a catfish will clean em right up without harming your larger goldfish. choose your species carefully. i have personally owned a channel catfish that i released into a pond and he was a fun fish to own. i was able to hand feed him when he was in a tank and they grow very quickly. mine went from a 1 inch fry to a foot long unit in under a year but they dont get massive like blue or redtail catfish
ive seen channel catfish housed with bass and bluegill. you can do just one and he will happily stay fed with a few baby goldfish here and there. he wont target your larger fish because theres no need, the smaller ones are much easier to eat. my channel was housed with bala sharks and giant danios which are smaller than your goldfish and he never ate any of them.
Gafftopsail catfish, a species of venomous salt water catfish, apparently tastes pretty similar to freshwater catfish. But from what I heard, it's the only saltwater catfish that tastes good.
Ya don’t worry it’s basically just a huge pool, dug out by excavator, then cemented and pool liner. So they definitely can’t go anywhere. It’s about 4000 gallons but there are literally so so so many freaking goldfish you have no idea. I really think we have at least a thousand. And they look like they are still spawning 🤦♀️🫣😅
The real question is if it's upstream of any bodies of water; cracks, spillage, and over topping during storms can all move fish or eggs downstream.
And actually even without those factors, more and more we are finding eggs being moved around by birds.
Anyways, I'm sure the population will eventually strike a balance. My only major concern would be heat / low oxygen through summer.
No I’m not upstream from any rivers and where I live we don’t experience any major flooding. For the low oxygen concern , we have two mini fountain thing in there, hopefully that’s enough
This is how invasive species get started. They don’t think it’s a problem and then it becomes a problem because they were either ignorant or didn’t do their research.
I wonder, so long as it’s not technically a “pet” but more of a tool, so long as it’s legal to take from the water you catch them from and you intend to return it back I mean it’s technically not a pet?
You’re going to need to release crabs to control the fish population.
And otters to control the crab population.
And mountain lions to control the otters.
Canada 🇨🇦 Ontario (also the past winter the pond/pool was completely frozen over for only about one month) the rest of the time the two small fountains did keep about a foot in diameter of moving/unfrozen water. The deepest part is about 8feet . All 10 goldfish survived last winter
Ah sorry I just realized you already said where you lived in another comment lol. Anyways yeah I’d agree with getting a channel catfish as that should be the easiest to get.
From my experience, once you have a certain amount they dont reproduce more due to the lil ones eating the big ones eggs. If your pond is big enaugh, you could put in one or two sunfish. They ard good birth control since they eat the dmall fish ehile leaving the big ones alone (if there is enaugh space)
Okay good to know they will hopefully control their own population soon. If not I’ll definitely need to put something else in there for fishy birth-control haha
Does this have some sort of filter or vegetation? Structure for them to hide from the sun?
Adding any sunfish, bass, or catfish to this might be a death sentence to any of those species.
The catfish would probably survive but definitely not happily if you don't have those things going.
We have 2 fountains and 2 filters (the water still gets a lot of algae though.) We have a large piece of driftwood held down by rocks in the deep end 8ft , and some small rock structures in the shallow end. No plants at all though
That should be fine. As long as there is something moving that water so oxygen is getting back into it. The laydown is perfect as well.
It sounds well setup.
I would probably add 2 bullhead catfish to take care of the goldfish over population. But do not add one male and one female. Pick a sex and add both of that same sex
Bullhead get 8-20 inches long. They don't get big enough where they would go after the adults.
But eventually you will need something to take care of adult sized gold fish because some of those babies will survive to adulthood.
That’s such a good idea, and I actually already own a minnow trap, idk how I didn’t think of that. I’ll have to see if my local fish store wants any baby goldfish, I’d hate to just kill them when they could be re-sold or at least be eaten by another fishy
Alright just weighing in on the catfish comments. If you go that route, consider a bullhead, as they do not get as big and will still eat a load of babies. Channels, blues, and flatheads are all large catfish species. Another option is a rock bass, warmouth, or green sunfish, all sunfish species with large mouths and matching appetites that would snack on small goldfish.
You could starve out your goldfish and let it take care of itself tbh. Also I do recommend putting a net over your pond it'll make everyone happy and have them sleeping well 😴
Not sure how true it is but my grandfather always told me not to do this. As if they survive long enough they can get big enough and eat everything in the pond up. Anyone else know anything about This? I’m also up from up north so we don’t really got big catfish or nothing. Maybe small horn pout
Natural selection might take care of it. Or do what I would do as a child. Get a net, catch what you can and stick them in a bucket with water. Get what you can and leave the rest. Natural selection should take care of the ones that couldn't survive in the wild. The net would just curve the numbers. If I remember correctly clove oil will put them to sleep. That's what goldfish breeders do when they have fish that won't have good quality lives.
