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Like so many hobbies, this one began by accident. A biology teacher gave him a few goldfish which had been left in her room at the end of the school session, and he tossed them into the little lily pool in his backyard and promptly forgot about them. A few months later when he saw how these fish had multiplied he began to consider the idea of a goldfish farm. He started cautiously with only a few small ponds, and has found the fascination and the demand so great that he now raises about 300,000 fish per summer. He has expanded to twenty-one ponds and plans to add twenty more.

Noble has several acres of land. He declares, however, that this project could be carried out successfully on a small scale by a city or suburban dweller with only a fair-sized back yard. Although the standard pond runs about one third acre in size with a depth of two to three feet, a person with a limited space could have smaller ponds and fewer fish. A small business could be started with only one pond plus two small breeding ponds which should never be larger than six by twelve feet.

"Goldfish thrive better in mud-bottom ponds," Noble points out. "A small tractor can scoop out eight or nine ponds in a day, banking the loose dirt from the middle to make one-and-one-half- to two-foot banks. The ponds can be very close together with only enough space between to allow you to keep grass trimmed with a lawn mower. Arrange your ponds so that the water will run downhill from the first to each succeeding pond, and arrange drainpipe in each pond to keep the water-level at least six inches from the top of the banks. This will prevent an overflow after a big cloudburst. One-quarter-inch rat wire covered with plastic wire fastened over the end of the drain-pipes will prevent the fish from slipping through."

WATER, OF course, is the first essential since goldfish need a constant and plentiful supply. Springs, wells or any natural stream which does not dry up will suffice. Mr. Noble uses a 120-foot drilled well with six inch casing. This is a flowing well, but he uses a one-third-horsepower electric motor turning a small Deming rotor pump to increase the flow of water.

"It is undesirable to have a large amount of water running through your ponds," Noble says. "Most fisheries have no water flowing out of the ponds and add only enough water to make up for evaporation. A large supply of water is needed only when filling a drained pond."

Noble drains his ponds once a year, one at a time. All vegetation is cleaned out and they are allowed to remain dry for at least two weeks in order to kill the water beetles and other injurious marine life. During this time the fish from these ponds are kept in storage crates placed in the undrained ponds. He makes these crates himself, using two-by-two-inch lumber to make a frame two feet wide, two feet deep and five to six feet long with a board bottom, covering it with one-quarter-inch rat wire. Many thousands of fish can be stored in one crate, especially during the winter months. Since crated fish are tempting targets for hawks and owls, Noble has placed steel traps on poles at intervals around his ponds.

BECAUSE THE Comet goldfish is an extremely fast swimmer and thus able to avoid many of his natural enemies, Noble recommends them to beginners. The very best breeders should be procured from a reliable goldfish hatchery, using the ratio of two males to every female. The fish will spawn all summer, but the first spawning, around the last of May, is usually the best. Before this time, which may vary by a few weeks in different parts of the country, the breeders are all placed in breeding ponds. They must be free of all vegetation. This may be accomplished cheaply by covering the sides and bottoms of the ponds with roofing paper. Another pond, completely empty of fish, must be readied for the eggs. Breeding trays, twenty-four by thirty inches and five inches deep to receive the eggs are made of one-inch boards with a twelve-inch strip of poultry wire attached lengthwise across the center of the lower edge, a space of six inches being left open on either side of the wire at the bottom. Spanish moss is tied on the inside of the wire to form a bed two to three inches thick. Since there is no other vegetation in the pond, the females deposit the eggs on the moss and the males fertilize them almost immediately.

In the pamphlet which Noble has prepared to help beginners he gives explicit directions about obtaining and saving the eggs. "Stand by the breeding ponds and float your breeding trays across. At about fifteen-minute intervals lift the trays from the water and see if the Spanish moss has been covered with eggs. You will see the fish enter the trays and spawn on the moss. When the moss has been thoroughly covered with eggs, lift the trays out of the water again, untie the moss and throw this moss into your other ponds. Refill your trays with the new moss and repeat the above process until your ponds are loaded with spawn. You will have no difficulty identifying the spawn. Fish eggs are one-sixteenth inch in diameter and are at first pale amber in color, becoming still paler and more difficult to see on the second and third days. A complete spawning of a good mature female runs about 15,000 to 20,000 eggs. You may continue to dump the moss covered with eggs into your large ponds for weeks at a time."

ABOUT THREE weeks before breeding season Noble places a bushel of rotted cow manure in each corner of the ponds which are to receive the eggs. This creates microscopic marine life on which the baby fish feed for the first month of their lives. After that they are fed four times a week a mixture of one-third finely ground cottonseed meal to two-thirds number one grade middling. Other fish are never placed in the ponds with the eggs or baby fish as they would gobble them up without compunction. The parent fish would also eat the eggs in short order if they were not removed. Since Noble must of necessity be away from home most of the day, he hires a man to tend the breeding ponds all day during the spawning season.

