Cichlid pond leaking, almost time to bring them in anyway

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duanes

duanes

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Isla Taboga Panama via Milwaukee
Woke up to the deep part on the pond almost drained, to just a 5 inch puddle, and in the mid 50sF.
Luckily I have been preparing a 500 gal pool in the basement for the winter.

Amazingly only one death so far, a beani.
Netted out the remaining live ones from the puddle.
a male beani

3 Crenicichla so far



a number of adult ceibals





and countless fry, which look to be mostly ceibals

 
Can't beat good timing. If I were you my biggest concern would be having a whole winter to sit around and scheme an upgrade versus doing a minor repair.
 
Hey Duane, I'll be doing exactly what you did, next week sometime. Amazing how good they look when caught. I just checked the temperatures outside. The air temperature is 15.3C (59.5F). The large pond is 20.3C (68.5F) and contains 'beani', 'rivulatus', 'hartwegi', 'breidohri', 'dimerus' and Red Ceibals along with a few native species from Florida. The small pond is 13.3C (56.0F) and contains many small 'dimerus' and a few 'breidohri'. I'll clear the small pond tomorrow, the large pond later in the week. Problem is, the tanks I was going to house the pond fish in are presently occupied by other inhabitants. A little problem solving will be in order, especially in housing the 8 'beani' ranging in size from 5 - 9", and the large 'rivulatus pair. I also expect to find Ceibal and GT fry (and I hope 'beani':thumbsup:) out there. Wish me luck!!:confused:
 
Yes tank space is my problem too.
The pool is approx 500 gallons, so I'm hoping the space allows for a somewhat lower level of aggression, and since it is on the floor in my unheated basement, the water temps in the 60's F will also hopefully slow the beani up a bit.
 
Hey Duane,
Your idea of the portable pond sounds like a great idea. It could solve my problem of storing my fish over the winter. Do you mind me asking, where did you get your pond? What is the brand and is there a site on-line where I could check into purchasing one? If you don't wish to give the details in this thread, would you mind 'pm'ing me? There doesn't seem to be anything like that locally in Winnipeg. Much appreciate any info you can provide on it. Thanks.
Jim
 
I actually got the idea from a member here on MFK, from Australia (I believe) who used one for his large catfish, it is an Intex metal framed swimming pool.
I ordered it direct from Intex, cost was about $100 plus shipping from California for the 8' X 5'X 2' rectangular pool, smallest rectangular one on their site intexcorp.com (but nice footprint).
They have pools of all sizes that are carried at Walmart, Target etc, but my local stores didn't have the one I wanted, to fit in my small basement, so had to order it.
Found 3 more adult ceibals in another section of the pond this morning in maybe 4" of water, along with another 50 or so fry.

Also had the Gymnos in a stock tank that flowed into the pond, but since it didn't lose water they are still out there, plan on moving it in with the Gymnos, in the next day or 2.
Temps hit mid 40sF last night.
Took the pump from outdoors and moved it into the pool too, working well.
Here's a pic from just after it came out of the box, and was put together.
 
Thank you for the info. Really appreciate it!! I put a 300W heater in my 100G stock trough with the 'dimerus' in it last night and turned it on 'full bore'. The temperature was sitting at 22C (~74F) this morning having gone up from 13C (~56F) yesterday. So I'll monitor it for a few days and see if I can extend their stay out there some. For the big pond, I think I can stretch it 'til the weekend, with daytime temperatures in the low 70s and the night time lows 45-50s. Thanks again.
 
Looking nice Duane.

I need to bring in my remaining H. Multispinosa. Horrible year for outdoor fishkeeping.
 
Got off my arse and drained the Gymno tub this afternoon because another cold night is in the offing.
There were half dozen adult Gymno quilero in the tank, brought it in, and hooked it up to the pump circulating in the pool.
Lucked out in that the plumbing just happened to work out without mush hassle, still need to hook up the fractionator, but just getting flow from tub to pool was my main intention.
 
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