Too Many Goldfish

I've got a 1600 gallon pond. I bought and was given 22 goldfish (6 commons, 6 comets, 1 bristol shubunkin, 4 japanese/american shubunkins and 5 London shubunkins). Pond looked great. Fish are friendly, fat and colourful.

All summer I've been seeing spawning behaviour. I thought that was great and meant they were happy and thriving. Didn't expect anything to come of it. Anyway near the end of June I found hundreds of tiny goldfish when I was clearing out the pond. They must have been hanging around the bottom and I stirred them up. Again I didn't expect any to survive. I thought my adults would enjoy the live food.

When I was more of a newbie fishkeeper I attempted to spawn goldfish in tanks. Very few eggs were fertilized and didn't get eaten. Few hatched and none lasted more than a week. I gave up and decided they were difficult to raise. So you can see why I wasn't expecting anything.

There are live plants, lillies, a bunch of stem plants and a few more I can't remember what they're called. I pull a lot out each week. Partly because I hate the look of an overgrown pond and partly so the fry wouldn't have as many places to hide.

Despite looking I didn't see anymore fry for a while and assumed they'd been eaten. About a week ago I saw a few small fish when I was feeding the adults but I didn't really believe myself. However yesterday I cleaned out the pond and needed to catch one of my adults. I saw some small fish and managed to catch them. I ended up catching around 20 with hundreds of them still in the pond. The smallest that didn't slip through the holes in the net were about 2cm and the biggest I caught were 6cm long including tail.

I picked out my 5 favourites and brought them inside. The rest I put back in the pond. The majority of them are bronze coloured though I believe they will turn gold or orange as they grow up. A few seemed to have the start of a comet tail. I only saw 1 shubunkin. I caught 2 pinky matts and I definitely want to keep one of them.

Anyway my question. What do I do with all these babies?

I have 2 local pet stores. One is pets at home which won't take in fish.
The other is a garden centre which definitely does take in fish however their fish tanks are appalling. The tanks have more dead fish in them than alive. They have a really bad pet part and are super irresponsible. A few times I have seen them selling illegal crayfish among other illegal livestock. They give terrible advice. I've seen them selling 2 singletail goldfish, 2 dojo loaches, 1 african clawed frog to a couple with an already overstocked tropical bowl.
I am going to maidenhead aquatics this weekend but after googling I don't think they take unwanted goldfish.
I do not know anyone with a fish pond but I've asked my family and friebds to ask around.
I don't feel comfortable posting fish.

How do I get rid of them? My pond is big but not big enough for hundreds of goldfish. Even if I do manage to rehome these ones to some responsible pond owners I will probably have the same problem next year.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

Am in the same boat.. I thought I had all male goldfish.. now I have black gold fish fry all over my pond....

 

I thought my adults would enjoy the live food.

partly so the fry wouldn't have as many places to hide.

their fish tanks are appalling

There is a desire for them to be eaten, but a need to find better homes if they live. Assuming you don't find a better fish retailer that will take all 200. If they are still small enough at 2cm to feed back to the adults you may have to be the responsible party in getting them eaten. Breeders cull the fry to feed back to the adults. Shocking in ice water is one of the methods used to instantly end them. They can be stored frozen.

Hopefully you find a store if you don't like culling. I know you of course wouldnt release them into the wild but figured I'd throw it out there. Dont release them in larger bodies of water.

 

I don't think I could bring myself to kill to them. I don't mind the adults eating the eggs and fry but I couldn't kill them.

 

Let it be. The pond will balance itself out, imo.

 

Hopefully it can run its course. I just worry that might mean that when the bioload is too high some will starve or get ill and it will balance itself out, in a sense.

 

I have frogs that visit my ponds (400 gal), they typically take out any babies. You are lucky to have them.

Anyways sounds like you don't have anywhere to donate them. An overstocked pond will stress all your fish and could loose most of them. Culling is the humane thing to do. Put them in a zip lock bag full of water and put in the freezer. They will just fall asleep and feel no pain. Just part of the hobby.

 

I wouldn't be able to kill them, either. I think the ecosystem can balance itself out.

 

I've got a 1600 gallon pond. I bought and was given 22 goldfish (6 commons, 6 comets, 1 bristol shubunkin, 4 japanese/american shubunkins and 5 London shubunkins). Pond looked great. Fish are friendly, fat and colourful.

All summer I've been seeing spawning behaviour. I thought that was great and meant they were happy and thriving. Didn't expect anything to come of it. Anyway near the end of June I found hundreds of tiny goldfish when I was clearing out the pond. They must have been hanging around the bottom and I stirred them up. Again I didn't expect any to survive. I thought my adults would enjoy the live food.

When I was more of a newbie fishkeeper I attempted to spawn goldfish in tanks. Very few eggs were fertilized and didn't get eaten. Few hatched and none lasted more than a week. I gave up and decided they were difficult to raise. So you can see why I wasn't expecting anything.

There are live plants, lillies, a bunch of stem plants and a few more I can't remember what they're called. I pull a lot out each week. Partly because I hate the look of an overgrown pond and partly so the fry wouldn't have as many places to hide.

Despite looking I didn't see anymore fry for a while and assumed they'd been eaten. About a week ago I saw a few small fish when I was feeding the adults but I didn't really believe myself. However yesterday I cleaned out the pond and needed to catch one of my adults. I saw some small fish and managed to catch them. I ended up catching around 20 with hundreds of them still in the pond. The smallest that didn't slip through the holes in the net were about 2cm and the biggest I caught were 6cm long including tail.

I picked out my 5 favourites and brought them inside. The rest I put back in the pond. The majority of them are bronze coloured though I believe they will turn gold or orange as they grow up. A few seemed to have the start of a comet tail. I only saw 1 shubunkin. I caught 2 pinky matts and I definitely want to keep one of them.

Anyway my question. What do I do with all these babies?

I have 2 local pet stores. One is pets at home which won't take in fish.
The other is a garden centre which definitely does take in fish however their fish tanks are appalling. The tanks have more dead fish in them than alive. They have a really bad pet part and are super irresponsible. A few times I have seen them selling illegal crayfish among other illegal livestock. They give terrible advice. I've seen them selling 2 singletail goldfish, 2 dojo loaches, 1 african clawed frog to a couple with an already overstocked tropical bowl.
I am going to maidenhead aquatics this weekend but after googling I don't think they take unwanted goldfish.
I do not know anyone with a fish pond but I've asked my family and friebds to ask around.
I don't feel comfortable posting fish.

How do I get rid of them? My pond is big but not big enough for hundreds of goldfish. Even if I do manage to rehome these ones to some responsible pond owners I will probably have the same problem next year.

Does anyone have any advice?

If you have FB I would post that you have free baby gold fish. Our town has for free FB pages I would post on it. I sure hope mine don't have baby's in my pond. Good luck.

 

sell them to people who want to start keeping goldfish in their own tanks as beginner fish hobbyist.