Goldfish

[Bill Loser]

I have a small pond on my property. It's about 1/4 of an acre, 8 to 10 feet deep at the deepest point.
The previous owners had what they called a koi pond in the back yard, a few years ago we found out what they did with the fish in the winter. We didn't think to much about it until we stopped seeing any bluegills or bass which were pretty well populated when we moved in. Then the water started getting noticably murkier and murkier. Last spring we realized why. The koi they used are actually goldfish and the ones released in our pond have now taken over.
Anyone have any experience with goldfish? What's the best way to get rid of them besides poison? I may go that route but only as a last resort. I tried trapping last year with terrible results.

 

[Bill]

You could add some large pickerel but they may be the next problem.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Stock it with a few channel cats, or blue cats.

Seriously goldfish are really good catfish bait. You could try a seining net, or a casting net, and just use them as fertilizer.

 

[fishin coyote]

I’m surprised that the bass disappeared, I‘d have thought they would be munching them right up.

 

[Tree Spud]

You could get a 3"pump and drain down you a point where they would starve of oxygen depletion. Or get a couple of northern pike and let them loose. Also, a fisher if it can get thru the ice can eat a lot of them.

 

[Bill Loser]

I’m surprised that the bass disappeared, I‘d have thought they would be munching them right up.

I'm assuming the bass died due to low O2? Not sure really.

 

[The Fishman]

Drain it if there is no way that the goldfish will make it into another body of water or use rotenone to kill everything in the pond and start over. You will never be able to get rid of the goldfish by adding predatory fish or trapping or seining. Rotenone is probably the easiest way to get rid of the goldfish.

 

[Catscratch]

Don't know you region and predator options but I'm guessing the safest/cheapest/fastest option will be to rent a 3in trash pump and drain it. Start over with a fresh stocking. Use the goldfish in a compost pile...

 

[H20fwler]

Yep drain it.
Will give you a chance to clean it out really good too, scrape it deeper put in a new dock or beach... whatever. Then you can start over with a fresh clean pond that you can restock the way you want.

 

[buckdeer1]

I would sein it after pumping it down to where you can walk,sell the goldfish as bait and have some bass and catfish ready to go in.I bet you could start throwing floating fish food to get them trained and use a throw net or traps.Call The Pond Guys.

 

[ruskbucks]

Wow, that is crazy! I agree with pumping it down. It seems strange that the bass and gills are gone. I would think the bass would devour those goldfish. Maybe with the murky water and excess of bait they just aren't showing themselves. I would probably pump in the heat of summer and make sure it would dry up completely or pump late fall and let it freeze completely. Don't want any of those goldfish to sneak thru. Stock with minnows come spring.

 

[Bill Loser]

It is strange, they just disappeared. All you see in there now is goldfish. I like the idea of throwing some pike in there, would be fun to catch them after they eat a bunch of those Goldie's. I have had 2 pond experts out. I guy only proposed poisoning them and starting over, I don't want to do that but he said if we don't get rid of all of them the water will never be clean. The other guy said trap/net them. If a few are left they won't hurt anything if population is controlled. They want huge amounts of money to come out and trap or net. So not sure which one to believe. I want to bring in more gills and bass but not until the goldfish pop is much lower . I personally don't mind a few in there but this many is crazy.
Fyi, I thought about draining it but it's a seepage pond and I'm afraid it won't fill back up.

 

[Catscratch]

I think the general idea with this type of goldfish is that they reproduce so fast that you probably didn't have enough bass that were big enough to keep up with the goldfish explosion. Water has dissolved oxygen in it that fish require to "breath". Some species like carp and goldfish don't require as much dissolved O2 as others. This could be why your bass and bluegill disappeared. If this is the case you won't be able to do a corrective stocking as anything you put in will die. If it isn't the case then a few large bass, a pike or two, and a bunch of bluegill could fix it. Large predators will eat the adults, bluegill will eat the smaller fry.

 

[Bill Loser]

I am planning to aerate more this year. So hopefully that will take care of the O2 . I was before but I was not running it 24/7 and I believe that probably exasperated the problem. Goldfish can handle pretty low O2 from what I have learned.

 

[Telemark]

Goldfish also tend to make the water turbid and high in nitrogenous waste compounds like ammonia. They are not good pond mates for North American fish species that prefer cleaner water.

 

[omicron1792]

I am planning to aerate more this year. So hopefully that will take care of the O2 . I was before but I was not running it 24/7 and I believe that probably exasperated the problem. Goldfish can handle pretty low O2 from what I have learned.

Honestly Bill I would poison them and start over. Poison you use is gone in about a week, then you can start over with bluegill now and bass this summer.

They use that poison on any new pond if there is risk of stray fish being in there. It’s ok if a stray fish or two gets in once established, but needs to be a fish free pond to start populating it.

 

[bigboreblr]

IF you posion the pond, the excessive decaying matter will cause the next generation fish to keel over. You likely need a way to get the fish once they started floating.

Like most fish, they need some temperature to breed. Thats why trout go up small stresm in the spring, to get their eggs in warmer water. I'd poison them before it gets warm.

they're not koi, they're comets you have. Alot of public waters have problems with these fish, including the Hudson River by me.

 

[Treefrog]

When I was about 12 years old I netted a 5 gallon bucket full of gold fish out a pond on the campus of a local university. My mom shot down my idea of starting a pet store.
I took the bucket of fish and dumped them in a little swale next door. The swale was mostly cattails with a maximum depth of 4 feet of water.
!0 years later a developer bought the land with the swale on it, he pumped it down and dug it out to a nice big pond (2-3 acres) about 10 feet deep.
I know they pumped MOST of the water out, because they drove dump trucks right out where the water originally was and loaded them up with bucket loaders.
That pond today is the home to a couple hundred thousand GOLD FISH.
If you do the drain down method, don't leave any pockets of mud or water. They are tough fish and reproduce fast.

 

[Treefrog]

It is strange, they just disappeared. All you see in there now is goldfish. I like the idea of throwing some pike in there, would be fun to catch them after they eat a bunch of those Goldie's. I have had 2 pond experts out. I guy only proposed poisoning them and starting over, I don't want to do that but he said if we don't get rid of all of them the water will never be clean. The other guy said trap/net them. If a few are left they won't hurt anything if population is controlled. They want huge amounts of money to come out and trap or net. So not sure which one to believe. I want to bring in more gills and bass but not until the goldfish pop is much lower . I personally don't mind a few in there but this many is crazy.
Fyi, I thought about draining it but it's a seepage pond and I'm afraid it won't fill back up.

I think the trap/net guy is seeing $$$$ How would you ever trap enough to even put a dent in the numbers? One breed cycle and the numbers would be right back up.

 

[bigboreblr]

I work in the catskills. Im around the NYC watershed reservoirs. All but one have great fishing. They have an infestation of a certain baitfish there. Don't think it's shiners, but could be wrong. They devour all the walleye fry up.

Might be a certain batfish you could put in there. Of course one solutions usually makes 3 problems.

Lake Havasu in Arizona has a big comet problem. I catch 5lb+ sized ones in a creek basin off the hudson river.