The story of how I ended up with a goldfish kiddie pool in my backyard

I love fishkeeping. I love how fishes live in a completely different system than us, with rules that have to be learned and understood. It is so rewarding to see my fishes thrive. I just love it.

When we bought our ugly bungalow, it was a no-brainer that we would have a pond. But it's an older house, so stuff came up and needed more attention. And digging a nice pond here, with the cold winters, is costly. The problem is that in our second year living here, we went to the park to catch tadpoles, and we caught baby goldfishes instead

'I'm an invasive specie :D'

(Plz avoid dumping goldfishes in the local waterways, they fuck up ecosystems and then people like me end up with baby goldfishes when all I wanted was a nice afternoon playing in mud. Asshole)

So now I'm stuck with 3 baby fishes. Soda Crush, Muffin, and Orange Crush. And I like them because goldfishes are cute. But they can't live in a tank. They need a pond, because they will grow like mad and are adorable poop machines

'Nyyyyooooommmm'

And on top of that, I inherited Sam and Sushi, two nice little blind monsters with who knows how much life left in their deformed selves.

Ugly

Uglier

So that's how the kiddie pool idea came up. It's cheap, it holds a lot of water, it's stupid easy to set up and if I double the bottom with tarpaulin, it might even lasts the season! IT CAN WORK!

1rst year setup

 I'm honest. It's ugly. It's REALLY ugly. But it holds like 200 gallons of water, 220 if I fill it high. With wood piles around, it's not ugly enough for my elderly neighbors to judge me. The first year I picked the plants from marshes, and they have faithfully respawned every year in their pot. It was a stupid idea, but it worked.

Second year setup

Second year I got more comfortable. I picked more plants off stream banks. I bought water hyacinths. I made a little waterfall with a pump and a dishwasher pipe. Sam got so much better he started chasing the females. Of course he can't see shit so I had to keep decor to a minimum so he won't hurt himself bumping around. We added Noidorange, a Shunbunkin

Winters are spend in the fasting quarters. The shed. They don't need food when it's cold. They just need a small tank, a hole in the ice for oxygen, and to be left alone.

So with this merry group still growing, I figured we'd give them an upgrade!

2 feet larger, holds like 150 more gallons! ENJOY MY LOVELIES!!