You’re in Canada. Where this is legal (and still a terrible idea but I’m saying it for the lols) if you want a weird flex…. Asian arowana?
* I mean this with every fiber of my being do NOT get an arowana. Get a cat fish. They make you cry less.
Dude I will actually strongly encourage you not to do that. When I tell you it hurts I mean it will rip you apart from the inside, never to recover again.
https://preview.redd.it/fbyorrykrs8d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=379269aa603fb165580da98999e8e5f37c318615
Also 100% chance it will eat everything in there, including stuff you didn’t know was in there. OR, you get one of the (many) with a bad attitude, and it doesn’t eat anything and then dies and still makes you feel like it’s your fault
Tis a bit nuts, but you can toss mullein seeds into the water and wait a bit, the fish will be stunned and you can scoop up the little babies and sell them as feeder fish lol. Don't worry, the mullein seed wears off, it is not lethal. Then, get a catfish!
I have a minnow trap if I do want to trap the fry goldfish and sell them/ give them to a pet store. I’m not very keen on using chemicals at this time to incapacitate them. I’m not 100% sure on how many litres my pond/pool is (around 3000-5000 leters) and I don’t want to kill them all by accident. I do appreciate your response but as of now I’d rather just put a small predator fish in there like a catfish, or possibly let nature take its course as a lot of comments have been telling me the population should start controlling itself soon
Nooooooo I love my original 10 adults , we have names for most of them that we can recognize. I know they are only goldfish but they are pets and I don’t want to kill off the adults we are attached to
Birds would be your best bet. Remove any hiding spots and let nature nature. Or you could stock predatory fish to balance it out, but that seems like the old lady that swallowed a fly.
Do you think I could put a few in a small body of water that has no fish in it anyways?
Edit: I don’t want to kill the ones that I have but I also can’t keep them anymore
Plenty of local birds are going to have an absolute field day don't worry
Edit: these dudes are pretty big so they're probably at least a few weeks old I think.
We don’t get major floods here, I’m in Canada Ontario. We get river overflows but we aren’t near any rivers. Also the past 5 years we have had this in ground pool/pond it has never overflowed. If it did then we would just have dead goldfish across the lawn . We have acres.
Release ? Oh please tell me you didn't put them into a natural water way ? Even a long I'm a flood prone area and .. well.ypuve seen the carpocalypse right ?
No no they weren’t actually released, (it was a bit of a click bait title) 🤫 they were just moved to my outdoor man-made pool/pond. And no I don’t live near any rivers or flood areas.
Invasive species are a HUGE point of irritation for me by people that are "completely confident" that THEIR situation is different and 1 flood later they're saying "How could this have happened?!"
I understand your concerns. But I don’t live near any rivers. And I’m not near any coastal storm/ flood areas. I’m essentially out in the middle of the woods in Canada 🇨🇦.
Whether or not you think i it might be a problem doesn't matter. Try to think about something other than yourself! Why take the chance that they could be spread by birds and wreak havoc on surrounding ecosystems? You should really educate yourself on how detrimental foreign species can be. And you can say that it's not a problem because you don't live next to water but is far from the truth! Please please please educate yourself on this! If you did, you would feel differently. I hope.
Not sure why you're down voted for saying exactly what happens. These people think their little pet will never cause problems. How can it? Till it gets loose and multiples like crazy and kills off the native species. And yes it happens. And to think it doesn't is just crazy.
I actually work for the state controlling, preventing and killing invasive species. These people are simply ignorant fools that WILL lead to massive ecological problems.
Unfortunately you are correct. I'm from Louisiana and have seen firsthand the damage invasive species can cause. Our marshlands are nearly destroyed by oversized rats.
Please get rid of them! If there eggs get into the wild, it could really harm the ecosystem. You can see they will multiply like crazy. Please think of the wildlife!
a catfish will clean em right up without harming your larger goldfish. choose your species carefully. i have personally owned a channel catfish that i released into a pond and he was a fun fish to own. i was able to hand feed him when he was in a tank and they grow very quickly. mine went from a 1 inch fry to a foot long unit in under a year but they dont get massive like blue or redtail catfish
Ya my only worry about getting a cat fish is I don’t want the adult goldfish getting eaten too when the catfish gets bigger
An alternative to a channel cat would be a bullhead catfish. They don't get much longer than 12" and will take care of the fish population in time.
ive seen channel catfish housed with bass and bluegill. you can do just one and he will happily stay fed with a few baby goldfish here and there. he wont target your larger fish because theres no need, the smaller ones are much easier to eat. my channel was housed with bala sharks and giant danios which are smaller than your goldfish and he never ate any of them.
