Goldfish

[Penwern]

a) Do goldfish eat tadpoles?
b) Is it normal for goldfish to stay, unseen, on the bottom of a small pond for 6 months over winter?

[paddywak]

My fish eat just about anything in the pond if it's small enough, even their own young, which is why they are born black and inconspicuous, and dont change colour untill they start getting too big to eat. As for being unseen it depends on the weather and water temperature this year mine gradually disappeared in Oct-Nov and have started to reappear about a fortnight ago, even feeding a littlle

[ruthann58]

yes they will definetly eat tadpoles and my bigger ones will eat the little frogs mine are only just starting to come up this past week

[Penwern]

Thanks to paddywack, pussy and ruthann. My 3 fish disappeared about Sept. Thought they had been eaten by a heron or just died, then I saw the largest one last week, fleetingly. It is about 5/6 inches.

[horselady]

This has been our first winter living here with a pond in the garden. Fish have started to appear again and there is loads of frogspawn so I guess that will be eaten soon? When should I start to give them their food again?