I need your expert advice....Urgent

[JH]

I hope you all can help. I really need your advice fast before my pond freezes.

I have a Midnight Shubunkin that is probably about 5" long. He has been in the pond since mid July and has been doing fine till now. My pond water is at or below 32 F. All of my other goldfish and shubunkins as well as my one Koi are fine and are acting normal. This fish is not acting like itself. Which is why I don't know what to do. I want to make sure that I don't loose this fish. I have never seen any other midnights in this area. I only found this one by pure luck.

I have a couple of choices.

1. I can leave it in the pond and hope for the best.
2. I can bring it in and put it in my 20 gal that already has 4 goldfish in it. Already stocked past its limits. IMO.
3. I can bring it in and put it in my 125 gal that is stocked lightly with tropicals. Not an ideal choice, but would it work till spring.

Both tanks are kept at 78 - 80 F. And get regular water changes.

Any suggestions? Like I said I really don't want to loose this fish.

Thank you.
JH

[aquariumfishguy]

God this is a tough call...:(

A. The fish wouldn't do well in the 20 gallon. As you probably know, 20 gallon tanks are best if used for ONE goldfish, let alone 4-5. After a short time you'd probably see toxic levels of nitrate or even ammonia depending...

B. The tropical tank MIGHT work but I can't be certain what would happen to the fish. A 5" goldfish could certain destroy every last little fish you might have in that 125 gallon.

C. You could leave in the pond and hope for the best....but you dont say exactly what is going wrong with your fish? What is it he's doing differently and why do you suspect somethings wrong?

Based upon the current info I have, I would say the pond is the best option for the time being. Even if an indoor tank was available how would you bring a fish from freezing water (litterally) into a tank thats in the lower to mid 70's? IMO this would cause more problems than leaving in the pond, not to mention an almost certain death of some sort.

HTH

[BigFishDude]

What is it exactly that he's doing? Knowing this might help us diagnose the problem.

[JH]

I know it is winter and the fish start to slow down so...

All of my fish are still active even my babies. This fish has been laying down at the bottom and hardly moves. Almost to the point that I thought it was dead. I know this is normal in colder water but none of the other fish just sit in one spot for days at a time and never move.

Yes I do know that moving the fish now would be difficult. The only other option that I can think of is to put the fish in a rubbermaid container with pond water and put it in the spare room that stays pretty cold. And let it adjust to slightly warmer water that way.

Thanks for the advice so far. I hope I am just jumping to conclusions and I have nothing to worry about.

As far as the fish in the 20 gal goes... YES it is overstocked. I really didn't have much choice. The pond they came out of was not deep enough to over winter them and I didn't want to add them to the other pond. Mainly because catching them in the spring would be difficult. I do have a friend that is going to take some as soon as her tank finishes cycling. Hopefully soon. I have had these fish in the tank since end of september and have never had any water chemistry problems.

In the 125 gal, I have a bala shark 5", 2 butterfly plecos about 5 -6" long, an angelfish 5", and a few Rosy barbs.

If you need any more info please let me know.

[BigFishDude]

I would honestly just leave it alone till the spring. That is what they normally do during hibernation. The ones that are active are the ones that are acting abnormal (not that there is anything wrong with them).

You would probably cause more harm then good disturbing them.

Hope that helps, and I hope everything turns out alright. He sounds liek a beauty :)