what a lovely surprise :D

[lynda66]

was removing some of my pond weed today, it was kinda filling the pond, but when i moved it, there was a little shoal of fish which came scurrying out, they are sooooo cute, and seem to be all black at the moment, we have spotty fish (shubunkins) and goldfish, so i'm really looking forward to seeing what colour they turn out........ we've never had babies before, (except baby snails) probably cos they have been eaten, but it's so exciting, i'm definitely gonna have to build a bigger pond now

[Hans Mum]

lucky you lynda, our bl***dy orf eat all the babies we've never managed to have any survive

[lynda66]

i've had goldfish for 18 years, and these are the first ones i've ever had that either haven't been eaten or haven't hatched or whatever, i think its cos there is so much weed in the pond, they have loads of places to hide from the big fish, just hope they will be ok over winter, cos they are very small yet. Have been thinking though i might bring them in and put them in the tank for this winter, and anyway it will be lovely watching them grow.

[squashysu]

lovely news, you are a mummy again! can you cover them with fleece to stop the frost getting to them in the winter? just an idea, if it works for veg, why no fish??

[Two_Sheds]

can you just separate off part of your pond to keep the little fish in until they are teenage fish?
I wouldn't bring them indoors. The water quality can't be as good, they won't feed as well as outside ...

[jackie j]

A friend of ours used to have a pond with very large koicarp in it, he sold the house and for three months paid for the pond to be looked after as the new owners didnt know anything about fish. We told him to sell the fish before he sold the house. How he cursed when he found out they didnt keep them. They filled in the pond, but it was his own fault for not selling most of the fish.

[Rhona]

What a nice surprise! That's the other thing on our "when we finally get a bigger garden" list... a lovely pond. Good luck with raising your little ones!

[lynda66]

well, i decided i would bring them in whilst watching one of the bigger ones trying to eat a tiny one, i couldn't block off part of the pond, and i didn't want to leave them to the fate that no doubt all the last 18 years of babies have had.

i'm not sure i got them all, but definitely the vast majority, and i haven't seen any in the pond today, theres about 20 of them, though one did die in transit i found it's head floating this morning, the others appear to have eaten it.

so i went and bought them a little tank today, was £4.99, from wilkies, but it's big enough for them for now, and i'll put them back out in spring, so hopefully it should be fine till then.

I decided against getting the 3ft tank out of the loft, it seems a little excessive in size for around 20 fish less than an inch long.

I even got them a little house (plastic hamster house) unfortunately they don't seem to like it much, but i'll put some more weed in tomorrow, so it's a bit more covered.

they are soooo cute, theres definitely 2 shubunkins they are a different colour, and theres 2 with fancy tails, the others are all brown and gold yet, they apparently get their adult colours about 6 months of age, would be nice if a couple of them stay the natural colour, they are pretty.

the kitten likes them, she's currently just sat there gazing adoringly at her lunch