Me again with another question. Back last spring, my boyfriend had me get some goldfish to put in a 30 gallon tub outside. His plan was to water my gardens with their water that we would draw off every once in a while.(It almost killed all my tomato plants too!) Anyway, out of 8 fish, I had 5 that were tough guys and lived through the birds and all. I decided to bring them in for the winter because I could see their home freezing completely up. I put them, and their 30 gallon home in my bathroom. The only free space I could find. My bathroom has no windows and they would be in continuous darkness if I didn't keep the lights on throughout the daytime. They seem to be happy, but, is the artificial light going to hurt them eventually? Would the darkness hurt them if I left the lights off and just turned them on when we are in there? Also, I have read conflicting articles about how much to feed them. I've seen everything from twice a day to once every 3 days. I've never had much luck with fish, and I'm afraid I'm going to kill them off before spring gets here. They thrived outside and their tank was always full of algae and leaves, but they did so well. Any suggestions?

-- Diana (rock_hunter83@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001

Answers

Artificial light will be fine.

Feed them once a day a very small amount. You can skip a day once in a while and that will actually be good for them.

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), December 31, 2001.

Thanks Paul. They always act like they are just starving! :-)

-- Diana (rock_hunter83@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

Diana,

I used to keep exotic goldfish (Hubbie and I are avid aquarium enthusiasts) and they will eat everything you give them, and grow according to feed qty, amount of tank water, and conditions (clean or filthy tank). A little rule of thumb I use for koi and regular old fantail goldfish is 2 pond pellets per 1.5 inches of fish including tail. Feeding once a day is just fine. The fish will also be fine even if they only get 2 or 3 hours of light a day. Turn on the light, go potty, then feed the fish and come shut off the light in a few hours. Another solution would be to put in a night light in the bathroom, which would give them constant but dim light. The good news about no and low lights is that the algae won't take over. To keep your fish pretty, you might toss them the occasional chopped slice of zuccini or cucumber, as they do enjoy green in their diet. If you could keep one little spot of their aquarium unfrozen during the winter outside, the fish would actually survive the cold. Inexpensive air pumps with a bubble stone laid under a smallish rock in the bottom of their aquarium would keep a section of tank unfrozen. You can keep the plugged in pump under a coffee can on a brick for it's protection. They eat almost nothing when the water drops below 40 degrees, and would likely be influenced to lay eggs and reproduce for you come the spring warming if raised this way. In china the koi (a variety of goldfish) live this way, and it certainly gets cold there!

-- Marty in KS (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), December 31, 2001.

ok here is a question i have had goldfish for many many years i keep them in an old horse trough 200+ gallons there are about 20 gold fish and some other fish in there. i feed them once a day. they over winter in there every year and have never had one die. now i have never had them reproduce. there is some stuff for them to hid in but not much do they need more? is that there problem? i have one about 6 years old and the others are 3years and some which are 2. is that not old enough?

-- lindsey (lindsey_sham1@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

We have kept gold fish in our rain barrel for many years but do take them inside during the winter. The owner of our local pet store told us the main reason gold fish die in fish bowls inside is because it gets too warm. She suggested we keep the fish in the coolest place in the house and during the winter only feed them once per week. We keep them in a 5 gallon bucket in the root cellar (there is disfused light from two plastic covered basement windows). My husband keeps a second bucket in there full of tap water that has had a week to adjust to temperture. On Sundays, he transfers the fish into the bucket of clean water (I use the old water to water my plants) and feeds the fish. As soon as the temperture outside warms up, we return the fish to the rain barrel. We've kept fish year-round for years using this method. The reason for keeping the fish in the rain barrel in the first place is to keep down the mesquito larve down.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (aka Dianne in Mass) (Trevilians@mediaone.net), December 31, 2001.

Lindsey,

You are wanting your goldfish to reproduce??? Try feeding live food (like daphne gathered from a pond) or live brine shrimp (remember sea monkeys???) when the weather gets to 55 degrees. Any goldfish that's made it a year should be large enough to reproduce. Their size will only effect their egg qty. Goldfish are carp, and follow the same breeding rituals. Try covering their tank with burlap bags to make them feel sheltered. Wood frames with burlap stapled or nailed to it works pretty good. Mostly, you've got to make the fish believe that the food supply will be sufficient to support more. You may have a problem with other non-carp or hungry carp (aka goldfish) eating the eggs. Be sure you have no snails or bottom feeders. Put in a potted water plant or two that is fully mature for them to lay eggs under the leaves of. Goldfish can be rough on live plants, so give them something sturdy. Goldfish MUST have moving water (like a bubblestone) in the tank for them to reproduce.

In a nutshell, feed, shade, shelter, and airiate and be prepared to pull out little fish by the dozens with a very fine net. Once the little fish hatch stop feeding live food, and feed a mixture of pond food for the adults, and finely ground cheap wal-mart aquarium food for the tiny tots. E-mail me privately with any additonal questions or comments if you want.

-- Marty in KS (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), December 31, 2001.

I have some more questions about your goldfish and rain barrels. Can you buy barrels that the rain spouts empty into? What if they overflow? How do you get the water out? Is there a bucket or a spigot or what? Is there a top to the barrel? Must you feed them every day? Do you use the water exclusively for garden or could it be used for animals too?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), January 01, 2002.

Dear Ann,

The barrel we use is a 50 gallon plastic barrel. DH drilled holes around the top after we had to scoop gold fish up off the ground after a heavy rain. During warm weather, we do feed the fish every day but during the time they're in the root cellar we only feed once a week.

Whenever I need water outside when watering plants, I just dip a bucket into the barrel being careful not to accidently scoop up a fish. I don't give this water to the animals.

In the fall, when we remove the fish, DH dips out most of the water or uses a sump pump to get to the fish. We don't worry about the water freezing (after we've removed the fish). In fact, I've seen several very "interesting" ice sculptures growing out of the top of the barrel.

Wishing you enough.

-- Trevilians (Trevilians@mediaone.net), January 02, 2002.