What do you feed regular old goldfish in an outdoor pond?

[greenthumbnails]

I have had regular old goldfish when I was a kid.  Pretty hardy fish, they lasted for a few years until oneday I had a "cleaning" accident but I am digressing.  Well, since then I have been shy about keeping fish and have not had any to date.  Being new to ponding, I would like to try 1-2 small regular old gold fish in my small 35 gallon pond/tub.  I do not have electricity available out to it, but managed to rig a mini solar pump enclosed in a basket with polyester batting to serve as some sort of filtration device so that I can intro fish to my small pond/tub.  Since I live in FL I get plenty of sun to run the pump!

The next hurdle is what to feed it?  I would like to get away from the daily fish food shaker...especially if I were to be gone for say one week.  What does everyone else feed their common goldfish outside (if you have any, I see a lot of members have fancier fish) and what do you do if you are to be away for a week and cannot find someone to help you with your fish?

[miguynmkoi]

Way back when when I started ponding I bought feeder fish to populate the pond for real cheap.  I bought small floating round pellets, maybe considered koi food.  I only fed the fish if I have to sit next to the pond.  Algae basically fed them most of the time.  I didn't have plants then but I did do pump/filtering and a waterfall and fountain.

During Winter they were not fed at all.

Since you do not filter and you want to feed, feed only what they can finish almost immediately or in 5 minutes, and use food that floats on the water.

[greenthumbnails]

Can they survive on algae alone?  Does it have to be alive algae, or can it be dead algae too (after using Algae-Fix on it)?

[froglover]

I had feeder goldfish and comet goldfish in the pond for a year and never feed them anything.  After I added Shubunkins I started feeding them pellets once a day.  I have also had them live in a whiskey barrel with no food.  I figured I had them in there to eat algae and mosquito larvae, and that was their job.

Carolyn

[miguynmkoi]

Carolyn is correct about the mosquito larvae too.  The algae the fish eat is not the string or tough variety.  It's the algae that grows along the liner/ walls of the pond.  Sometimes they eat fairy moss and azolla in my pond.

In my kiddie pools I have feeder fish, for the purpose of eating larvae, that grew faster than hand fed fish by eating on their own. 

[greenthumbnails]

Very interesting   I guess I won't have to worry about them then when I am gone for a week or so.