Oranda,

You have been a major help and I appreciate it! Here's the latest:

I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning working in the pond. Yesterday, I picked up a 100W heater and started to heat the water a bit (water temp dropped to about 52F at night and rises to about 70F during the day... big flucuation I think). I also started to look for a fishie friend for him, but still haven't purchased anything. I also picked up my test kits and immediately tested everything. Ammonia was between 0 ppm and 0.25 ppm (I would guess it to be about 0.10 ppm). Everything else was perfect at 0, pH nuetral (about 7.0). I also picked up a goldfish book just for reading knowledge.

This morning, I checked the water temp, which was holding steady at 65F. I decided to try and get a few more degrees (as that's what the goldfish expert said I should try to get him more active). I sat outside monitoring the temps for a good 3 hours. I've got the temp to 69-70F. Once it hit about 68F, the little bugger almost immediately started to become more active. While watching the water, I took my bunched up Anacharis and starting to seperate it, placing single strands throughout the pond. The little guy must have been wanting this done for a while because after a couple of minutes of placement, he emerged from his corner, began swimming near the surface, and started to check out the newly places strands of plant. Little guy even uprooted one of them, which seemed to scare him a bit. Ha! He still hasn't eaten any fish food though nor has he seemed to warm up to my hand while moving around inside the pond. I took a strand of Anacharis and put it in his little "cave", in which case he appeared to do some "house cleaning". He was pushing and pulling on the Anacharis inside his brick and looked like he was trying to arrange it how he wanted it. He even scooped up some gravel and took it in with him. Just seeing this made me feel a LOT better.

In regards to the filtration, there is a slight current (my floating thermometer will make a complete circle in about 2 minutes), but because of the placement of the cinder block, he can hide behind it and not have to fight anything. Just to slow it down some more, I closed the secondary (upper) filter vent.

Everything seems to finally be coming together now and I'm glad that you have helped me out. If you hadn't, I probably would have dosed the guy up on so many meds that even a drug addict would be worried. Heh! I'm making another trip to the store today to pick up some different food varieties and other things for the road ahead. Perhaps I'll get him a small buddy?

Thanks again for all your help!

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