Michelle helped me accomplish the bi-annual fish move last Saturday. It’s a weather-driven event when the water starts getting cold enough to put them into hibernation and falling leaves begin clogging things up. Most of the water gets pumped out of the pond then we start scooping them out – big nets full of leaves and fish – six in one go, at one point.
We ended up with 30 this year. That sounds about right, considering they did not reproduce (that I know of) and we lost 4 to fishicide (jumping out) and sickness. IIRC, we started with 35 last spring, so that’s probably in the margin of counting error. The only issue is they are all getting big, so their 120-gallon winter home is around 25 short of it’s estimated maximum fish load capacity now.
The Marineland C530 filter is over-sized for that tank, with a custom pre-filter intake to extend longevity. It will be interesting to watch the water tests to see if it can keep up with that much bio load. Worst case scenario I’ll just need to do more frequent water changes and see if the population trends down next year. Not sure why some years they reproduce and others they don’t. We may yet find babies in the plant bins.
