Pond questions

[jackiomy]

My boyfriend and I are breaking up. :nilly::nilly::nilly:The first nasty comment that he hit me with was "I hope you learn pond care really fast because I am not touching them again". I have three small outdoor prefab ponds outside, approx 50 gallons or so. There are three to six large gold fish in two of them and some mosquito fish, water lilies and a few other bog plants. There is a submersible pump with a biological filter in each pond. What do I need to know? Please help! :help:

[DAVIDFBT]

First of all, the ponds are overstocked. Take some goldfish back so that there is one of them in each of the pond. Basically the only thing you will have to do is feed the fish, rinse the filters with the pond water, trim plants, and maybe replace the UV light when it burns out if you have one.

Take pictures of them so I can see how big they are.

[Peanutsweet]

I would leave 2 goldfish in each pond. If you only leave one it may be lonely. That is what happened to mine. I had several and one got a tumor and died. Then one up and disappeared totally. I think something caught it I guess. Then one jumped out of the water and died :( So the remaining one spends all his time hiding, looking depressed and sad. I think he misses his friends.
Other than that, just rinse the filter every month. Use a clean bucket to dip out 1/3 of the pond water, then rinse the filter pads in some of that water and reassemble. Do not over feed the fish or that will foul up the pond alot. Durring the summer, I feed mine just a little, they eat bugs and mosquito larvae and plants ect.

[finsNfur]

Definitely overstocked, I'd do no more than two goldfish in each pond, and that's still a lot. If you can't take the fish back (and I know I'd never be able to do that around here) try listing them for free on Craigslist. I wouldn't try selling them, people tend not to want to pay for common fish.

Depending on the type of filter you have, you should rinse the filters every month, or sooner if the water is really nasty. I never rinse mine in pond water, I just use a garden hose to rinse them, and squeeze all the water out of the filter afterwards. My pond is larger though, about 800 gallons. You will need to replace the filters occasionally, they don't last forever. Look at the pumps to see what brand you have. I have a pondmaster, and buy my filters online. (I wouldn't recommend eBay for filters, I just bought a huge lot of useless filters that don't work)

If you add new water to your ponds, make sure you add a de-chlorinator to the water. Chlorine in water will kill the fish. You can buy the de-chlorinator at a pet store.

For such small ponds I would definitely feed the fish, but as already pointed out, sparingly. You don't want to overfeed them, and foul the water. But if the temps drop below 40, stop feeding them altogether for the winter. Does it get very cold where you are? You do not want ice forming across the ponds...

Good luck, sorry about the break-up.

[finsNfur]

A duplicate post, sorry, not sure how that happened.