what exactly is an orfe? i have heard of everything else i am reading about. is it just a breed similar to sarassa or shubunkin? certain color maybe? just curious. and is there another name for them.

Brian

I've heard of a golden Orfe, but I aswell have forgotten what it looks like. :lol:

The orfe is a different species. It's not related to goldfish at all. My page on orfe is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/orfe.htm and includes photos. Orfe are like torpedos.

They are the fish with really long tails in your photo right? I have seen a few with the feeder goldfish but I just thought they were comets? They are nice looking. :P

Could it be that also that fish I was telling you about in the Comet section that looked like a tiny carp in my fishtank may have in fact been an orfe?

they dont really look anything like koi and goldfish. they look like rosy reds. they just get much bigger and are gold. they are hard to find and need very large ponds. i was lucky enough to have found a couple and now have 4 healthy orfes, amazing fish if you have the space.

Young orfe do look like rosy reds but they're not related. It is not very likely that orfe would show up in a batch of feeder or other goldfish (although slightly possible). What you saw was probably a comet.

Here is a top view of my 1.5' long deceased orfe that I lost last month (other photos are on my site as I mentioned under photos):
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/photos/fish/other/orfe7.jpg

i thought they were related to rosy reds? guess i was wrong. my neon schools with my cherry barbs though.

so effectively since i have never seen orfes in any pet shop i shouldnt worry about what they are or what they can go with because i will never have them anyways, right?

its possible that you can find them. i was lucky enough that my pond store has them. i picked up 4 young ones. Boy are they aggresive eaters. BTW its much better to buy pond fish at a pond store than a pet store.

depends on the petstore, some pet store shouldnt be allowed to have live anything, some are actually good though. in a pet store they are usually in ttanks, not ponds, so you can see the whole fish and not just the top, therefore you are more likely to notice disease, on the same token pet stores are usually better lit (at least the fish tanks themselves) than the pond stores ive been to.

i meant to put it as my personal experience. my pond store is much cheaper, i can get extrely healthy koi for 3 dollars and at a store i see sick motionless ones for 60 bucks. My pond store is 100 years old so the people really know there stuff. They are also listed in pond books because they are so large and a great store to buy from. i also like that they stock there fish in ponds, so they have room to grow and work out :lol: . they check it and so do i for illness.

i would love to find a good pond store like that. thats an old store.

yah its really good.

There are good stores, okay stores, and really bad stores. I have yet to find a really good store! My local "pond" stores (meaning the fish are outside in open-topped containers) usually have sickly fish in filthy water. I got my fish at an aquarium store. I'm glad Tommy has found a good pond store.

If you really wanted orfe, you could mail order them.

would they fit in my 270g pond, go with goldfish and newts, frogs and allow baby things to live and grow?

My orfe are 1.5 feet long. They are super fast moving. I would not recommend them for ponds under 500+ gallons. They prefer animal foods but won't harm fish or other animals over an inch long. The orfe have small mouths. That means that they are good at eating insect larvae, baby fish, and tadpoles. They help keep down the numbers of goldfish that grow up in my pond.

I wouldnt recomend it for anything less than a 2000. They are like quick moving koi that school. They are both huge but koi need more room? if anything the orfes do.

My pond store is just so amazing(sorry if it sounds braggish). The prices are cheap and they got some pretty cool stuff. Everything they have is compatible and healthy. the sick fish are put away. Robyn how much where you orfes? i got mine for $5.00.

I got my orfe in 1997. I don't remember the price but it was $5 or less. They were just babies then.

yah, mine are babies now i think they are about 4-6 inches, hard to tell because i only see them when i feed them and they are so fast.