I keep some golden minnows (and a single brown fathead from one batch)
in my water garden. The gold minnows are also called Rosie Reds. We
came back from vacation in June to find my water garden FULL of tiny
fry, which I was able over time to identify as baby minnows. I took
no measures to protect the babies from adult minnows and goldfish or
dragonfly larvae, but many have survived. Now, I have way too many
minnows! They are various sizes and are either gold, grey, or brown.
I would like to give the extras away to someone who will appreciate
them, since I'm kind of proud of them having made it! We live near
Los Angeles, and my husband works in Burbank, and I don't think I
could mail them safely. Any takers? They should be hardier than
average, as they are the children of minnows that made it through last
winter! If you e-mail me privately, I will be happy to give you more
details about where exactly I live....

Monica Jones

"Monica" wrote in message
m...
I keep some golden minnows (and a single brown fathead
from one batch)
in my water garden. The gold minnows are also called
Rosie Reds. We
came back from vacation in June to find my water garden
FULL of tiny
fry, which I was able over time to identify as baby
minnows. I took
no measures to protect the babies from adult minnows and
goldfish or
dragonfly larvae, but many have survived. Now, I have way
too many
minnows! They are various sizes and are either gold,
grey, or brown.
I would like to give the extras away to someone who will
appreciate
them, since I'm kind of proud of them having made it! We
live near
Los Angeles, and my husband works in Burbank, and I don't
think I
could mail them safely. Any takers? They should be
hardier than
average, as they are the children of minnows that made it
through last
winter! If you e-mail me privately, I will be happy to
give you more
details about where exactly I live....

Monica Jones

Any chance of just leaving them alone and letting nature
take its course? I also had a gadzillion minnows in a
smallish pond (about 200 gallons), along with several
million toad tadpoles and an infinity of snails. My pond
went "balanced" early spring and it has stayed that way, no
bottom cleaning, no filtering, just topping off. Oh, and I
have lots of plants in there.

Now I have considerably fewer minnows, most of the taddies
are gone. I suspect pond predators are taking care of
culing.

Gail

Any chance of just leaving them alone and letting nature
take its course? I also had a gadzillion minnows in a
smallish pond (about 200 gallons), along with several
million toad tadpoles and an infinity of snails. My pond
went "balanced" early spring and it has stayed that way, no
bottom cleaning, no filtering, just topping off. Oh, and I
have lots of plants in there.

Now I have considerably fewer minnows, most of the taddies
are gone. I suspect pond predators are taking care of
culing.

Unfortunately, nature isn't being hungry enough for minnows!
Part of the problem seems to be that the minnows kept breeding.
There were thousands of fry from the first batch, and those are
now the same size as their parents-the small percentage that made
it. Still, it probably gives me twice as many as I started with.
Then, there are further groups of progressively smaller minnows,
the largest of which probably number about 50. I have lots of
dragonflies and larvae, but no other predators. The only
predators I've ever had were a family of very destructive racoons
who thought goldfish were tasty snacks and water plants were for
pulling up and tasting. Animal control relocated them to the
country, and they haven't returned. Bull frogs would eat minnows,
but my father had one that was eating his koi. Since my
goldfish aren't as big as his koi and bullfrogs aren't native
to California and are actually an environmental disaster
for native frogs, I won't try that. Any other suggestions?

Also, my pond has no filter or any of that, just 2 solar
pumps to give me some circulation. I had very little
trouble with algae, since the plants use what the algae
wants, until I had all of these extra fish! I'm still
mostly ok, but I'm very worried about oxygen levels this
winter. I figure the minnows would survive better than
my fantail goldfish at low oxygen levels! Therefore, some
of the extra minnows must go!

Monica

"Monica" wrote

Unfortunately, nature isn't being hungry enough for
minnows!
Part of the problem seems to be that the minnows kept
breeding.
There were thousands of fry from the first batch, and
those are
now the same size as their parents-the small percentage
that made
it. Still, it probably gives me twice as many as I
started with.
Then, there are further groups of progressively smaller
minnows,
the largest of which probably number about 50. I have
lots of
dragonflies and larvae, but no other predators. [snips]

The only other thing I can think of is donate them to a bait
shop (if you have any nearby) or a local fish store, if
they'll take them. Sorry, wish I could help.

Gail

I came on this thread late...

Monica, where are you located?

best,

doug

old dirtbeard wrote in message om...
I came on this thread late...

Monica, where are you located?



Southern California, north of but near Los Angeles.

If I can't get rid of enough of the extras, the pet store
was my last option. I would gladly give them to good homes,
but I know what happens to feeder fish at the pet store....

Monica

old dirtbeard wrote in message om...

I came on this thread late...

Monica, where are you located?




Southern California, north of but near Los Angeles.

If I can't get rid of enough of the extras, the pet store
was my last option. I would gladly give them to good homes,
but I know what happens to feeder fish at the pet store....

Monica

Monica,

We bought ten minnows from PetCo about a month
ago, and so I went out to take a close inventory
of them. Now, I can locate only two of them, so
I'm afraid our koi and comet are eating them, or
they are hiding out toward the bottom of the pond,
I don't know.

To be honest, I would feel bad if I were to
"rescue" minnows only to have them eaten in my
pond. Maybe I should take a rain check on the
minnows as I don't want to turn them into fish food.

best,

doug

los angeles