Population Explosion

My garden pond is now about 3 years old. Originally, I'd intended to have a wildlife pond, which simply required me to throw in some oxygenating pond weed and water-loving plants like lilies, then wait to see what came along. With no further effort on my part, I soon had pond skaters, water boatmen, dragonfly nymphs, newts and a frog or two.  And in the spring, the frogs produced frog spawn... and the newts and nymphs ate it.  Thus a balance of nature was established, but not a very interesting one.

This Spring I decided to introduce a spot of variety and asked a friend whether I could have some of her goldfish. She readily agreed, so I went round for a spot of fishing in the murky depths of her garden pond, eventually returning triumphantly with 3 fish in a bucket. There was:

• Goldie — a fine-looking, very golden goldfish.
• Blondie — a pale white, and rather fat, specimen
• Rudolph — a black, white and golden fish with (yes, you guessed it) a red nose.

The three new residents quickly settled into their new home, feasting contentedly on bugs in the pond weed, and growing fat. Well, two of them grew fat, but one day I noticed that Blondie had grown thinner... and before long I discovered the reason.  Babies! Lots and lots of tiny black baby goldfish.

I imagine that the original fish, together with the newts and any surviving nymphs will have feasted on some of these babies, but lots have survived and grown. 

So now I have a new problem — what to do with (at least) 50 baby goldfish.  Some of them are already a couple of inches long and the pond is beginning to look crowded. My neighbour, inspired by my own pond-building exploits, is creating one of his own, and he will definitely get offered a fish or eight. But what to do with the rest? Goldfish soup doesn't appeal.

I do know that, eventually, the pond population will balance out as fish eat their own spawn, and the more fish there are, the more likely it is that all the spawn will be consumed.  But goldfish have an average lifespan of 10 years, so that's not going to happen any time soon.