Pics of my fish

[Reedman]

Thanks PaNancy for the tutorial!

[Holldoll]

Those are beautiful! I love the butterfly koi!

[Reedman]

No koi in my pond actualy - all sarassa comets or regular shubunkins or midnight (blue) shubunkins - there is one golden orfe too.

Most of the comets are 10-12"; the orfe is about 15".

[Rad Michelle]

Wow they aren't even koi??? They are gorgeous

[Kittyzee]

Those are some beautiful goldfish!!  I have some longfin comets, but none with fins like that white one.  Stunning!   

[Kat]

Beautiful 

[txpondnut]

What beautiful and unique fish! I love those fins!!!!!

[jasert39]

wow they are great...where did you get them?  I'm in PA as well!

[karen J]

Very nice, I love those midnight shubbies!

[Bearb]

WOW! Great looking goldies. You have some really nice shubbies in there. I have some nice looking fish, but it seems I get mostly plain orange red babies. . . do you cull them out?

[miguynmkoi]

All your fishies are so beautiful!  I can't believe they are so large too.  I just purchased a couple of long fin sarassa comets...hopefully they will look as beautiful as yours.

[Reedman]

Thanks everyone.  It has taken 6-7 years to get this collection the way I want it by:

- only buying nice looking long-tailed small fish
- giving away all of my orange coments (Craigslist works great, so does a flyer posted at local supermarkets)
- giving away the not-so-nice looking fish
- buying midnight shubunkins wherever I see them in local petstores, but usually from roadtrips to the breeder in northern MD (haven't been there for a few years, might have to make a roadtrip soon!)

I have a 9' high PVC structure with 4" mesh netting over my pond to keep out the herons and common egrets (live one mile from a large river).  Not the greatest looking, but can walk in and under the net without any ducking.

I have four or five completely black shubunkins (midnights with no white/cream or blue).  At first I thought they were neat, but you almost can never see them unless the sun is directly over head.

[bunny56lbc]

I thought they were all butterfly koi too...I was thinking what beautiful koi....
They are beautiful goldies ! 

bonnie

[Reedman]

I only was able to save one midnight shubunkin baby from last year's spawnings - mostly cream colored.  I kept a bunch of sarassa comet babies in two large aquariums over the winter, but they all died a few weeks ago, despite regular water changes, etc.  (Should have just put them in the pond in November . . .)

My golden orfe eats every fish less than 2" long.  I tried to establish a school of rosey reds once - put six dozen in.  All gone by next morning . . .

[Julles]

I thought those were koi, too!

I just Googled "golden orfe."  They are HUGE!  No WONDER they eat all your smaller fish!

[Kittyzee]

Where did you get your goldfish Reedman?  I've not seen longfins like that around here, unless they are crosses from other fish.  They are just beautiful! 

[Reedman]

All of the sarassa comets I bought at various local petstores over the years when they were small.  I looked for long-finned ones in particular.  Looked down from above by opening the aquarium hoods to see how they looked from above like they would in my pond.

Their offspring tend to be long-finned too.

I had all kinds of fish up until two years ago.  Pond was severely overcrowded, so I decided to give away the ones I didn't want.  One guy that took a bunch of the regular comets had a large mud pond on his industrial site full of koi and goldfish.

Some of the midnight shubunkins are short bodied, short tailed but they have nice colors. 

I don't have much money to spend on my pond; my wife had a stroke eight years ago when she was 38-years-old.  Her Social Security disability money is a lot less than what she was making as a store manager for a Jo'Ann Fabric store.  I almost only buy 2"-4" fish one or two at a time to keep the cost down.

[Kittyzee]

Well, your investment surely paid off.  I just grabbed some feeders too and didn't think of what they looked like (I was pretty dumb about such stuff back then... ).  You've got me wanting to buy a couple just to see what will happen in a few years. 

So sorry to hear about your wife Reedman.  Is she doing better now?

[Reedman]

Kityzee - my wife does OK - thanks for asking. 

She has good days and bad days.  Stroke burned out the executive decision making part of her brain, a few small spots on her retinas and she also has some residual speech problems at times.   She couldn't speak for several days or write - had to relearn speech and writing.  It's been rough . . .

[Kat]

Reedman--it is great your wife is doing better.  It takes a very strong & devoted person to stand by & help.  She is lucky to have you.

When I first started out I was driving the clerks crazy picking out the feeder fish with the longest of tails.  Just like Reedman, over the years with selective culling you can end up with some beauties.

My water isn't as clear as I don't filter my lily ponds, but these fishies seem to be happy anyways.  They are the keepers from my cheap purchases 

[Kittyzee]

Sorry to hear the news of your wife after her stroke.  Strokes seem to be so random in how they affect different people.  My uncle had one a few months ago and is having to learn to walk again, and he still can't talk yet.  It must be very frustrating for the both of you; and it seems that 38 would be young to have a stroke.  The pond is a wonderful outlet for you I'll bet.   

Karen, your fish are also beautiful!  Just goes to show again how well goldfish will do without fancy filters--they don't seem to mind water that is less than perfect--at least mine don't!  I don't have to worry about culling any fish.  For some reason, I only have one or two each year that make it past the bigger ones and survive.  I guess that my fish eat the eggs and then if they make it past that stage, a couple hide really well to make it to the 2" stage! 

[frogman3]

Great looking fish Reedman. I have Orfe's also. Have yours ever spawned? Mine did this spring and they are only 12 ". Not sure if any of the spawn will hatch since they did their thing in the skimmer. I moved as many of the sheets of eggs as I could, enough to fill a quart container, to a protected stream with flowing water between two of my ponds.

Tom

[Reedman]

frogman3,

I only have one golden orfe - used to have four but they never spawned.

I saw my fish spawning late last week on the couple of plastic asparagus ferns I throw into the pond early spring.  Put the ferns in a stock tank of water.

Little fry swimming around in the stock tank today - joy!     Hopefully I get some nice colored babies.