[Rob Law]

We shoot them at Erie

 

[Rob Law]

They are alot easier to see for sure!

 

[Rob Law]

I've noticed that orange goldfish seem to have greater survivability in areas where the water is cold. Also, you get more orange ones when there is a lot of release/escape going on, like in city park ponds and near aquaculture facilities that raise goldfish. There are more of those than you'd think, and in that case of course there are always a lot of fish with orange genes coming into the system, so they don't get bred out so fast. But I'm not sure about the cold water thing. It does seem real, though. The farther you go north or up in altitude you seem to get more orange ones surviving to breed. I think that may be because the kinds of fish that eat them are different - but I expect that northern pike should do a number on goldfish, so that may not be the case where they are around. And it may have something to do with the relative growth rate of goldfish compared to their predators in cold water. If goldfish don't slow their growth as much with colder water, they may have more ability to get past the relatively vulnerable small sizes. Just speculation, though. I really don't know what is up with that or if it is a real phenomenon, or an artifact of my experience.

I would tend to agree.....but the area we shot these is also loaded with Northern Pike but most are small and the area is very weeded up. Lots of places for the goldys to hide.