sunbathing goldfish?

Question
Hi Tom
thank you very much for you reply...:)
I have googled alot but everything I find is on tank life...so sorry to bug you more but for my fishs sake I will impose with a few more questions.

My pond has water plants, various objects and overhanging rocks around the shore for shade and hiding...I have fresh water waterfalling into the pond and flowing out, plus a pump that runs a waterfall (part of the day I switch it to the fountian for more turbulance.) I dont see gasping for air..  how do I know for sure the water has enough oxygen?
The water temp varies from 65 mornings to 75 afternoon. My pond is only 1' deep (we are building a deeper pond for wintering them, We are in California  so freezing over is not a problem, should we add a heater for winter?)....Does all this sound ok?  I ask because I had a couple sunbathing fish that I could see red veins in thier tails for a couple days (gone now)and some have lost scales.( but i do see them chase food pieces into the shallows on thier side.) how do I tell the difference between flashing for fun or problem?. I have had 2 that rubbed thier body then jumped to the surface. I caught them didnt see anything on them and they didnt continue doing it. Everything Ive read is WATER QUAILITY, so I bought a water test kit yesterday(and a stunning chocolate??oranda :) my water is good..

3 weeks ago its was lets put some goldfish in the pond for color ,now its watching them for hours,7 containers of food, my face 6" away from the water at feeding time inspecting every scale and fin. :))) never knew they would be so cute and full of personality...
thank you again
toni

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Followup To

Question -
Hi Tom..
Im new to goldfish (1 week)and love them already... I have a 10x10 pond ,they seem realy happy but The 2 red caps and the yellow cap(all with white bodies, about 5")spend most of the day near the surface in the direct sun.(the other color Orandas "sunbathe" but not as much. My other type goldfish hang out deeper or in the shade.  Is this ok??? I think they might be getting sunburned??  please forgive me if this is a stupid question.....
also can you direct me to info on how to tell the difference between top quality and low quality goldfish..(yeh ..Im realy getting into this:)
thank you so much for your time..
toni

Answer -
Hi Toni,
Thanx for your questions.  Even fish have different wants and desires.  Some may like to, as you put it, "sunbathe", others may prefer the cooler, deeper ends of the pond.  One thing though if too many of the fish are spending a lot of time at the top of the pond that usually means there is not enough oxygen in the water.  The fish can't get sunburned unless you don't have any floating plants or waterlily leaves to allow some shade.  Some great floating plants are water hyacinth, water lettuce, azolla.  Many of these are illegal in the deep South of the U.S. (I have no idea about your location, I'm in the U.S.).

As far as being able to determine the difference between quality and cheap gold fish remember that price does not always determine quality.  It's not a simple answer.  Americans tend to be pretentious and think the more they pay the better it is.  Don't get caught in this trap.  Take a trip around your city and check out the various locations that offer water gardening supplies and fish.  You'll soon be able to determine that Walmart and discount stores are generally not the place to buy your fish but...some of the watergardening places over charge so you have to check out the various places to see who is selling what for how much.  I started out in watergardening before I was on the Internet.  I pretty much taught myself, reading books, talking to other people and in fact, it's kind of funny, I started a wave of watergardening interest after I created my first pond in 1994.  Don't make it more difficult than it really is. Go to the Library, use Google.com, talk to people.  The Internet can be very helpful.  When I Google (Google.com) I can find pretty much everything I need to know.  I hope this helps.
Tom

Answer
Hi Toni,
Thanx for following up.  Your water quality is good.  If the fish aren't constantly swirling around the top of the pond gasping (you'll be able to tell because they gasp like we do) you'll know they need oxygen.  Buy a biological pump available at most pond stores.  Tell the garden center clerk how big your pond is (how many gallons) not only will the pump help oxygenate the pond but the filter will help keep the water clean.  Water temps sound fine and you don't have to worry about the surface freezing over.  Fish do enjoy the sun at times and will spend time in the open water out from under the shade to warm themselves up after spending a lot of time in the cool shade.  Sometimes the fish will suffer trauma when they are taken out of the aquarium put in a plastic bag and then transfered to the pond.  This will result in some loss of scales and slime.  Usually, the fish will recover from this in a few days.  If they don't there are some chemicals you can buy at the garden center that can be added to the water and help the fish recover their slime coating and build back up scales.  

Try this link.  http://www.goldfishconnection.com/

I hope this helps.
Tom