Last Updated: 4/11/14

My Outdoor Goldfish
Photos of my Outdoor Goldfish

For more photos of my pond goldfish, see my pond pictures page.

My Outdoor Goldfish

See three videos of my pond goldfish spawning in April of 2006 and then April 2007 on my fish video page and also a video of the pond which also shows the goldfish.

I have about 30 goldfish and tons of their young in my 1800 gallon pond. The total by 2001 is at least 60 goldfish of all sizes and ages! By 2008, I have about 30 goldfish. See my pond description page for a list of the fish I have in my ponds, their setups, and lots more. For pictures of some of my pond goldfish, go to my pond pictures page. Many females died in the summer of 1998 when they got stuck in the floss around the submerged pump in their attempts to find someplace "nice" to spawn. The only known females then were a few common goldfish. A summary of my pond goldfish and photos appear below. By 2001, there were many more female goldfish that have grown up.

By 2004, the pond goldfish population has changed so much! The list below is totally wrong now! My favorite goldfish and the oldest one in the pond, Jill, was killed by a heron on 5/6/04 (did not see it but she vanished, and the herons were there that day). Two fantail goldfish remained but all the rest are various comets basically. Some are orange with white, some orange, some naturally colored, and some solid white. Below is the old list from 2001.

Adult Pond Goldfish around 2001:
10+ Common Goldfish
10+ Comet Goldfish
1 Calico Fantail Goldfish (male)
2 Red Fantail Goldfish
1 Sarassa Fantail Goldfish (red and white)
3 Shubunkin Goldfish (one born in the pond named Bunky)
Plus dozens of young goldfish from newborn to three years old. Many younger ones are bronze. Most of the larger fish are a mix of orange.

Plus, there were now (2004) at least half a dozen bronze colored small goldfish. They would most likely change to all orange with white fins after a few years. All appeared to be common goldfish but may be of mixed parentage. A few were shubunkin or comet.

A poor oranda died on 6/11/04 with no symptoms or markings of any kind! She was a female, 7" long with 4" body and 3" tail. She was in perfect shape except, she was dead! I was very upset! This gorgeous girl was red-orange with some white on her tail and a small wen (also called cap or hood).

I bought two shubunkins on 6/6/04. They were quarantining in my 20 gallon mosaic pond with the intention to join the others in the fall. I hoped to infuse some more blood into the breeding pool. One jumped to his death on 7/11/04, and I immediately put the other one into my 1800 gallon pond. So much for those plans! I sighted the remaining shubunkin in late November 2004 so it is still alive and up to like 5" long (when I put it in it was only about 2.5")!

I had a massive goldfish die off in September and October of 2004. As of 10/22/04, I had lost 13 goldfish. I found one more that had been dead a while a few weeks later on 11/7/04 for a total of 14 before the die off stopped. They had no symptoms. The water chemistry tested fine. Everything else was fine. There was no reason I could find. You can read all the details in my October 2004 newsletter and November 2004 newsletter under Happenings at Robyn's Ponds.

On 12/28/05, I was able to get a pretty good count of the remaining colored goldfish (so not including any babies or brown/natural goldfish). I counted 33 of them. None are over about 10" as those were all killed by the heron or mystery disease in 2004 and 2005.

My last fancy pond goldfish died on 7/4/06. Photos and information can be found below.

Update December 2008: These days I have about 30 adult goldfish. Most are comets with some commons. Almost all are a mix of orange and white ranging from 100% white to 100% orange but most have both colors. One shubunkin remains. No fancy goldfish remain.

On 4/28/11, I added six of the new "sunburst" goldfish to my 1800 gallon pond. They are yellow although one that I got was white instead (but may carry the gene).

On 4/10/14, I counted 24 goldfish. At least one (a baby shubunkin, my only one) was not in that count, and some other goldfish were surely hiding. So, I probably have about 30 goldfish.

Photos of My Outdoor Goldfish

Photos are listed from oldest to newest.

