This is what the big pond looks like right now.  Not to worry…the spring rains and the sump pump will fill it up to full by the time we put the fish in it again.

Brian did the hard work of retrieving the fish from the pond.  After putting out fish food for bait, we were short half the fish.  We put 6 in there in the spring, and oh how they love the freedom!  Those 17 cent goldfish from the first year know just what to do.  They get released and they are swimming around the big place like mad.  The ones we bought last Fall were like, ” What is all this open water??  I am skeered!”  Eventually they went out and enjoyed the space, though.

Then, they got fat over the summer.  They grow to the space they occupy, so getting them back into the tanks in the Fall is not fun for them.

Well, after not finding some of the fish, Brian started to drain the pond.  The big ones were easy to find, but the little ones have hidey holes under the rock edges.   Brian eventually found two more, but our algae eater Porky II was missing.  We seem to have a hard time finding those black fish.

We did have some surprises, though.

This is the first year we found BABY FISH in our pond!  Brian found some dead ones, but we were able to get three for the tank.  Now Kai has 2 big fish and 3 little tiny ones in his tank.

He figures those little tiny ones are looking at the big ones like they are sharks.  Probably a good assumption.

Last winter one of his fish “disappeared”.  Kai is not the best at feeding his fish.  It was like the Donner Party in there, so the weakest link was likely consumed by the hungry fish.  I told him if he doesn’t remember to feed his fish, those little ones are likely to become lunch.

Hopefully, that is incentive enough to feed them, since he is a bit of a soft heart when it comes to little life forms. 🙂