It’s finally happening, but it’s actually happening

[jjohnwm]

I've only kept bluegills, pumpkinseeds, greens and longears as they were the types I typically caught fishing where I grew up. Bluegills were aggressive; the others were very aggressive, with greens likely the worst. Pumpkinseeds were by far my favourite, as they were extremely colorful and fairly small.

Rock bass, smallmouths and largemouths are less aggressive, but with much bigger mouths they are more dangerous to tank mates in a predatory sense.

Of course we can see them from the side...in an aquarium. In a planted pond, you are looking down onto the top edge of a flattened disk. It's like trying to read a magazine or view a photograph by holding it flat and looking at the edge; far from ideal and certainly gives only a hint of its beauty.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Well it still seems sunfish are an option. The most colorful fish species so far. I like the fact that they are easy to find (Jonah’s), and should be easy to keep compared to some fish. They are hardy.

Pumpkinseeds aren’t the most colorful, and aren’t huge. It would be nice to have a couple others. Not sure if you can help, but Itsadeepbluesea wednesday13 Kelly_Aquatics Rtc/tsn

 

[Rtc/tsn]

Well it still seems sunfish are an option. The most colorful fish species so far. I like the fact that they are easy to find (Jonah’s), and should be easy to keep compared to some fish. They are hardy.

Pumpkinseeds aren’t the most colorful, and aren’t huge. It would be nice to have a couple others. Not sure if you can help, but Itsadeepbluesea wednesday13 Kelly_Aquatics Rtc/tsn

Largemouth rock and smallies are way out of the picture, I’d honestly do like only 3 or 4 koi for now and a couple schools of different sunfish species, to swim around them such as a group of pumpkinseed, a group of long ear or if you want something simple but still something that you’ll never see in the hobby for years again is a copper nose sunfish. Maybe a large school of neon tetras and some plexiglass panels for side viewing.

 

[Kelly_Aquatics]

Some sunfish get pretty large and colourful

this one was maybe 8”
Yellow perch is another good idea
I’ve caught them up to 14” and they are very colourful

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Could I do a couple koi (maybe 5) koi, 2 Pumpkinseed, 3-4 Longears, a few Mosquitofish to kick a colony off, and a yellow bullhead

 

[Rtc/tsn]

Could I do a couple koi (maybe 5) koi, 2 Pumpkinseed, 3-4 Longears, a few Mosquitofish to kick a colony off, and a yellow bullhead

Sounds good but I thought you didn’t want cats

 

[wednesday13]

My vote is for Koi and a few albino channel cats ??… sure some natives like sun fish are colorful, but they’ll quickly disappear in the black liner pond. Not much for “interactive” value either. The koi will bring alot more color and variance as well as entertainment coming up to feed. Of course u need the albino channel cats aswell ??… theyll stick out the most and eventually hand feed as well when there bigger. IMO they grow extremely slow also. Get some 6”ers and they might be 18”-20” in around 5 yrs.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Sounds good but I thought you didn’t want cats

I’m not sure on the catfish because of the spines, but I don’t think they would be able to because I would put a layer of gravel or something like that on the bottom.

My vote is for Koi and a few albino channel cats ??… sure some natives like sun fish are colorful, but they’ll quickly disappear in the black liner pond. Not much for “interactive” value either. The koi will bring alot more color and variance as well as entertainment coming up to feed. Of course u need the albino channel cats aswell ??… theyll stick out the most and eventually hand feed as well when there bigger. IMO they grow extremely slow also. Get some 6”ers and they might be 18”-20” in around 5 yrs.

I would like some sunfish, but some albino channels would be cool. Could I split the difference and go 2 pumpkinseed, 4-5 koi, and 2 channel cats?

 

[The Masked Shadow]

I think I will make the pond shape as we go, but I’m gonna push it to 12’ long by an average of 7’ wide, which gives me a total of 2200 gallons, And a floor space of 84 square feet. However, the length could change to around 10’, but that is still 70 square feet on the bottom and 1800 gallons.

The pond is not going to be where the original spot was planned. It will be in a corner of the yard so that a stream/waterfall can go into it. It will make it more natural. It is going to be a minimum of 3.5’ deep. It will not have a retaining wall, so we will need to raise it 5” off the ground so the tortoises don’t fall in.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

This is where the pond will go.