Pond fish at feeding hole, 9/6/98. Below is the key for the numbers next to the fish ( a complete key can be found at my pond pictures page.).

1 = common goldfish, orange with white fins
2 = Maggie, metallic orange with some black, butterfly koi
3 = common goldfish, orange with white fins
4 = common goldfish, orange with white fins
5 = fantail goldfish, orange with white fins
6 = comet goldfish, orange and white
7 = comet goldfish, orange with white fins
8 = sarassa comet, orange and white
9 = Remmy, black and orange butterfly koi, about one foot long (died 3/21/99)
10 = common goldfish, orange with white fins
11 = shubunkin goldfish
12 = goldfish (looks like a blob to me)
Goldfish I forgot to number: Below #11 and to the right of #12 is Bunky, the baby shubunkin, born in the pond

Pond fish - comets, commons, fantails, black moor, etc., 2/20/99.

Pond fish - comets, commons, fantails, etc., 2/20/99.

Pond fish - comets, commons, fantails, etc., 2/20/99.

Photos in 2000 in sequential order about 10 seconds apart:
Fish, fish going crazy for food, 6/18/00.
Fish, fish continue going crazy, the orfe, my butterfly koi Maggie, and my comet Jill (who with Jack were the oldest fish in the pond; Jill was eaten by a heron the morning of 5/6/04; Jack died on 9/2/04) are marked, 6/18/00.
Fish, fish tiring of waiting (I fed them right after the photo), orfe, fantail, koi Maggie, koi Colin, two shubunkins (their baby Bunky is also in the photo but was hard to mark, she is on top of Colin), Sarassa comet, Jill, and a comet with dropsy (for almost a year) are marked, most small fish seen are yearling goldfish, 6/18/00.

Basketball goldfish, tummy down and basketball goldfish, tummy up. This is a dead comet goldfish on 10/14/01 from my 1800 gallon pond who suffered from a bizarre affliction. Over a period of two years, she got bigger and bigger, like a basketball. Diseases like dropsy and tuberculosis kill much sooner than that and give raised or ruptured scales or lesions. Her scales were not abnormal until they literally burst upon her death. Her body wiggled like a bowl full of jelly. Perhaps she had a kidney malfunction preventing her from ridding her body of excess water.

Hurt goldfish, photo, right side, deep wound at top, 10/29/01.
Hurt goldfish photo, left side, minor wounds except gill cover which has larger wound, torn tail, 10/29/01.
I found this goldfish in my pond in late October 2001. He was torn up, probably from getting stuck among some rocks. I moved him from my 1800 gallon pond to a five gallon tank. Treatment included recommended doses of MarOxy (to kill fungus) and Maracyn (to kill bacteria) by Mardel, MelaFix by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, aquarium salt, and Stress-Coat by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. The 8-inch male goldfish recovered pretty well and was released back into the pond on 12/1/01 when the water temperature was 58 degrees F. For more information, see my November 2001 pond newsletter. This fish put out 1 ppm of ammonia per day even with the addition of Ammo-Lock by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. Goldfish were not meant for a 5 gallon tank! People see tiny goldfish in stores and buy them and put them in tiny aquariums. Most cannot fathom that these fish live 30 years and grow to a foot long!

Here is a more recent photo of my pond goldfish:
Goldfish school in my pond on 3/9/02.

I found this deceased comet in my 1800 gallon pond on 7/5/02. She was full or roe (eggs). There were no signs of injury, predation, parasites, infections, funguses, viruses, or little green space men. She was perfectly healthy except her mouth was agape, and she was dead. This 9" red and white comet was most likely spawning in the shallows on this 95 degree F day and got stuck out of water where she suffocated. The other fish were all fine.

Pond goldfish on 8/1/02.

Pond Fish on 3/23/03, tons of my survivor goldfish after the worst winter ever.

Goldfish in April of 2004 in the midst of his/her color change.

Basement pond on 5/5/04 with 17 baby goldfish that were moved to the 1800 gallon pond on 5/15/04.

