We have a pond of about 1400 gallon in three pools. We purchase a dozen $0.26 feeder comets. Most of them died, but four survived the winter. In the spring they had babies. a lot of them. After the first year the population has stabilized to about 60 fish. I know there are some babies born each year as after 5 years we still have some small fish, but we have not had any significant die off.

It has just been in the past couple of weeks that we could see them. Since the middle of January the have been under about 5" of ice.

It's sort of humorous, for some people any fish they will put in a pond gets eaten by something and for others they have success at breeding koi when sometimes the pro's fail.

When I had a goldfish population explosion I went fishing for a bluegill. Since it's been in my pond I no longer have goldfish breeding like rabbits. (I do but the bluegill cleans up). Unfortunately I lost "Gil" this winter. Now I have to go fishing to replace him. However, if you want to do this I suggest just one fish. More than one and you will be buying something to eat the sunfish offspring. Another member on this forum put several bluegill in her pond and ended up draining the pond to get rid of the bluegill population.

Jenny

troy_l, I hope I have your problem--too many baby koi:-) By any chance you live in PA, NJ area?

I lost all 4 koi this winter:-(

My goldfish do multiply, but it seems their population stablize.

Thanks for the info. I would have prolly put in 2 not thinking that I could end up with babies from those 2.. what a cycle that would have been. sara_in_philly I am actually in Fort Wayne IN. several hours from you. If I were closer I would hook you up with some babies this spring. I have thougth about putting a mop heard or the white mesh material in there for them to lay eggs on then put all that in a 20gal aquarium and see what I ended up with.

You could always just put multiple same sex bluegill in the pond. Males are pretty easy to ID during spawning season. They will have much brighter breast color and usually a bit of a purplish tint to their bodies. Males also tend to be a bit bigger than females.

Other alternatives that are a lot of fun are:
- Longear Sunfish (beautiful brightly colored fish. about 5-7 inches fully grown)
- Pumpkinseed Sunfish (another pretty sunny. about 5-7 inches fully grown)
- Redear sunfish (they'll also target your snail population. can get fairly big 12 inches or so)

Hi troy 1,
1 sunfish is a good idea to keep the goldfish population down. We had one in our pond and he was alot of fun. We had to release him though, because he ended up being a hybrid and got too aggressive toward the other fish. Just make sure you treat him for parasites before releasing him into your pond. I know you will enjoy having a sunfish.

How do you treat the bluegill before introducing them to your pond? I really need one to eat baby fry and eggs since my Koi have no interest in eating them. I even caught a very tiny fry in a net, threw it towards the koi like I do earthworms. One took it in his mouth, but spit it out immediately. Will they get aggressive towards the Koi? I read that they do?? Thanks. Renee

Very interesting post! Thanks for all the info! Makes me wish I'd kept the granddaddy sunny (AMAZING color on that old guy) I caught last summer and threw him in the pond. Instead, he tasted great with some shore lunch! :-P

Just a good reason to get out there as soon as the lakes open up and start fishing for a new sunny or gill!

Renee, We've had our bluegill "Marty" for 3 years and he's never shown any aggression toward our Koi (approx 12" and one little guy that's about 6") or any of the goldfish that are at least 4-5" long. Not sure how to answer your question about treating-- I would probably just quarantine a wild-caught fish for a while to make sure they didn't introduce anything to the rest of the pond.

Sherry

Thanks Sherry. Sorry for your loss of "Marty". It's sad and for me, tearful if I lose a fish.

I have a vacation northern Michigan home on a lake. I go out every morning on the dock and the bluegills are waiting for me to feed them bread. They are so tame now that they take it out of my hand. I can even get them to do a little jump out of the water to grab the bread. But now they won't leave me alone and if I go swimming, they nip at my legs and arms...it sort of hurts! I could easily grab one and bring it back down state. I will check to see if there is a "treatment" for possible parasites.

Happy Ponding! Renee

Renee,
My "Marty" is alive and well. I had to go back and read some earlier posts on this thread to remember that it was Jenny who lost "Gil" over the winter.

I know what you mean about them nipping at you-- Marty usually attacks me whenever I get in the pond. I know he's just guarding the nest he's made for any potential females who might come swimming along, but that's some thanks I get for catching grasshoppers and crickets for him every summer!

Sherry

Sherry,

I'm sure glad Marty is okay. To be honest I couldn't remember his name so went back to look at old threads when I read about Gil. I am sorry about Gil's passing on, but have to admit, Marty is one of my FAVORITE fish here.

:-)
Anne

Big opps! Sorry Jenny for the loss of "Gil". And Sherry, sorry for my blonde moment..or was that a menopausal moment?

I ended up draining the entire pond the past 2 days and caught every one of the little babies (over 400) and the older goldfish and shubumkins that started this. I took them to a pond store and they put them in one of the big ponds they have. I felt bad giving up the 5 older fish. The store owner told me that 3 of them were full of eggs, so I got them just in time. I was elated that they agreed to take them. I now have just eleven 1 to 2 year old Koi in the pond and hopefully it will be a few years before they start spawning. My pond is around 3000 gallons and even though I could have more fish..these are plenty!

Happy Easter! Renee

I have just put in a 3,000 gallon pond with 8 Koi that are about 4-6inches.How big do Koi have to get before they have hatchlings?