Goldfish Ponds
Goldfish ponds can be a wonderful and relaxing addition to your garden and a less costly alternative to the traditional Koi pond.
Koi are a bit more high maintenance than goldfish as well as more costly. A Koi pond will require filtration whereas goldfish can get by with a small pump to circulate the water. Goldfish come in many different varieties and can be just as satisfying as Koi with much less worry and work!
Gold fish are very hardy and you really only need to make sure that you don't overstock the pond or add too many fish at one time.
A filter for your pond will work wonders to improve water quality and help keep your fish healthy, although some argue that a well planned and established pond does not need any filtration.
Learn about building a pond
Goldfish ponds can suffer with over stocking and overfeeding. Toxins are produced from food decaying and fish waste and if there is too much of both, these can reach levels that can harm you fish. If left unchecked it will eventually kill them. Again, some mechanical and biological filtration will help keep these in check. You can also do partial water changes once a month to help filter out some of the pollution in the water.
You should only feed your fish as much as they can eat in 5 minutes. Buy food that is formulated for ponds and sprinkle a little bit in - if they eat it all in less than 5 minutes give them a bit more until you have figured out the right amount.
Some goldfish ponds can become a buffet for predators such as herons and cats. You may want to put a netting cover over the pond at night to protect your fish and any other creatures such as small frogs that have made a home in your pond.
Goldfish ponds can survive over the winter if they are deep enough. You need to make sure the pond does not freeze solid so it must be below the frost line. How deep depends on where you live but usually a 3 or 4 foot pond will do. You can also just let the pond freeze and bring your goldfish inside for the winter. You can keep them in an aquarium. If you are going to bring them inside, you should probably set up the aquarium with a filter and use some water conditioner.
If you are moving your fish from goldfish pond to an aquarium (or vice versa) you need to acclimate them properly. Fill some plastic baggies with the water that they are currently in. Catch the fish with a net and put 1 or 2 in each baggie (make sure there is enough water so they can move around a bit). Sit the closed baggie in the new water for 15 minutes, open the bag and mix a bit of the new water in, let sit for 10 minutes then release the fish into it's hew home by pouring the water (and the fish) out into the new tank or pond.
| 
