm patching tiny holes in the "lily pot" formed by liner in a large pond. I patched 5 yesterday and didn't get them all, going to have to cut out the damaged liner, fill in the lily pot, and do a flat patch. Pretty sure there was a turtle.

Frillylily said:I think it's nice. Is it a stock tank?

It's not a stock tank, it is my orphan koi, aquaponic vegetable tray and water lily raising pond. It's got an inner plywood wall, cinder block outside perimeter wall, underlayment and liner. Pump chamber is below the bottom so I can keep the pump running with 2 or 3 inches of water in the pond when I need to catch fish or clean up a bit.

I feed my fish a couple of times a week. the more often you feed koi the faster they get large and in my case, that means they are going to visit the arboretum or botanic gardens sooner, which means I have to catch and transport. In the wild a fish doesn't eat every day, and boy do I have plenty of bugs. I think they eat a honeybee now and then too

Prepper, what kind of a liner do you have? My liner is so thick and tough, I could not imagine a turtle making holes in it. I know there are a lot of different types of liners.

I came back to this thread yesterday because I removed a goldfish covered with tumors and an enormous case of bloat (probably caused by intestinal parasites) from a pond, and I needed to euthanize the fish. There is a time for giving up. I may post her picture later, but she was in bad shape.

did you use the clove oil and were you happy with the results? I was pleased when I used it, it was really fast and I was glad they didn't suffer. I hope your little fishy went quick too. If there are parasites, will the other fish get them also? Maybe the water should be treated? I have never had to deal w that so have no experience there.

I used the clove oil. It wasn't super fast, but she did pass quietly.

The pond she came from isn't mine, I looked at it and bid to clean it. I don't know about the other fish for right, now, but had she stayed they'd have all gotten sick eventually.

A good cleaning is a good thing now and then, and this one doesn't look it has ever been cleaned. Herons and ducks can bring parasites from lakes. If it's a real bad one it wipes the pond out if not treated, this one is just intestinal.

BTW, I used to be prepper. After our last winter freeze in February I understand ponds in Alaska, Missouri, Chicago now.

Ponds that were overstocked with fish lost all their fish.
Deep narrow ponds lost all their fish.
Flower Power, my 13 ft diameter pond I had 26 koi and I lost zero. Did lose power for over 24 hours, but I thru a big piece of pondliner over the tray with the filters so they didn't freeze hard, apparently, and my pump sat low, so it didn't freeze. I kept an air hole by heating water on my wood stove and pour it on the pond to keep a hole for gases to escape. When the power came back on the pump started.
But I think the reason I didn't lose fish though was that the big wide area meant a small thin bottom area of carbon dioxide, it spread out and didn't kill my fish.

I have discovered also that when goldfish and koi cross breed you get large goldfish with no whiskers that swim like koi and are mostly black. I've got to euthanize half a dozen that a customer produced, because I am afraid if I give them away someone will turn them loose in a lake, and their reproductive rate is high enough in ponds. Our lakes have enough problems... so back for the clove oil recipe. I'm only in the office in the winter and the hottest part of summer.. It was nice to read this thread.