Hi,

I've had 4 small ( 2-3") pond comets in a container pond that i'm guessing is 30-40 gallons for a year. I got them as tiny feeder fish and they've grown a little but they have never been active. I used to have a group of mollies that were always moving around and having babies in the pond. The goldfish always stayed under anything they could hide under. Water hyacinth make the water relatively clear. I dont have a filter, just a small pump pointed upward to make a little ripple. Also, they never ate any of the flake food or small pellets i put in. I assume they ate if after it sank or ate something else...?

Temp 65-70

After finding this site, i got a little jealous seeing all your beautiful goldfish ponds with active fish.
Recently I got curious so i setup an old 10 gallon with a power filter. I put two of the goldfish in the tank and they've been swimming around happily foraging. They also immediately ate the same flake that they refused in the pond. I'm pretty confused. Both the pond and tank get an ok amount of water flow so that's probably not it. I setup the tank with 50% pond water at the same temp...
What's the secret to active fish in a pond?

One possibility they are eating some of the plants, another is if you have algae in the pond they will eat that as well. Also, Goldfish will not only eat floating food, but if you notice your goldfish in the tank, they forage at the bottom for food as well.

Here is the solution, or hopefully the solution. Don't feed them so much. Let them come to you. If your fish aren't coming and begging for food like starving puppy dogs than either you are feeding them too much or they are getting food from some other source (plants, etc...). It's easy to feed them too much, I sometimes over feed. This may sound mean but don't feed the fish in the pond tomorow, they'll survive. The next day go out and watch for them, sprinkle a little food in. Only feed once, and a little, hopefully they are looking for the food. Eventually they will find out where the food is coming from and they will definately make a show for you to get it. I don't mean starve them though LOL, but in order to train them to come out you've got to let them know where the food comes from. You can also train them to eat from your hand as well. My gold fish nibble on my hands when I am cleaning their tank. They can be tamed.

Be patient, they'll come out for you.

It took me 15 minutes to get my koi to eat out of my hand. Of course I was lucky one of my larger koi is brave. She lets the dog lick her head, I wish I could get a picture of it! It happens so fast and my finger isn't quick enough to snap a shot.



Scott

Thanks Scott,

You're right, the two that i was experimenting with in the tank are always foraging on the bottom. The problem with the cutting of the feeding method is, I'm not even sure if they're really eating the flakes i put in at all. Since they never really come out to swim at all in the pond. I've gone through periods where i didn't feed them for at least 2 weeks but they still didn't come out.

The thing i'm trying now is, since the ones in the tank eat very readily, i'm trying to get them used to eating from the surface. They wait till the filter pushes the flake underwater till they eat it. After they get used to seeing me around and eating from the surface, i'll put them back in the pond and if they remain active they will probably influence the other two. If they go back to being shy, I'll be out of ideas.

thanks again, BTW beautiful koi

They'll go back to there old ways in the pond, at least that is what fish normally will do. Maybe you should try taking away the hiding places? Have some, but not so many.

Scott

What caught my attention while reading through the posts was, that there is no filtration going on in your pond. I suspect, that in addition to being shy fish they are bothered by the lack of perfect water quality in their pond. Is it possible for you to have the water tested, or bring it to the pet store, where they test it for you? Just make sure they give you actual numbers, not the usual "everything is fine" response.....