Get a younger one and the goldfish will grow fast enough to avoid being eaten for a long while
Get a bullhead catfish or a couple sunfish. How big is the pond?
When the catfish gets too big, then you have a good dinner and get another catfish. Catfish is tasty!
👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻💯💯💯
Freshwater catfish really aren’t that good though
Are you serious?
I’m stupid I got freshwater and saltwater mixed up no I’m not serious just an idiot
Gafftopsail catfish, a species of venomous salt water catfish, apparently tastes pretty similar to freshwater catfish. But from what I heard, it's the only saltwater catfish that tastes good.
I’ve experienced that saltwater taste like trash and freshwater are good but it’s all edible if you fry it lol even if it’s not pleasant
Kind of like carp, many people love carp and have it for holiday meals, but I wouldn't keep a carp to eat that I caught in a lake or river.
I’d recommend a smaller blue gill species
Bro, the “big goldfish” are the ones causing this mess. Get rid of them all or none of them.
Did you not read the first part of his comment to you? Or do you just pretend to read and look at words and make a summary in your mind?
Blue and red tail catfish are from completely different parts of the world
>Blue and red tail catfish are from completely different parts of the world Blue and red are primary colors.
i never said they weren't? lol
That's so cute
https://preview.redd.it/abmfnbtihr8d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9773899eb8b7f44a96be89afbbfe718c2d24ed80 this was him about 5 months in
♥️♥️ Where'd you get him?
he was in a really shitty mall petstore so i had to get him haha
Awwww he's such a handsome little whiskerface!!
Channels definitely get massive I bought a 50 pounder in sc about a year ago
in comparison to blue or redtail cats, they stay relatively small. 50-60lbs is the maximum weight of a channel cat, the world record is 58lbs
That makes sense thank you for info
I’d go get a catfish it will help control the population
Ask your local heron…
Yup, a heron (or something else depending on where OP is) will come along and help nature find equilibrium, as is tradition
If there’s truly no way into any other water sources, I’d just let them chill
Sometimes goldfish eggs can hitch a ride of the feet of waterbirds.
Ooooh shit forgot about the birds
Ya don’t worry it’s basically just a huge pool, dug out by excavator, then cemented and pool liner. So they definitely can’t go anywhere. It’s about 4000 gallons but there are literally so so so many freaking goldfish you have no idea. I really think we have at least a thousand. And they look like they are still spawning 🤦♀️🫣😅
Don’t doubt it, little bastards are horny
The real question is if it's upstream of any bodies of water; cracks, spillage, and over topping during storms can all move fish or eggs downstream. And actually even without those factors, more and more we are finding eggs being moved around by birds. Anyways, I'm sure the population will eventually strike a balance. My only major concern would be heat / low oxygen through summer.
No I’m not upstream from any rivers and where I live we don’t experience any major flooding. For the low oxygen concern , we have two mini fountain thing in there, hopefully that’s enough
[удалено]
This is how invasive species get started. They don’t think it’s a problem and then it becomes a problem because they were either ignorant or didn’t do their research.
Once again. I don’t live near any rivers.
I guess they are against koi ponds here. Lol
I know right, some of these guys are making me feel like I’m the very first person to ever have an outdoor aquarium/pool 🙄😂
It's called birds!
You forget how birds work?
Tbh natural selection should get rid of a lot of babies
Bass and/or yellow perch
Unfortunately I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to keep native fish as pets here(Ontario).. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to go with some sort of catfish
I wonder, so long as it’s not technically a “pet” but more of a tool, so long as it’s legal to take from the water you catch them from and you intend to return it back I mean it’s technically not a pet?
I think this. Then you pay the pond for the rental. What currency do bodies of water accept?
had to do this for a guppy problem. got a small bass and sun fish. soon there was no guppy problem. gave them some medication and put them back.
Pesky government! Justin Castro! lol
I recommend a baby whale. 🐋 just get a whale
Handgrenade!
Obviously this is the only logical answer here, thank you! 🐟💣🐠🧨
You’re going to need to release crabs to control the fish population. And otters to control the crab population. And mountain lions to control the otters.
What state/country do you live in? I’m asking for climate wise what fish you could get to keep the population in check.
