Not sure what the seasonal changes in habits are of the newts, but I'd expect to see them again next year during the same time frame as this year. Fingers crossed.
The Ricefish are sweethearts in a small pond like that. They would do better with a handful of two of floaters like Hornwort or Guppy Grass; the females carry around a sticky mass of adhesive eggs on their anal fins, and after fertilization these are scraped off on plants where they stick until hatching. The babies are very small, and if you don't already have one I would suggest putting a block of foam on the intake of your filter to keep them from bring sucked up. They aren't the strongest of swimmers especially when very small.
Some of my ricefish females still had eggs when I removed them from the stocktanks earlier this month, water temperatures at that point were around 50F in the morning. I''ll bet yours are still spawning.
Keeping several different colour varieties together and letting them blend their bloodlines may be counterproductive if you want nice colourful fish. It's like buying the mistakes cans of paint at the hardware store and mixing them all together; rarely does anything good ever come of that. Mine are all the Kohaku Rame variety, chosen by my granddaughters. Mostly white and orange, some with some black markings; colouration much like Oranda or Shubunkin goldfish. Very pretty fish.
Are you moving yours indoors for winter or leaving them out? I'm thinking you probably get some freezing in winter? They look great in aquariums as well as ponds.
