I have 75 goldfish in the fountain at the Garden Home Retreat. I got them from friends who actually raise goldfish, the Frisbys. Howdy and Debbie have taught me a lot about the care of fish, and how they’re able to survive during the winter.
At the Frisby Fish Farm, Howdy and Debbie Frisby, along with their boys, raise goldfish on a large scale. Now, their main market is pet stores, but they also sell for private ponds, like we have at the Garden Home Retreat.
During a recent visit they were busy harvesting the fish and bringing them up to the holding tank to get them ready for market.
I asked Howdy and Debbie if I should do anything special to help the fish survive over winter. Here is what they told me.
Howdy and Debbie Frisby: Of course, a goldfish may not necessarily be gold. They can range from any color to brown to bronze to orange to white.
You know, they’re cold-blooded just like all fish are, and so they’re not near as active in the wintertime.
When the water temperature gets below 45 degrees F or so, they quit growing. They’ll still eat a little bit, but they not nearly as much as they do during the rest of the year.
They’ll become sluggish and stay at the bottom of the pond most of the time.
They can survive in frozen ponds, too. The only problem that you run into is if a pond freezes over completely and then you get a snow cover. That will decrease if not eliminate the oxygen because you have to have sunshine to make oxygen for the water.
If you want to build a pond for goldfish, create it in a place where it can get plenty of sunshine, and that would certainly help in the summertime and the wintertime.
To keep your fish healthy, keep the water clean. Don’t allow the water to get stagnant or full of debris and dirt.
I think most people that have a fish pond probably would have a filter of some kind depending on the size of the pond, and it’s also prettier to see the fish in the clean water as opposed to dirty, murky water, and they’ll be happier and prettier and live a lot longer.