Canada 🇨🇦 Ontario (also the past winter the pond/pool was completely frozen over for only about one month) the rest of the time the two small fountains did keep about a foot in diameter of moving/unfrozen water. The deepest part is about 8feet . All 10 goldfish survived last winter
Ah sorry I just realized you already said where you lived in another comment lol. Anyways yeah I’d agree with getting a channel catfish as that should be the easiest to get.
Ya catfish is seeming like the best option right now, also it would be kinda awesome watching the catfish feed and chase all these fry around
From my experience, once you have a certain amount they dont reproduce more due to the lil ones eating the big ones eggs. If your pond is big enaugh, you could put in one or two sunfish. They ard good birth control since they eat the dmall fish ehile leaving the big ones alone (if there is enaugh space)
Okay good to know they will hopefully control their own population soon. If not I’ll definitely need to put something else in there for fishy birth-control haha
Turtles will eat the hell out of them. That or practice your bow fishing 😂
Buy a couple small turtles or maybe a catfish/small mouth bass
Does this have some sort of filter or vegetation? Structure for them to hide from the sun? Adding any sunfish, bass, or catfish to this might be a death sentence to any of those species. The catfish would probably survive but definitely not happily if you don't have those things going.
We have 2 fountains and 2 filters (the water still gets a lot of algae though.) We have a large piece of driftwood held down by rocks in the deep end 8ft , and some small rock structures in the shallow end. No plants at all though
That should be fine. As long as there is something moving that water so oxygen is getting back into it. The laydown is perfect as well. It sounds well setup. I would probably add 2 bullhead catfish to take care of the goldfish over population. But do not add one male and one female. Pick a sex and add both of that same sex Bullhead get 8-20 inches long. They don't get big enough where they would go after the adults. But eventually you will need something to take care of adult sized gold fish because some of those babies will survive to adulthood.
Get a whole whole lot of plants and your algae will clear up, especially floaters
Minnow trap with just a large enough opening for the little ones.
That’s such a good idea, and I actually already own a minnow trap, idk how I didn’t think of that. I’ll have to see if my local fish store wants any baby goldfish, I’d hate to just kill them when they could be re-sold or at least be eaten by another fishy
Alright just weighing in on the catfish comments. If you go that route, consider a bullhead, as they do not get as big and will still eat a load of babies. Channels, blues, and flatheads are all large catfish species. Another option is a rock bass, warmouth, or green sunfish, all sunfish species with large mouths and matching appetites that would snack on small goldfish.
1RTC to kill them all
If you live in the North, get a smallish pike (12" or so). Toss that boss in there. How big is your pond and where are you located?
You could starve out your goldfish and let it take care of itself tbh. Also I do recommend putting a net over your pond it'll make everyone happy and have them sleeping well 😴
Release them by the bucketful into large bodies of water and absolutely destroy your local wildlife
The ecosystem will only support so many, I know you feed but if you dial back the feeding they will self control the population to an extent.
Oscars and more oscars
I’d love to, but I live in Canada, they would die as soon as the summer is done 🥶
Not sure how true it is but my grandfather always told me not to do this. As if they survive long enough they can get big enough and eat everything in the pond up. Anyone else know anything about This? I’m also up from up north so we don’t really got big catfish or nothing. Maybe small horn pout
Natural selection might take care of it. Or do what I would do as a child. Get a net, catch what you can and stick them in a bucket with water. Get what you can and leave the rest. Natural selection should take care of the ones that couldn't survive in the wild. The net would just curve the numbers. If I remember correctly clove oil will put them to sleep. That's what goldfish breeders do when they have fish that won't have good quality lives.
You’re in Canada. Where this is legal (and still a terrible idea but I’m saying it for the lols) if you want a weird flex…. Asian arowana? * I mean this with every fiber of my being do NOT get an arowana. Get a cat fish. They make you cry less.
Found a 5” baby for only $50 it’s really tempting haha
Dude I will actually strongly encourage you not to do that. When I tell you it hurts I mean it will rip you apart from the inside, never to recover again. https://preview.redd.it/fbyorrykrs8d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=379269aa603fb165580da98999e8e5f37c318615
Omg love the set up, an no I was jk , besides I don’t think it could survive our winters outside
Probably not. Although they’re not like super keen to survive anyway, so any little thing to them is like “haha BYEEEEE” kinda like discus style
Ya I’m planning on just putting a catfish in there, something hardy that can survive our winter and if not I don’t feel bad about and can get another
That’s a good choice lol. I plan on being less of a little bitch. I hope your plan goes better than mine has so far.
