AIBU about this situation with a fish in my pond?

[Noodge]

Daft issue to many of course!

I have a smallish pond in my garden that my Dad helped me make, about 3 years ago when I moved in.

About 5 months ago my Dad built a pond in his own garden.

Not long after this he asked me to go with him to a fish farm. Not my thing at all but I went along for the ride. He bought various types of fish for his pond. He knows a lot about fish, they're one of his main interests. I know next to nothing.

On the way back he said 'Some of these are for your pond by the way!'

I protested. I didn't want fish in my pond really. I liked that my pond had kind of 'grown itself'. There were lots of pond-skaters, backswimmers etc. in it, native little bugs and this seemed to attract birds who ate these and bathed etc.-I liked it natural. I said this to my Dad about wanting a natural flora/fauna type garden pond and he told me to get over myself, the fish would just add something to that ecosystem and it'd be fine. I then said that I didn't think my pond was right for fish. Despite knowing nothing about them, my pond has a lot of algae and I felt they'd not get enough oxygen.

No avail, he said they'd be fine and I gave in. I am prone to giving in to my Dad-he's quite an overbearing character.

I bought some fish food and some 'bombs' designed for clearing ponds and making sure they're oxygenated.

But I was right, a week or so later one of my fish had died. I was upset about this-I am an animal lover and although I hadn't formed any emotional attachment to the fish, I was sad that I'd kind of caused one to die (probably by putting it in the incorrect environment).

My Dad agreed when I told him, said probably lack of oxygen in the pond, and came and took the remaining fish and took them to live in his own pond which is larger, newer, clearer.

Anyway couple of weeks ago I am out in my garden and I spot a fish swimming about in my pond. He's obviously missed one 😡the whole time I hadn't spotted it, so I've not been feeding the poor thing although I appreciate it must've been getting enough food naturally. I don't think they should be on their own, and I didn't want any fish in the first place!

However my Dad now says his pond is overcrowded and he can't take it from me, he'd have too many fish then.

My brother has said he'd take it but I think this would be a death sentence for it, his garden is huge and he had about ten fish in his pond and now only has two as the local Heron population have had a nice takeaway consisting of the rest of them!

AIBU to think this whole thing has been unfair? Should I buy another fish? Or try to insist he gives me another of his? Should I start feeding it?

I can't tell you what type it is, as the selection my Dad bought were a mixture of different types. It's just a quite small, black fish.

The fish that died - could have been a multitude of reasons.
I had a garden pond years ago -it had some fish, they thrived in there . I really didn’t do much, they had a good enough ecosystem to survive without my input. I did make sure the pond didn’t get too clogged up but nothing else. Carp are reasonably hardy given the right conditions to start with.

I would get Fishy a friend though .

I'd re-home. There's a Fish re-homing group on Facebook. Someone came to get my koi that had outgrown my pond and ate everything in sight. The frogs that visit annually drowned all my gudgeon by clinging on and believing they were fellow frogs. Before I covered it, heron took my big koi. It doesn't matter how enclosed your garden is, you need to protect the fish with netting or the floating discs.

A neighbour accused another neighbour of stealing her koi and putting them in her kitchen sink sized pond. I emptied the teeny pond, there were 4 goldfish. The koi were like 3 times the length of the teeny pond, ruddy massive things. I was like 'Hello, heron buffet!'

@Cherrysoup I'd never have thought of frogs doing that!
And, you emptied the pond to prove to neighbour 1 that neighbour 2 hadn't stolen her Koi Carp?!

Anyway-Dad has donated me a Bream and a Skimmer (said like she knows what she's talking about) and I've put them in my pond this morning. Feel a bit happier now that Fishy isn't going to be on its own although I'd have much rather this whole scenario had never happened at all!

I re-homed the goldfish when they moved. Neighbour 1 was mentally unwell, she was actually taken away by a team at one point then was placed into a home when her behaviour became too erratic for her to live alone.

Bream can grow to 4lbs hopefully yours won’t! Skimmer is also a bream.

Ah I understand now-sorry your post confused me at first.

My pond-I've not measured it but it has a deeper middle, is about 6ft by 3ft. Not teeny but yes, not big enough for huge fish. So is a skimmer a type of bream or is a bream a skimmer, period?

One question if anyone is still watching-do fish just 'get along' and that's that? I am assuming that the three of them are a happy trio-but is that how fish work? The first fish won't be thinking 'Who TF are you?' and wanting its own space back?I know they're not solitary animals so hopefully I've done the right thing.

Still watching!

In my experience, they either get along, or you see one (or two) being chased and harried by the other(s), or one or two get eaten by the other(s).

So if they are kind of chilling and hanging, and all are still alive, that is probs ok for the moment.

I think fish only grow as big as their pond allows based on the size of the pond and the number of fish.

In which we discover your Dad almost certainly knows bugger all about keeping ponds.

YOu need a filter, ideally with a UV algae zapping light on there. That filter needed to be mature (loaded with denitrifying bacteria which takes around 8 weeks) to convert ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate. The surface of the pond needs to move, you can do this by placing the output from the filter so that it stirs the surface or by having a water feature that runs all the time, similarly disturbing the surface.

The pond needs plenty of fresh water added regularly, even with a filter - some ponds in wet areas will do this naturally if they can overflow and refill via either a natural stream or rainwater - others will need water changes same as a fishtank would.

6ft by 3ft is a fractionally larger than average fishtank - bream are around 22inches fully grown, a skimmer is a baby bream. These fish are too big for your water volume.

You will not have much in the way of wildlife in your pond as the fish will eat them.

Yeah.

That's called stunting. If you put anything into too small an enclosure, toxic atmosphere, insufficient food etc, its growth will be stunted.

It isn't a good thing, but it is a commonly trotted out myth. What really happens is the fishes organs continue to grow but the rest of the fish doesn't, they end up twisted and deformed and die early.

Some species, the presence of a mature dominant fish will mean the others of the same gender do not reach maturity, thats due to hormones, but doesn't apply to all species by any means, and they still grow to full size, just without the extra features the breeding male would have (so lacking colours, larger head-bump etc of the breeding male).

Tell your dad you want a couple of fish back. He was daft to do that behind your back, but it’s not fair to leave the poor wee fish on its lonesome. And make sure you invest in a bit of netting or a plastic heron. They’ll scoff them like there’s no tomorrow.

Oops I missed that last update! Point stands about pesky herons though.

Thank you @WiddlinDiddlin -could you direct me to how I could rehome them to somewhere more suitable? I feel really bad now, I am not interested in fish and didn't want them, but of course I don't want them to suffer.

Any decent pet store selling outdoor/pond fish will take them in though ask first as if they've just had a big delivery they may not have room for a few days.

Thank you-I have reached out to a few shops and posted on some fb groups now. I don't like the thought of any animal not being in the right environment.