Meet Leroy

This is Leroy, a koi, and his band of goldfish.

Not tiny fish tank goldfish.

More like six to eight inch goldfish.

They now reside in one of our ponds.

Specifically, the shallower pond that does not currently house any bass.

Which would most likely try to eat the goldfish.

And possibly Leroy, you just never know.

I'm sure I don't need to point out that our muddy murky pond

isn't exactly a typical home for such vibrant fish.

Our ponds usually house the likes of

bullfrogs (about a million of them),

minnows (about a million and a half of them),

mosquito-eating fish (about three million of them),

and bass (about five million of them if you count all the babies that hatched this spring).

As is common in nature, many of the bass babies have no doubt been eaten by the bass grownups by now and my count of about five million might be slightly exaggerated.

Only slightly.

So, how would such bright fish come to live in our pond?

Leroy, the koi, lived in a beautiful, artificial, clear water pond belonging to a family friend.

This beautiful, artificial, clear water pond allowed onlookers to view and enjoy Leroy's vibrant colors.

It also allowed hungry raccoons to find him.

And try to eat him.

Poor Leroy.

He was wounded, but survived.

He started to heal.

Then he got sick.

Then he started to heal again.

Then he got sick again.

Then he started to contaminate the pond and his fellow koi with ICH.

Koi are not cheap pets, you do not want them contaminated with ICH.

And Leroy wasn't getting any better.  He had to be removed.

Leroy's owner didn't want to just kill him.

So, she brought him to us, in the hopes that he could somehow survive in a much more,

shall we say, natural environment.

She brought some goldfish with him, because, quite frankly, she just had too many goldfish and they were taking up all the pond space.  Now she has more room for more koi.

Her father-in-law, who happens to be named Leroy, also brought us some of his goldfish.

(that's why we decided to name the koi "Leroy").

And now, we have goldfish.

And a koi.

Truth be told, I don't see these guys very often.

The water is usually pretty murky, courtesy of two dogs that like to go swimming frequently,

and, believe it or not, a bright goldfish can actually hide in the weeds.

I had to do some serious Photoshop tweaking just so you could see them in the photos.

Plus, they like to hide under the bushes that hang over the edge of the pond.

Probably a pretty good idea considering the predators they are facing out here.

One of which is a giant crane bird that likes to eat fish.

Not seeing the fish is sort of a good thing.

I mean, if I don't see any floating fish, I assume that means they are still alive.

Unless they have been eaten, but we'll just assume they haven't.

This isn't the first time we've been blessed with unwanted fish.

Last winter, the same family friend brought us a bunch of goldfish because she had too many.

Hmmm, guess that says something about the reproductive cycle of goldfish.

Efficient little critters.

Anyhow, we put the goldfish in the pond and really never saw them again.

I assumed they were dead.

Why?  Well, why not?

I didn't feed them, or protect them, or care for them in any way.

And I never saw them.

Ever.

I really didn't think they could survive in the "real" world anyhow.

HOWEVER...

when the newest crop of fish were dumped in our pond, they stirred up quite a commotion.

Suddenly, there were small baby goldfish swimming everywhere.

At least 30 of them, about a few inches long.

Apparently the first crop of unwanted goldfish had reproduced (efficient, I say),

and the new fish had invaded the baby fish territory.

For the next few hours, we had confused, scared goldfish of all sizes

swimming aimlessly around our pond - scared of every shadow and movement.

Oh, and one large Koi who appeared to be the ringleader of them all.

Since then, I rarely see any of these guys - Koi fish, gold fish, big fish, or baby fish.

...one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish...

(love that Dr. Suess)

This time, though, I will assume they are all alive in a happy, healthy

goldfish community deep in the shade of the overgrown brush.

And maybe next summer, we'll see more baby goldfish.