I have just spotted three baby fish, about 4 cm long, in my 4 year old pond. The candidates for parent fish are 1 shubunkin and 3 fantail goldfish (about 15cm long) who have been together for two/three years and two comets (10cm) who were introduced in may. The babies have straight tail fins, not fantail, two have gold/white colour and the other one is dark brown.
I'd like to know who the likely parents are, and how old the babies are... any suggestions?

Hello wilkis and welcome to fishkeeping
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That is a hard question to answer with out actually being able to see the fish because the parents could be any of them, do you know which of the single tails are female and which are male at all as this may help to identify who sporned them
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Again hard to say, take a look at this link and check out the breeding 1 and 2 as it may help some
http://www.bristol-aquarists.org.uk/goldfish/info/sexing-fs.htm

Re the size/age. The answer depends on genetics and the available food supply. I have 6 fry from this year that were accidentally transfered, as eggs or hatchlings, to a new pond and therefore had virtually unlimited food. These 6 are bigger than some of their siblings from last year that had to tough it out in the fish pond along with their parents. For me 4cm would be last year's fry or one of the above 6. With straight tails they are probably from the comets but all goldfish are related so they could be throw backs from the fantails although I think that unlikely.

Thanks for this helpful info, I was wondering if it was possible for them to be so big in a few months and you have confirmed that it is. I think maybe I had all males till the arrival of the comets, which would account for no breeding in previous years. The babies are growing fast and one clearly looks like the shubunkin, another has colouring like one of the fantails, but a comet shape, so possibly two fathers. Sadly one of the comets was removed by a heron last week, leaving the others all cowering and nervous, so I haven't seen them much. Fingers crossed that I still have fish to look at next spring.

Sorry to hear the dreaded heron got one of your fish have you put a net over since as that hopefully will stop you loseing anymore, good luck

Pond netted now, the other fish are still very nervous tho. I'm thinking of stringing fishing wire around the pond, to try and stop the heron without spoiling the view. A friend has offered to make me his special patented steel posts, following the pattern he used on his own pond. Mine's only about 5'x 7' and right in front of our window, so it would be good if it worked and was unobtrusive. For now tho, the net is also in position to trap the autumn leaves. By the way, would you carry on feeding thru the winter if the fish seem active?

According to my fishpond book that a friend kindly got me when I mentioned I was after a pond myself it says that you can carry on feeing the fish in the autumn as long as they are still interested and clear food up within 5 minutes but to leave out the night feed also to slowly change fish food from summer formulations to lighter cold-weather formulations HTH

This is my pond now that the electric fence has gone up.

ignore the junk I am in the process of grouting the paving and the gravel etc is holding down plastic to keep the cement damp.

Looking good Sean Not to invasive on the eye and blends in nicely with your greenery

thats a stunning pond sean, its that the one that was underconstruction with the seat nearby, if not can you post a pic of that one too. ???