Two Fish Releases

With the trip to China looming before us, I decided to release our aquarium fish into the wilds of our small country of "van Sunder Land." Okay, the name doesn't have the ring to it that it needs. I'll work on it. I've been busy. Technically, the release is into our above ground pond, but it is outside. That's as close to wild as we have unless you count a rain barrel that has no filter in it. The first release on Saturday, March 4 was of two koi: Ghost and our unnamed yellow and white one and three goldfish: Goldie, Shark and Boss Hogg. You can see a picture of all nine fish here playing follow the leader shortly after release. After a while they decided they didn't like schools and started roaming in gangs of three or four. Unsettlingly, like urban America. So far, no gang warfare. Yesterday, I released the next batch. This was a smaller release of one koi: our blue doitsu being released in the picture here and two goldfish: Mustache and Tinie. Pond Temperature: 53 degrees The fish were released because the pond environment at approximately 800 gallons is much more stable than either the 23 or 50 gallon tanks we have. The smaller tank experienced a filter failure during one of our trips that cost us two koi. The tanks in the house, like the house itself has not been heated so that water temperatures are relatively similar. To reduce our risk during our trip, all the fish destined for the pond will be released before our trip. The next release will be tomorrow.