A few weeks ago I noticed these miniscule fish babies in my hot tub pond. They were probably about 1/4 inch long. They're now about 1/2 inch long but still very small, sleek and very fast swimmers. I have 4 bubble headed goldfish in the pond and these are thriving and are pretty big. These mystery fish do not look like the bubble fish. My question is where the heck did they come from? Has anyone ever had spontaneously born fish show up in their ponds?
-- Vicky
Mystery fish
Did you received plants from anyone this summer? Plants could have eggs on them, water can contain the tiniest of babies. An ID would not be prudent without a clear picture of the baby, it could be a comet, a koi, gambusia, to name the most likely.
Yes I did receive some plants this summer and I wondered if that could be the source of these guys. But it was a long time between when I got the plants and when the fish showed up. That must be it though. Weird! Now I have extra fish! I also got snails from somewhere and now have quite a few in my pond.
-- Vicky
Yeah, babies will hide very well, especially since most babies are generally colorless. Imagine finding a 3" baby black and yellow butterfly koi in your pond for the first time....even with the yellow he hid very well LOL I wouldn't worry too much about the snails.......fish tend to keep them under control and it's free food!
Oh my gosh Vicky - I just saw this. I am so sorry if those came from me. There is no telling. I do think it is odd that they would have survived from Memphis to Florida. Oddly, I don't have any baby fish - but I do have snails (which I don't know where they came from). I will be curious if the fish grow to have any color on them. Otherwise, maybe you should just toss them out.
What are you going to do ?
However, I did just reread your first post, and I can't believe if they did come from me that they would only be 1/2" now. That was a very long time ago, considering how fast they grow.
I just checked and it was mid-Oct that I sent you your packages.
Maybe someone else will chime in and tell if that would be feasible to have happened in that amount of time.
Well I've noticed that some of the fish do have color -- multi orange, black, white, etc. Some are just kind of gray looking. I have quite a few of them -- I just looked for a few minutes yesterday and counted about 9 in one particular area. Some are bigger than others too. Some of the larger multi-colored ones are more like an inch or more.
Bonnie, even if they're yours, don't worry a bit! What could you do about fish eggs or snails hiding out in your plants!! Not a problem at all.
The only thing I am worried about is that my pond is a still pond and with winter, there is less algae (which all my existing fish were eating). I don't feed anybody anything but instead this has been a self-sustaining pond. Now that I have many more fish, and the snails, all of which use the oxygen and eat whatever is in the pond, I'm worried that my original fish may not be getting all they need. Does anyone know if this is a valid concern?
-- Vicky
I would not worry too much about it. Mother Nature has a way of balancing things out. That is why fish hatch out so many because a lot of them will naturally not make it to maturity becoming food for other fish or simply because they were born with some physical problems that would not have allowed them to survive anyway. Let them work it out for a while. If you notice some problems you can always thin them out when they have gotten a little bigger. Watch the snails and you can always do the same thing with them if they start to eat too much of your good stuff. :)
Thanks tetley! Your name makes me chuckle -- it reminds me of one of the four ferrets we had for about 10 years. His name was Tom Tuna. They were all truly beloved!
I have my own 4 gold fish in the pond. I think they're called bubble something. They have really big tails and are quite graceful. Three are gold and one is multi-colored. They've been in there from the beginning of this pond last summer and have grown a lot. I just need to watch and make sure nothing happens to them cuz they've become my buds.
-- Vicky
Fish can take a while to color up. I've had a lot of goldfish start out a dull metallic brown and it would take until the following summer when they turned the typical orange. Either that or the brown ones took a hike and the orange ones moved in, cuz all the brownies are gone and I have got a ton of orange ones. Some you could watch the color change on as the brown gave way to the orange. I've found that a pond light on the bottom of the pond on at night is good form of birth control. The koi can easily spot the fry when they swim in the light and Wham! The koi get snack. Even with this though dozens survive.
they might be frogs or toads
There are just oodles of these fish in the pond. Some have gotten a bit bigger but I still have very small fries too. Some of them are gold and black and white and some are still gray or tan. They're not frogs or toads -- I had plenty of those this past summer. Polly wogs galore!
-- Vicky
those are koi or gold fish
I'm really glad I read this. I wondered about the fish that appeared a month after a plant trade last year. I wasn't sure if they came with the plant or if they were baby koi. They are a dark bronze, and my koi are orange. I looked at them today and a couple have some orange patches on them, so they must be getting their "colors".
It will be interesting to see what they change into! Perhaps I should fish one out and get a closer look to see if it is koi, comet or goldfish. (or is a comet a goldfish?)
K
How do you tell if they're koi or goldfish? Mine are still relatively small and I don't know what small koi look like....
-- Vicky
Don't Koi have small "whiskers"? I don't really know because I do not have any but think I remember reading that somewhere.
Koi have barbels, whiskers, which only koi or catfish have. When the fry are small though they are kind of hard to see at first. No barbels means no koi.
I'm going to need a powerful magnifying glass! LOL
K
I sent some water lettuce to Minnnesota last year with just a couple drops of water that accumulated in the bottom of the bag but it was enough for a tadpole to hitch a ride and arrive alive and happy.
I really think mine are goldfish because on the bigger ones I don't see any 'whiskers.' It's really amazing -- there are soooo many of them. My 3 big, old, original bubble-something goldfish are still in there and they don't seem to bother one another. I am a bit worried that if these new guys grow up and lay eggs I'll end up with a huge bunch! Last summer I had so many tadpoles that I ended up netting out some of the eggs. I got new groups of eggs every couple of days and I had just zillions of tadpoles even after scooping eggs.
-- Vicky
I found perch in my pond last summer, and my FIL believes the eggs must have hitched a ride on a bird's foot, since nothing else was added to the pond. Just another thing to consider.
Did the fish survive? Take a pic, we all are curious now!
What a fun treat, even if they did hitch a ride on a trade!
Lucky you!
Hi all,
Koi and goldfish, they're great to keep. They're truly peacefull fish, don't hardly bother any others fries. To test the water in newly made ponds. Many use minos to see if they survive in the newly created water body. Though, I didn't experiment this way. Our yea- old pond has many a minos, and the Kois, gold fish, shubunkens co-exist with these little guys (minos) nicely. Hubby claims that "...those minos are getting too big to be a meal for others." He may be right. About the snails, water snail. I catch snails from the lake and let them stay in our pond to help rid of algae -- their primary source of food, and fish waste so I was told.
Kim