:D Hi, I'm new and have a question.... Why do our goldfish try to jump up into the waterfall? The pond is 2 months old, and the fish were just put in this weekend.
Any info will be appreciated,
Tammi

what type of goldish? How many golfish? How big is the pond?

Goldfish from the bait shop, approximately 5" long, each, 1 dozen of them. The pond is 8' x 9' x average of 3' depth.
Tammi

i think it might be low levels of oxygen in the pond. They are probably jumping on the waterfall so they can still be wet. Go to your local pond store or you can buy an airator of the internet.

Goldfish will try to swim upstream. Mild occasional activity like that is normal. Excessive jumping at the falls may indicate a number of things including low oxygen levels, poor water quality, and illness. How much do the falls aerate the water? Do you have a filter? Check your pH and ammonia levels to be sure they are okay. If you have city water, did you add dechlorinator? If the water quality is bad, the fish will jump to try to escape. In their minds, jumping at the falls would get them to a different upstream pond that really doesn't exist. Quarantining is always a good idea. Goldfish from a bait shop are most likely in poor health and may need to be rejuvenated before they can thrive. Medium-sized goldfish like the ones you have will have more trouble adjusting to a new situation than smaller ones as far as tolerating the water and new surroundings. You might want to take one out to see if it shows any signs of illness. You don't want to treat the entire pond without knowing what is wrong. Adding some pond salt though won't do any harm at low doses and may help.

If they continue you might want to do what robyn suggests

Thank you for your replies. I will try what was suggested. We do have a good filter, and the (city) water was in there for about 2 weeks before we added the fish.
I will update!
Thanks again,
Tammi

O.k., the fish aren't jumping as much now. I think they just needed to settle in. We checked ph, ammonia. nitrates, hardness, and alkalinity levels, and nitrates are ok, alkalinity is ok, and ammonia is ok. Water hardness is very hard and ph is 8.4. I read that I can put 1 cup of vinegar to 1000 gallons to reduce ph. Yes, no? What can I do for hardness?
Thanks!
Tammi
B)

Ive never heard of putting vinager in your pond. I wouldnt do it.

Yes, you can add vinegar but you have to keep an eye on the pH to determine the right amount. At 8.4, your pH is just a little bit high. It's probably easier to just use what you have in that case. Playing with the water chemistry is tricky. Every time it rains, or you do a water change, you have to again add acid (other stronger acids also work and have a more profound change on the pH). The acids will not lower your hardness. There's no simple way to do that. Rain will dilute it out some. Otherwise, I doubt that you want to buy a reverse-osmosis system or other such water treatment system unless you hook up something to your entire house (a water softener system removes calcium, magnesium, etc. and replaces it with sodium). I think the goldfish can adapt to your water chemistry.

Thank you, Robyn! We have been thinking about installing a water softener for the whole house, (hubby is a plumber) but have not decided yet. I was concerned that if we did, what it would do to the pond and fish.
Tammi
:D

We have well water. It is very soft. Any yet, my mother insisted it was hard when we moved in in 1977 so my father installed a small in-line water softener with salts in it right after the storage tank. It never has seemed to cause a problem for my fish or other animals and plants.