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As a passionate marine enthusiast, I yearned for a pond in my backyard, a natural progression to the several aquariums I have kept indoors for many years. After reading several "how to" books covering backyard ponds, I felt that I was well equipped to venture out on this stimulating experience. Little did I imagine, it would be a captivating, comical and satisfying journey.

My family provided the help I needed to dig the pond and install the lining. I was all set to go. The finishing touches, rocks , ornaments, a waterfall, plants and water completed my handiwork. All I needed now was fish, and I knew it wasn't going to be koi or anything exotic, I would purchase some baby gold fish and watch them grow. Why the common gold fish? I have adored goldfish for a very long time. Even though I have several varieties of fish in my aquariums, I am always impressed with the staying power of the goldfish. They survive long after other fish have become ill, died or killed each other.

I was convinced by the sales person that the dozen goldfish I had bought were indeed "gold" fish even though they were black. All the goldfish I had in the past were yellow or orange colored, never black, but I trusted his wisdom. I would discover later that they were in the new born stage and their color would change gradually. Half of them died in the first month and I went back to the aquarium shop to purchase more, again I lost more goldfish. Each morning I would survey the pond to nab the tiny floating bodies that bobbed on the surface. So it was that most of the summer I kept replenishing the fish supply as they died. I swear they survived much longer in an aquarium than in the pond. I wondered if it had something to do with the fact that they were black and not orange when I purchased them. The remaining few had gradually begun to change color and by fall I had five surviving fish that had grown to about three times their size.

I live in a climate that gets terribly cold in winter so it was necessary to bring the fish indoors each fall. They fought valiantly as I tried to scoop them out of the pond, even though there was already a layer of frost on the pond. For the next three years my precious surviving gold fish grew and each year we transposed them from the pond to the indoor aquarium and from the aquarium to the pond. I had the best of both worlds. The fish were a great compliment to the outdoor garden and welcome guests indoors during the winter months. They often changed color from

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