Four fantails in a small bowl for photos. The fish were added to the 20 gallon indoor tub pond on 11/5/04 after this photo was taken. The far left fish is a calico fantail. The upper right fish was a chocolate telescope-eyed fantail but he got sucked into the filter and died the first night (I fixed the problem). The other two fish are orange and white fantails. In the spring, I had intended to put them in my 1800 gallon pond but they ended up being indoor fish (see this page). These fish are tiny, about an inch long so just babies.
Red and white fantail close-up, 11/5/04. This is a close-up of one of the above fish.

Dead goldfish from my 1800 gallon pond on 2/22/05. This 10" mostly white probably female goldfish with red on her tail and red lipstick was pulled from my pond twice that day by the heron. He/she stripped some scales off the front end of the fish but most likely, this poor last of the big goldfish in my pond died from being out of water too long. I guess the heron could not swallow her. Read more about this in my March newsletter (on-line by 3/12/05).

Pond fish under the net on 4/19/06. They are mostly goldfish. My koi, Colin, is at the bottom with algae growing on him. Two of my orfe are on the far right.

My only remaining fancy goldfish in my 1800 gallon pond died on 7/4/06. This 7.5" female fantail (maybe part oranda) was orange and white. You can read more about her in my August 2006 newsletter (not on-line until August). Here are two photos.
Dead fantail - right side with ruler.
Dead fantail - left side.

Pond fish on 1/6/07.

Pond fish being fed on 4/29/07. You can see the floating pond pellets and Cheerios. My two koi, Maggie (orange) and Colin (white) can be seen in the middle. One of the orfe can be seen on the far left. The rest of the fish are goldfish. There is a net over this part of the pond.

I had a goldfish with large tumors on its head that mostly laid on the bottom for the last year of its life. I finally found the poor guy deceased on 6/10/07. I took photos to show the tumors which felt hard. The tumors were more white when he was alive. Note that he had been dead a few days so if you do not like to look at dead animals, please do not click on the photos below.
Dead goldfish with tumors
Dead goldfish with tumors - close-up

Pond fish under the pond net on 6/23/07. You can see mostly goldfish but there are two koi and two orfe in the photo.

I was in the pond on 6/24/07 and took this photo of the fish.
Pond fish - my big koi, Maggie, is in the middle. The two big orfe are at the top of the photo. One of the baby orfe is below the big orfe on the right. The rest are goldfish. I count parts of 18 goldfish.
Close-up of Maggie from the previous photo which also shows a close-up of the baby orfe and seven goldfish.

These photos were taken 10/5/08 when the net was off the 1800 gallon pond.
Pond fish - Colin (koi) and an orfe are at the top; the rest are goldfish.
Pond fish - Colin (white koi) in the middle, Maggie's (orange koi) head to the right, an orfe, and goldfish.
Pond fish - Colin (white koi) on the right, Maggie at the top, an orfe on the left, and goldfish.

These photos from 4/12/09 show the pond fish at the best time of the year (clear water, no plants). There are goldfish in all photos but also orfe and two koi.
Pond fish from a distance, facing southwest.
Pond fish
Pond fish
Pond fish
Pond fish
Pond fish

Eight new fish - six sunburst goldfish (although one was white instead) and two orfe on the day that I got them, 4/28/11.
Eight new fish - six sunburst goldfish (although one was white instead) and two orfe on the day that I got them, 4/28/11.

Dead goldish - right side, 5/26/11. The poor fish was in the middle of changing color. The fish was going from brown/gray/blah/natural to orange and white. The dark spots almost look like a disease but they are not. The common goldfish was 7.5" long and the fourth victim of a die off that spring. The die off probably originated from the previous sunburst goldfish above that were added to the pond.
Dead goldfish - left side, 5/26/11.

These photos are of the dead sunburst goldfish on 6/3/11 with a ruler:
Dead sunburst goldfish - right side
Dead sunburst goldfish - left side

For more photos of my pond goldfish, see my pond pictures page.

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