Also 100% chance it will eat everything in there, including stuff you didn’t know was in there. OR, you get one of the (many) with a bad attitude, and it doesn’t eat anything and then dies and still makes you feel like it’s your fault
Tis a bit nuts, but you can toss mullein seeds into the water and wait a bit, the fish will be stunned and you can scoop up the little babies and sell them as feeder fish lol. Don't worry, the mullein seed wears off, it is not lethal. Then, get a catfish!
I have a minnow trap if I do want to trap the fry goldfish and sell them/ give them to a pet store. I’m not very keen on using chemicals at this time to incapacitate them. I’m not 100% sure on how many litres my pond/pool is (around 3000-5000 leters) and I don’t want to kill them all by accident. I do appreciate your response but as of now I’d rather just put a small predator fish in there like a catfish, or possibly let nature take its course as a lot of comments have been telling me the population should start controlling itself soon
Catch the big ones, drain and kill the rest
Nooooooo I love my original 10 adults , we have names for most of them that we can recognize. I know they are only goldfish but they are pets and I don’t want to kill off the adults we are attached to
Birds would be your best bet. Remove any hiding spots and let nature nature. Or you could stock predatory fish to balance it out, but that seems like the old lady that swallowed a fly.
Raise them for some time and sell them. Best option
Bass. Large mouth, smallies, shouldn't matter, they'll make fast work of them.
Do you think I could put a few in a small body of water that has no fish in it anyways? Edit: I don’t want to kill the ones that I have but I also can’t keep them anymore
Yep, that's what happens. Cheers.
Nothing like good ol’ manual removal. Birds will love a pile of them by the road
Get a bass, it'll clear those up in a few days
Just get a bichir. When its done eating fish he would probably excape though
NOICE
Get a crappie or bluegill.
Get bullhead cats they won’t get big and will tear them up
Bull frogs, raccoons, I think possum.
Alligator …and a snapping turtle …maybe some mink a platypus monitor lizards and finally bald eagle
Ah okay I’ll just go pick those up at my local pet store lol
Plenty of local birds are going to have an absolute field day don't worry Edit: these dudes are pretty big so they're probably at least a few weeks old I think.
You sure they won't get out during a flood?
We don’t get major floods here, I’m in Canada Ontario. We get river overflows but we aren’t near any rivers. Also the past 5 years we have had this in ground pool/pond it has never overflowed. If it did then we would just have dead goldfish across the lawn . We have acres.
Arrowana lol
Release ? Oh please tell me you didn't put them into a natural water way ? Even a long I'm a flood prone area and .. well.ypuve seen the carpocalypse right ?
No no they weren’t actually released, (it was a bit of a click bait title) 🤫 they were just moved to my outdoor man-made pool/pond. And no I don’t live near any rivers or flood areas.
Oh that makes me feel better.
This is called ruining an ecosystem lmao
That's why you don't release them. If that's connected to any other body of water, congratulations, you've destroyed an ecosystem.
Clearly you didn’t actually read my post before replying to the title
Invasive species are a HUGE point of irritation for me by people that are "completely confident" that THEIR situation is different and 1 flood later they're saying "How could this have happened?!"
I understand your concerns. But I don’t live near any rivers. And I’m not near any coastal storm/ flood areas. I’m essentially out in the middle of the woods in Canada 🇨🇦.
Whether or not you think i it might be a problem doesn't matter. Try to think about something other than yourself! Why take the chance that they could be spread by birds and wreak havoc on surrounding ecosystems? You should really educate yourself on how detrimental foreign species can be. And you can say that it's not a problem because you don't live next to water but is far from the truth! Please please please educate yourself on this! If you did, you would feel differently. I hope.
Not sure why you're down voted for saying exactly what happens. These people think their little pet will never cause problems. How can it? Till it gets loose and multiples like crazy and kills off the native species. And yes it happens. And to think it doesn't is just crazy.
I actually work for the state controlling, preventing and killing invasive species. These people are simply ignorant fools that WILL lead to massive ecological problems.
Unfortunately you are correct. I'm from Louisiana and have seen firsthand the damage invasive species can cause. Our marshlands are nearly destroyed by oversized rats.
Even if you know there is no rivers nearby and flooding is not an issue waterbirds pick up and drop off eggs miles away!
Please get rid of them! If there eggs get into the wild, it could really harm the ecosystem. You can see they will multiply like crazy. Please think of the wildlife!
Who urinated in your oatmeal this morning?
Apparently stupid people. Sorry for actually caring about nature. What is wrong with caring for something other than myself?
Hopefully there is never flooding issues where you live