Goldfish Update

The valley saw very little snow in winter 2010-2011. Practically none. Spring, however, has been another story. One storm requiring Tom to plow the driveway the week I was so sick blew in dropped about 8 inches of snow and blew out. Since then, we’ve seen a little snow every single day. To say I’m desperate for spring is an understatement.

We still have flannel sheets on the beds. Only a few bulbs have poked up even an inch or two. I’d like to see more than fog for a few days.

The upper pasture now features a brown-leaning-toward-green tinge — at least around the edges of the crop circles. The creek now flows, and the pond spends most days mostly unfrozen.

Goldfish Possible Massacre

After doing our best to acclimate our Anniversary Spawn goldfish to the cold and “natural” water source, we set them loose. Of the 19 from day one, we’re down to 5-6 that we can regularly see. Four of the original 19 were brown, not orange, so they are really hard to spot unless:

• The water is still
• The sun is shining.
• We can see their shadows (but not the fish) on the bottom of the pond.

That means there could be close to 10 of them still making a go of it, but if the water is stirred up at all, then it’s hard to see beyond the shallows and into the deeper part of the pond where they hang out.

We never did find any bodies on the banks or floaters, so our best guess is that a bird ate some of our goldfish. To protect them more, Tom is going to sink a hunk of clay pipe so that the goldfish have somewhere to hide … kind of like a castle or a treasure chest in a fish tank.

Goldfish Behavior

On the days we can see them, it’s interesting to me that 4 of them tend to stick together … while another 1-2 of them are often swimming around alone.

Are any of you marine biology gurus? Do fish have a social structure that would send some loners off on their own while others school up?

I’ll have to look into that.