goldfish out door pond

writeaccess

I have a few goldfish in a garden pond for the last 4-5 months. I have a good few plants in the pond and it is quete big. Up to now i havnt fed the fish at all and they seem happy enough and have grown.. Since th cold weather a lot of the vegitation has died away for the winter.

Should i feed the fish now? I read somewhere that they won't eat anyway if the temp drops below 5 degrees

whiteshadow

pond fish generally hibernate throughout the winter, sink down to the bottom and the their metabolism slows down...

You should generally feed the fish up until the end of september which i dont think you have, there is a good chance that the fish have eaten a lot of the plant life in your pond.

If they are still near the surface then you can feed them a little but make sure the food you feed them are floating WHEATGERM sticks, at this time of the year with their metabolism being so slow wheatgerm is the only thing the fish will be able to digest as other high carbo foods will f**k em up.

Start feeding again come spring!

writeaccess

Cheers

there is a good chance that the fish have eaten a lot of the plant life in your pond.

This sounds right as the pond suddenly looks very bare. I was going for as natural a set up as possible but maybe its not possible and i need to feed the fish all year.

whiteshadow

nah don't bother feeding them now.. it's gotten too cold.
wait till spring.. they should be grand.. and if they're hungry they can eat flies and stuff...

Is it a new pond.. like this year?

writeaccess

yes about 5 months old. Surprisingly i havnt suffered from green water yet. Ive put a good few plants in it and was hoping the fish would be self sufficient as much as possible