First of the season

Points of possible interest. Columbine planted beside pot by bird maybe?? There is no Columbine in the front yard at all. Well there is now. There are two maybe year old goldfish in the pots to get the mosquito larvae. The lily blossom here matched the one in the big pond today. Must be related.
Both are my first this year.

OK, I don't know if it's inhumane or not but yes, those little fish were rescued from a spring wedding reception last year. People were leaving the reception and they didn't take the fish with them so I asked what was going to be done. They looked a little guilty and admitted they would destroy them. We took about 6. Later in the summer, the young couple dropped in and visited their fishies. I just put them in the pot, feed them slow sinking granules fish food at the same time I feed the ones in the ponds. There's no filtration of any sort.

Right now there are toadpoles in both pots, both ponds, and in the preform in the backyard. There were thousands on the pool cover but it got hot so soon they didn't have time to morph and UM, they got pumped off into the grass and died. So there's a couple thousand less toads than might have been.

NOOOOOO, we take them out when the plants start dying back and put them in the big pond. Those pots are made out of that styrofoamy stuff and NEVER would be able to stand freezing. We turn them upside down after putting the plants in the pond too.

It would be better if you did put some air in with them. They could survive in your bathtub over the winter as long as it never froze completely over and you had a hole in the ice. An air stone running in a pond will do that except in the really extreme cold like we get. For here we have to use stock tank heaters to keep a hole in the ice. With no filtration other than plant filtration water changes would also be better for the fish.

The fish will eat larve, and moss and roots of suspended water plants, and even some leaves of certain plants. you wouldn't necessarily have to feed them every day. But you could supplement a few times a week with some goldfish pellets. With no mechanical filtration overfeeding would not be good for them at all.

Could they survive without water changes and food supplementation and airation of the water? Probably. But their 'quality of life' and general health would be better with those things.

But also, if the alternative is that they would have been feeder fish for someone's Oscar, or destroyed because they fulfilled their duty at someone's wedding reception then just being in the tub with no air is better than being dead.

Wow, I can't help but think that must have been an already injured robin. I would think a healthy one could have gotten on the rim of that pot you have there, or fluttered up to the edge of the tub. Bit I'm not a bird expert, so I could be wrong.

6 goldies in there should be fine especially if you hook up some air for them. They may even eat some of the duckweed.

I like your bath tub. My inlaws in California had a bath fish pond in their back yard some thirty years ago. None of us knew what to do or how to care for pond fish. The water was always green & nasty looking.

Happy ponding,