Many home owners often dream of having a garden pond but are often unsure on how to take care of goldfish. Taking care of goldfish in a garden pond is easy! With a little bit of research, you’ll be a pond expert in no time. A lot of people who have fish ponds in their backyards often have had an aquarium in their life sometime before. The fact is that taking care of goldfish in a pond is so much easier and I’m going to show you how.
Now that your garden pond is in place you will need to add your goldfish to your newly built pond. You can either buy goldfish online or as most of you do is go down to your local pet store to buy your new pet. Taking care of goldfish starts right here at the pet shop. 
Remember you want to buy healthy goldfish and don’t want to bring home some other guests as well. Never buy goldfish from a tank that has dead fish, cloudy or if you see fish scratching themselves on the aquarium gravel. These are signs that something is wrong. Take your time, look around and ask questions at the pet store if you have any. They should be able to answer all your fish, pond and aquarium questions.
Now that you’ve just bought your new goldfish you will need to introduce them to your pond. What you do now is float the bag in the water for about 10 – 15 minutes so that the water can customize. Once the time is up what you will then do is make sure you add a couple of cups of pond water into the bag so that the water chemistry can mix together. Every little thing you do minimizes the stress on the goldfish. Now that you’ve done that and waited a few minutes now you can release your goldfish into the pond. In order to do this you will need a fish net. Never introduce the water from the pet store into your garden pond as it could contain parasites. Always use a fish net to catch the goldfish and then place them in the fish pond.
Your goldfish should be swimming around in the new pond and looking quite happy. Don’t worry if the goldfish goes right to the bottom of the pond and you don’t see them for a few days as this is common. Remember this pond is new to him and it could take a few days for your goldfish to get use to its new environment. After a day or two you should see your goldfish quite regularly. Sometimes you can even feed your goldfish right after placing them in your new garden pond.
What you should feed goldfish all depends on the time of year and the temperature of the water. Remember goldfish hibernate come winter and when this happens their digestive system begins to slow down too. In early spring and fall goldfish should be fed a lighter food such as a wheat germ based fish food. This is light and easy for them to digest. This should be fed to goldfish down to 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It is very important to know what the temperature of your pond is to be able to provide the best possible care for your goldfish. In the summer months you are able to feed goldfish a higher protein diet as they are more active and require better nutrition.
Your probably wondering about now is how much food do I feed goldfish in a pond. The answer is quite simple, only feed your goldfish what they can eat within 2 minutes. When the goldfish are feeding you should start to see them get sluggish or uninterested in the food. Always discard what they cannot consume within 2 minutes or this can foul your water. You can feed your goldfish in the pond once a day in cooler weather and in the summer months you can feed them a couple of times a day. Remember don’t worry if you ever miss feeding your goldfish as there is literally tons of food in the pond for them. They can feed on all the live insects, mosquito larvae and more. Your goldfish will never starve in a pond.
For maintenance for your garden pond you should clean your pond filter from time to time. Whenever you notice that the water volume from your pond pump has slowed down it’s time to clean your filter. You should also test your water quality once a week to make sure all is well.
If you have water lilies in your goldfish pond you will have to discard any decaying lily pads as they appear. What you want to do is try and stop as much leaves and debris from going to the bottom of the pond. If there is to much organic matter such as fish waste, leaves and debris this can cause a perfect breeding ground for parasites and fish diseases to occur. Try and eliminate as much as you can. What many pond owners do come fall is place a pond net over their ponds to stop leaves from going into the water. This pond net also stops pond predators from getting access to your goldfish in your pond. Depending on where you live wildlife is bound to come near your pond sooner or later whether its herons, raccoons, kingfishers or eagles they will come to your pond looking for a snack. Look for other great ways at protecting pond fish from predators.
You’ve just read about how to take care of goldfish in a garden pond and I’m sure you will have more pond questions as they arise. Throughout the years you will learn more about ponds and have other questions. I urge you all to ask any garden pond questions here so you will be able to take care of your goldfish and know what to do when problems occur. Enjoy your new garden pond and I wish you all best of luck taking care of your new goldfish.
Sincerely,
Jamie Boyle
The Goldfish Guy
“Helping Goldfish Owners With Advice, Fish Care and Fish Medication Treatments for Goldfish Diseases, Illnesses and Parasites”