i have an outdoor mud bottom pond (25X20X5) approx 18,750 gallons planted with irises, lily pads, reeds, & parrots feather. last summer, we started off with 25 feeder gf & 5 baby koi. But yesterday when i went down there to feed & check on them, i saw a small school of what can only be baby goldfish. they are about 1" and dark gray in color. i read online that they can reproduce like crazy, but i never thought this quickly! all of the gf i can see have grown from feeder size to 3-5" in length (haven't seen the koi). i didn't feed them at all last yr, but i thought i would start feeding them now that they're bigger. my question is: will the pond get overcrowded with droves of new baby gf being born all the time? or will nature take care of the overpopulation problem? i've heard that gf eat their fry & eggs, plus the random heron or raccoon occasionally will thin them out as well. should i do anything, or leave it as is? i'm really only attatched to the 2 fantails (surprised they survived the winter!), so if a few get eaten...circle of life, if ya know what i mean. i would prefer that the pond be as low maintenance as possible. but i also don't want to run into any unforeseen space issues later on (free goldfish to good home anyone?, lol) thank you in advance for any suggestions. brandy
