Wow, That's Pretty Fishy!

[Diggin It]

Have one of those black plastic preformed ponds, maybe 150 gallons or so. Tossed in a few goldfish guppies a couple of years back. By now, they're 3" or more. I feed them packaged flakes and some other goodies when I can. Found out they love to eat Algae too, so I put some clumps in from another water feature close by. I was treating that to keep it more clear, but once I found the fish like it, I started to let it grow in there.

Well, a few days ago, I notice a fresh crop of very small tadpoles in there too, no more than the size of a BB. Decided to scoop a few out with the algae. Turns out the goldfish love them too. Go after them like Piranha.

Free food is good, right?

 

[Jstpssng]

Somebody once dumped their goldfish into the cemetery pond across from our house... within a couple of years they were 12" or more.

 

[MossRoad]

I was late taking the winter cover off of my pool this year, and the tree frogs laid eggs in the rainwater and oak leaves in the puddles in the cover, and we had about a thousand tadpoles in the puddles. I felt bad about wiping out a generation of tree frogs, so I siphoned the puddle water into some black plastic 55 gallon drum halves that we use for the occasional party ice coolers in the summer. Siphoned the tadpoles right through the garden hose. Filled two barrel halves. Threw in a bunch of slimy oak leaves from the puddles, too. They like those. We feed them mashed/squished up lettuce every few days. They eat it up. I put some 2x2's leaned into the barrels from the side for a place for the tadpoles to transition to frogs and climb out when ready.

My neighbor has taken a few batches of tadpoles for his water feature, too. He feeds them fish food and they seem to like that as well.

The tadpoles grew, and we got itty-bitty tree frogs. Lots of them. Then I noticed several batches of small tadpoles showing up. So, somebody likes the barrels enough to keep laying eggs in there.

Now there is some bigger type of tadpole in there, and a green frog has showed up, too.

 

[MossRoad]

Somebody once dumped their goldfish into the cemetery pond across from our house... within a couple of years they were 12" or more.

Here's a link to our local paper. A guy caught an 11.5 pound goldfish (koi) in a lake about 25 miles from here. He gave it to a friend that released it into his private pond.

Outdoors: Big orange fish surprises Edwardsburg angler | Sports | southbendtribune.com

 

[Egon]

In many places goldfish realeased to the wild become invasive fish.

 

[TractorGuy]

Our little koi pond filled up with tadpoles last year. I had a few koi and lake shiners in the pond. Never saw them eat any of the tadpoles. They readily came up for the fish food flakes. Racoons finally got all the fish so we just enjoy looking at the water plants and hearing the fountain.

 

[cqaigy2]

I was late taking the winter cover off of my pool this year, and the tree frogs laid eggs in the rainwater and oak leaves in the puddles in the cover, and we had about a thousand tadpoles in the puddles. I felt bad about wiping out a generation of tree frogs, so I siphoned the puddle water into some black plastic 55 gallon drum halves that we use for the occasional party ice coolers in the summer. Siphoned the tadpoles right through the garden hose. Filled two barrel halves. Threw in a bunch of slimy oak leaves from the puddles, too. They like those. We feed them mashed/squished up lettuce every few days. They eat it up. I put some 2x2's leaned into the barrels from the side for a place for the tadpoles to transition to frogs and climb out when ready.

My neighbor has taken a few batches of tadpoles for his water feature, too. He feeds them fish food and they seem to like that as well.

The tadpoles grew, and we got itty-bitty tree frogs. Lots of them. Then I noticed several batches of small tadpoles showing up. So, somebody likes the barrels enough to keep laying eggs in there.

Now there is some bigger type of tadpole in there, and a green frog has showed up, too.

That's pretty cool.

 

[cqaigy2]

In many places goldfish realeased to the wild become invasive fish.

Watched a video on that the other day. Seems they are getting into mountain ponds/lakes and eating everything. Now we're spending money to eradicate them from those locations.

 

[Jstpssng]

We are having the same problems with other fish species here. Some people think that it's a good idea to put bass into our native trout ponds.
Also muskies have been found in at least a couple of lakes.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Here's my funny pond story.
I recently gave my 175 gal. one away, we used it up until maybe 10 years ago. One day there was a bullfrog in it, so I caught it and decided to carry it down to a neighbors lake about 1/2 mile away. So I'm walking along with this 5 gallon bucket when I hear what sounded like thunder...only it was the neighbor's Angus bull! A large one, and he was snorting, pawing the ground. No trees around and I can't run 30mph!
He seemed very agitated, and I decided my only option was talking to him as I slowly walked toward him with the bucket down.
So funny...he looked down in the bucket as the bullfrog looked up. The ploy worked! He simply trotted off, apparently he realized I posed no threat. I released frog in the lake and went home.
Whew!