Goldfish Overwintered Indoors

[Nicola]

Hi,
During the winter, I removed a sick goldfish (7 inch) from my pond, which would have been at about 5C, and nursed her in an indoor tank. She is now fine, living at room temperature of 22>24C. I obviously want to return her to the pond at some point, but even if I float her in a bag to acclimatise her, what temperature difference is safe? I.E. The pond is currently at about 10C, and her tank 23C - is this range to excessive and should i wait until the weather and the pond water warms? What is a safe range in temperature for me to transfer her back?
Any advice appreciated, thanks,
Nicola.

 

[simplyfish]

I know it is a big change but I think it should be ok.

I have twice now used goldfish for cycling tanks and then they have moved outside. I used a DIY, non-scientific, double bag method to reduce temperature shock. I had the fish in a regular fish type bag but then put that into another water tight plastic bag with tank temp water. drop this in to the pond and then about 3 hours later released into the pond.

I first did this with some gold fish of about 2" 18 months ago and they are both now about 7-8". I did the same again about six weeks ago and they all survived that and are now thriving too.

I actually think goldfish are built for the colder temps better than the room temp tanks and grow much better with the space to expand in.

hope this helps

 

[Nicola]

Thanks for the advice, I think though that I will wait until the temperature difference is less than 10 degrees to be one the safe side. Offensive though it may be to other forum members, I don't normally keep an aquarium, just a pond and having invested the money in one to overwinter the fish, plus all the effort, I don't want to finish her off by moving her too soon! I'll just have to remain an aquarium keeper for another month or two!!

 

[unwritten law]

could buy a chiller and slowing adjust your tank to the ponds temp... i dont know much about them though or their price

 

[d3sc3n7]

normal chillers are around $100...probably a little to much to invest in 1 fish. Good idea though

 

[bmoraski]

Thanks for the advice, I think though that I will wait until the temperature difference is less than 10 degrees to be one the safe side. Offensive though it may be to other forum members, I don't normally keep an aquarium, just a pond and having invested the money in one to overwinter the fish, plus all the effort, I don't want to finish her off by moving her too soon! I'll just have to remain an aquarium keeper for another month or two!!

Better safe than sorry ! LOL
we have a 550 gal pond in our main office at work with 10-15 good sized gold fish. heater was broke for a while this winter.Water temp was about 57-60 degrees F /15 degrees C i think LOL( we just added buckets of warm water but not too much so we didnt shock them )there doing great (along with pleco from my sons tank)
i was really worried the pleco wouldnt make it. We HAD to get him out of my sons 10 gal ( yes i know but lfp told wife ya you need one of these )
and he was use to 74 degrees but thank god hes doing great.
i didnt relize the temp difference until i was there with pleco in bucket. put him in THEN
i felt the water and was like holy crap !
i would have waited a couple more weeks ! LOL
good luck

 

[unwritten law]

normal chillers are around $100...probably a little to much to invest in 1 fish. Good idea though

turn up the AC in your house?? haha

 

[misterking]

Better safe than sorry ! LOL
we have a 550 gal pond in our main office at work with 10-15 good sized gold fish. heater was broke for a while this winter.Water temp was about 57-60 degrees F /15 degrees C i think LOL( we just added buckets of warm water but not too much so we didnt shock them )there doing great (along with pleco from my sons tank)
i was really worried the pleco wouldnt make it. We HAD to get him out of my sons 10 gal ( yes i know but lfp told wife ya you need one of these )
and he was use to 74 degrees but thank god hes doing great.
i didnt relize the temp difference until i was there with pleco in bucket. put him in THEN
i felt the water and was like holy crap !
i would have waited a couple more weeks ! LOL
good luck

The goldfish would have been absolutely fine without the heater or warm water - they're coldwater fish. Where I live, winters are pretty cold, especially this year the pond's frozen over pretty much every other week. Goldfish naturally stay in the waterlevel of the pond with the most appealing temperature - during winter they stay at the bottom of the pond where it's slightly warmer, and in summer at the top where they can bask under the shade of floating plants.

I reckon you could leave it floating in an open bag for a while, allowing the temperature to slowly decrease in the bag by letting in some pond water now and again, and let it into the pond. You might not see it for a couple of days.. it'll likely stay at the bottom, but in all honestly goldfish are pretty tough fish and withstand quite abrupt temperature swings surprisingly well - although they'd probably be better off without it.

 

[kristar1982]

I know it is a big change but I think it should be ok.

I have twice now used goldfish for cycling tanks and then they have moved outside. I used a DIY, non-scientific, double bag method to reduce temperature shock. I had the fish in a regular fish type bag but then put that into another water tight plastic bag with tank temp water. drop this in to the pond and then about 3 hours later released into the pond.

I first did this with some gold fish of about 2" 18 months ago and they are both now about 7-8". I did the same again about six weeks ago and they all survived that and are now thriving too.

I actually think goldfish are built for the colder temps better than the room temp tanks and grow much better with the space to expand in.

hope this helps

That double bag method is genius...I can see how it would work and yet I never heard of it. Then again I don't have a pond

 

[brian1973]

normal chillers are around $100...probably a little to much to invest in 1 fish. Good idea though

Where did you find a chiller for 100?? I need one Cheapest I have found is 300 on ebay..used...

 

[OrangeCones]

I've done this when moving three goldfish from indoor aquarium to an outdoor pond after a harsh winter.

I siphoned water from the aquarium (29 gallons) to my water changing bucket (5 gallons), filling it half full. I then added the fish to the bucket. Then I drained the 29 gallon tank and filled it with the pond's water. I then took an airline tube, started a siphon and tied a knot in it, allowing the water to only drip about once per second. When the bucket got pretty full, I dumped half of it out into the pond, then back to dripping the pond water from the tank.

After the tank was empty, the water temp was the same as the pond, no stress on the fish, and they spawned a few weeks later.