We have a pond goldfish that we dont know what to do with!!

Hi everyone,

So, my husband and I recently bought a house and the previous owners didn't take their pond fish with them. We assume its a goldfish but he appears to be in bad shape. He is very pale looking and isn't super active. The pond is in terrible condition and its cracked on one side so the water level doesn't stay at a good point since it's all draining out. Would it be better to put him in a tank? If so, what size? We don't have any experience with taking care of fish but we want him to live. Any help would be appreciated!

this is him in a standard 5 gal bucket. We put him in it for a couple minutes just so we could get a better look at him. We could hardly see him in the pond. He appears to be about 8in long

 

A lot of fish lose their color when they are stressed out or if the water parameters are bad. I can't tell what size that is, but I know that a large goldfish (1 ft long) needs a tank size minimum 50-80 gallons I would say. It would really help if the tank was already cycled too. You can also test the parameters of the pond, that might help figure out what's going on with the fish. That's all I can offer really. I hope it works out!

 

A lot of fish lose their color when they are stressed out or if the water parameters are bad. I can't tell what size that is, but I know that a large goldfish (1 ft long) needs a tank size minimum 50-80 gallons I would say. It would really help if the tank was already cycled too. You can also test the parameters of the pond, that might help figure out what's going on with the fish. That's all I can offer really. I hope it works out!

Thank you for the input!

 

Congrats on home ownership!
Are you thinking you might want to have the pond repaired in the future? That doesn’t change things right now but think about whether you want inside or outside fish. Also maybe look up any pond specialists in your area for any future estimates etc.
If you have a garage you can get a 40, 50 or 100 gallon stock pond to put him/her in. They are reasonably priced and can make a good temporary home for this guy until you decide what you want to do. You can put it in your home too, an indoor container pond. If you are in the US, tractor supply is a good place for these. I had considered the 40 gallon stock pond for my guys but went with a 40 gallon tank. But since this guy is already a pond fish he might find a stock pond less stressful.

 

Hi Hobbitolive,
You say you want the fish to live. I won’t question that.
You will need to learn a couple of things about keeping fish pretty quickly.

The nitrogen cycle is something you need a basic understanding of before you consider moving the fish.

Allso any water added has to have a de chlorinator added.

Before you begin researching fish keeping a couple of must knows.

Don’t do a big clean in the dirty pond it is a safe place for a fish wait until you understand the nitrogen cycle before doing anything other than adding a LITTLE conditioned water.

Feed a very very very small amount of food once a week.

My suggestion is an old second hand bathtub as a temporary home until you build or buy a pond. Even that move can only be done after you learn about the nitrogen cycle.

In short .
The fish was perfectly safe in the dirty broken pond leave it alone until you have a basic idea of what you are doing.

Another option is moving the fish to a large pond on private land.

 

its a color variant of comet goldfish, leucistic, its not white, not albino, and not a pinkie.

on average comet goldfish usually get around 10-12 inches long.

i have 3 in my 150g stock tank patio pond.

is it an in ground pond or above ground pond? could you post a pic?