The goldfish are a dark olive color during the first months of their lives, but about seventy per cent then turn gold. The remaining thirty per cent are sold as Baltimore minnows to sporting goods stores or to local fishermen. The goldfish are ready for market in about three months after hatching. To grade the fish for size and color Noble uses an oilcloth-covered table similar to a pool table with a hole in each corner. The fish are dumped upon the wet table surface and pushed through the proper holes into water-filled lard tins. Since fish will not die as long as their gills are wet, this short stay out of water does them no harm.

Noble is frequently asked if ice on ponds in winter will kill the fish. He has found that goldfish are healthier in winter since the cooler the water the more oxygen it will hold. "Ice is no problem as far as goldfish are concerned," he declares. "Goldfish are cold-blooded. Therefore low temperatures do not bother them. Ice is a bother since you have to break it before handling the fish. Before placing goldfish from cold to warm or warm to cold water it is advisable to "cut" the water—that is, pour half of the water containing the fish out of the pail and add water in which goldfish are to be placed until pail is full again. Leave them in this water a few minutes before the actual transfer is made. Goldfish will not stand over a ten-degree sudden change in temperature.

Noble advises hobbyists to raise aquatic plants in their ponds along with the fish as they are a source of added profit. Anacharis, cabomba, water lilies and water hyacinths are the plants most in demand. He also stocks each pond with about thirty Japanese live-bearing snails which soon multiply and are popular sellers as well as scavengers. Recently he has added giant jumbo frogs, which bring in added dividends and catch only the weak or crippled fish.

NOBLE HAS these tips about marketing goldfish: "Visit all stores in your town whose owners handle goldfish. They will buy your fish and pay you market prices. Most dealers are looking for a local supply of goldfish because if they can depend on you for their fish—or at least part of them—they do not have to buy in as large quantities as they do from dealers who cannot visit them as often as you. Buying in smaller numbers reduces their risk of loss.

"As soon as people in your community learn you raise goldfish you will begin to make retail sales. You may buy aquariums from a wholesale supply company and sell them with your goldfish to your retail customers. These methods of marketing goldfish and supplies are my own and work for me. I believe they will work any place.

"My fish are delivered to local dealers in lard tins—the number of containers depending on the size of the order. Each lard tin will hold 125 large, 150 medium or 300 small fish. On very hot days a few cubes of ice placed in the water will increase the oxygen content. A small compressor run by an electric motor from the battery of my panel truck pumps air to each lard tin through a small plastic hose on the end of which is attached a small porous stone which breaks up the air in tiny bubbles. This allows the fish to get required oxygen when crowded.

"Upon arrival at the store the contents of the can (water and fish) are poured through the net, the fish being caught and the water going through. This is done on the street where water goes on its way down the gutter. The fish are then dumped from the net into a regular bucket containing six inches of water and are carried into the store. Aquarium water is then poured into the bucket and the bucket of fish allowed to float in the aquarium for a few minutes. The fish are then poured into the aquarium."

OF SALES Noble has found that small fish total approximately seventy per cent, medium twenty per cent and large ten per cent. His price list of goldfish delivered to stores is as follows:

    Comets
Size....Per Hundred
1½—2 inches....$3.20
2—2½ inches....4.00
2½—3 inches....5.00
3—4 inches....8.00
4—5 inches....12.00
5—6 inches....32.00

    Moors
Size.... Per Hundred
1½—2 inches....$12.50
2—2½ inches....20.00
2½—3 inches....30.00

    Shuburkins
Size....Per Hundred
1½—2 inches....$8.00
2—2½ inches....12.00
2½—3 inches....18.00
3—4 inches....25.00

    Fantails
Size....Per Hundred
1½—2 inches....$8.00
2—2½ inches....12.00
2½—3 inches....18.00
3—4 inches....30.00

    Baitfish (Baltimore Minnows)
Size....Number....Price
1½—2 inches....500....$15.00
2—3 inches....500....20.00
3—4 inches....500....25.00

Noble also has small boxes made in which he packages and sells the fish food which he mixes at home. Stores stock cellophane-wrapped packages of his fade-proof gravel. Much of his success lies in the fact that he is careful at all times to sell only high-quality products whether it be fish or one of his sidelines.

The same conscientious care has gone into the preparation of the thirteen-page pamphlet, Goldfish Breeding, priced at $1, which interested beginners may order from him. In it he gives clear, concise directions which help the novice get started with a minimum outlay of money and solve ahead of time any problems which could arise. This pamphlet is available from Noble Fisheries, U.S. 60, R.F.D. 1, Midlothian, Virginia.