Goldfish Per Gallons In Large Filtered Pond

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Just a quick thread, but i have seen some goldfish up for sale on ebay and i am considering getting them. My pond is 3200galllons and has filtration capable of filtering up to 4000gallons, and so far the pond has no fish in it. I have some comet and common goldfish (9 goldfish in total) in a 125gallon tank which are all being moved out into the pond as soon as it is warm enough (probably in a month or two time depending on the weather).

The pond is over 7metres long and almost 2 and a half meters at the widest point and just over 4ft deep at the deepest point, considering that the pond is filtered, how many goldfish per gallons do you think i could get away with? What about ghost carp and koi carp?

 

[Rodders]

What filter make and type if filter (pressureised/gravity) do you have? This is a large consideration on wether you can have koi or not.

Usually a gravity filter with koi halves the capacity, ie 4000gallon for goldfish = 2000 gallon for koi. Pressurised are even worse, you'd probably be look at 1000gallon capacity on a 4000gallon pressurised filter if your lucky. Koi are really really dirty fish!!!!!!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The filter is a gravity fed one but it has quite a strong flow- goldfish are the main aim, i'm not massively interested in koi, but i might have a few ghost carp. A lot depends on who wants to get rid of what fish and how much space i can spare in the pond etc .

 

[black angel]

I just go with 250 for a koi and 100 for a goldie...worked so far.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The thing is that there is someone looking to get rid of about 40 goldfish and a few ghost carp from their pond- if i only had one goldfish per 100gallons then that would be 32 goldfish in a pond thats over 7metres long. Surely i could have a few more goldfish than that in the long term?

 

[black angel]

yeah but youve got to think of the waste too...

depends how much filtration you have too. i have overstocked my pond and it looks empty. thing is these little cute goldies grow to over a foot long each and give off 30% of their weight per day in waste...its a lot.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Ah fair enough. I think basically what i'm going to do is stock the the pond to no more than 32 goldfish as you say- i've been thinking about what to do if the goldfish spawn in the spring though, and i've decided that if they spawn i'll simply give the fry to my brother and mother (my mum has 3 large ponds, each holding about 800-1000gallons with no fish in them) .

 

[black angel]

mine spawned last year but only two young survived and they are about 2 inches long now. Its great you have somewhere for the babies to go if it happens but more than likely they will be eaten.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Actually i'll let you guys in on a secret ; about a 2weeks ago i picked up 8 goldfish from an overstocked pond (the owners were giving goldfish away for free), i got 3 white ones and 4 orange ones and one lil black one- the goldfish are not that large, ranging from about 2-6inches. They're really not tame at all right now, but i'm trying to tame them by feeding them once a day (they don't really need the food as there's a glut of bugs and larvae and things living in the pond, which is why i'm only feeding them once a day right now). I would have taken pics earlier, but the goldfish stirred up a lot of silt after a night of being in the pond, making the water visibility pretty bad- but its been gradually slowly clearing day by day though, so hopefully i'll take some pics soon .
The weather has dropped a bit in temp, but i'm hoping it'll warm again soon, and as soon as it does i'll be ready to move my indoor goldfish out into the pond .