Fishy, Fishy in the Brook

I never wanted fish. My sister had a goldfish named Jack when we were kids and he lived in a shallow goldfish bowl in her room. He survived for seven years, including one winter of being frozen almost solid. I believe this was due to her diligent care and religious cleaning of his bowl. I don't think anyone will ever accuse me of being diligent or religiously clean. There would be much to fear for a fish entrusted to my care. Dogs and kids remind you when you are being neglectful, but what's a fish to do? Send up S.O.S. bubbles? But the pond books all had pictures of shady ponds with flashes of orange cutting a swathe through the water. I knew koi would be a bad plan. They can live for 25 years--given diligent and religious care--and I'm not even sure I'm going to be around that much longer. So we went to the pet shop and bought 7 feeder fish for 10 cents each. There were 5 brown ones and two orange ones. We let them go in the pond and then waited to see what happen.As luck would have it, the two orange ones died and turned up in the skimmer, but we lost track of the others. They were hidden against the brown rocks in the bottom. So, I caved and went to Wal-mart and bought five Shubunkin for $1.25 each. We now have 30 fish in our pond.
Nine are brown, two are a solid pinkish/orangey white and the rest are mottled shubunkin. They are exceptionally friendly and will come swim around your hands if you put them in the water. That first year they had a kaboodle of babies, but this past summer, the frog came and the dragonfly nymphs and the great diving beetles. I think any offspring might have become a tasty snack for the other wildlife in the pond.
Koi get so big, I think they'd eat the frogs. I think longingly of koi, but at this point, I'm happy with all the other critters out there. Sam and Sadie like to splash around the edge and play with the fish. We get a good many dragonflies that zip around the waterfall and the plants. Birds come in the evening to drink and bathe. We once saw an opossum drinking from the edge in the night.