JD,
I have a friend that caught Red fish in the Gulf waters and brought them home and released them in a fresh water pond 2 years ago. He was fishing in the pond this past weekend and caught one of the Red fish. The fish had survived for two years out of salt water in pond water. The fish has gained weight and doing great. Is this normal for a salt water fish to be able to adapt to pond water?
— Water Wolf

Wolfie, are you speaking of fish that are red or redfish? Sorry, just a geeky journalism major joke there! Anyway, during my stint back in the early 1990’s as editor of the now-defunct Texas Fishing & Hunting News (I swear it wasn’t my fault!), I remember writing stories about freshwater reds in some of the reservoirs. The interesting thing here is that most osmoregulators (fish that can live both in fresh and salt like stripers, shad, steelhead, salmon, etc) need some acclimation time between the two water types. I’m surprised that your buddy’s red made it in the pond, coming direct from salt but maybe they’re just super tough, bad ass fish. Hey — where’s that pond, anyway? Just kidding!