Well, as I may have eluded to in another post, after over 46 years of keeping fish things are thinning out a lot.
Two years ago my wife and I made the decision to buy a holiday home as neither of us are getting any younger and as retirement approaches we want to start doing more things we love together.
Yes, I love fishkeeping, however for the last 26 years my wife has been a fishkeepers wife, as it’s not a hobby she loves the same way I do.
I hadn’t really thought about it a lot but 18 months ago I was running an outdoor koi pond, two large tanks in our house (one 6x2x2, one 4x2x2) and a fish house 34 ft x8ft, in which I had 18 tanks ranging from multiple 6x2x2 to little 10g tanks, and of course my indoor tropical pond. The pond was built at one end of the insulated fish house shed and it was wood built, standing 4ft tall, it was filled 3 ft deep with viewing window.
I made a decision to cut back the number of tanks as we were spending more weekends away and these were maintenance days! So over the year I have cut my tanks right down to just six including the two indoors. Generally keeping the largest six running.
However, all the monsters were still in the pond, which was built 14 years ago, out of wood. It stands 4ft deep although is filled to 3ft. It’s just over 10 ft long and almost 7 ft wide, with a viewing window in the front. Whilst it’s been running 14 years I have had my share of issues (which you can see in other threads) but an exceptional amount of pleasure from it.
However, I knew the insulation was thinning (the bottom was originally insulated with old carpets and and underlay to stop the cold from the concrete base seeping up, the pond walls were insulated and the shed itself insulated. The pond has never been heated as the room was generally around 72 degrees as all the individual tanks were heated. The pond has run at 80 in summer and 68-70 in winter for all those years.
Until I started removing tanks!
The more tanks I closed down, the colder the shed got. Last year the tank winter temp was 65 and this year generally it’s been around 60 with the occasional low of 58.
Now these are all tropical fish, mostly catfish.
The one loss was unfortunately the jelly cat.
Well, finally after 14 years the pond back wall has rotted at a corner, so it started to push outwards against the shes wall unnoticed. Until 3 weeks ago I noticed a drop in temperature and a slight breeze, and realized that the back wall of the shed had gone and the pond was bowing outwards.
Fortunately the shed was built up against my boundary fence which was built with 4x2 posts. So the, pond had pushed out almost 10” but fortunately the liner still held.
I dropped the water level to 2 ft and had to start the daunting task of either rehoming the fish or figuring out how to fix it.
Thankfully I have a relative 80 mile away that has built his own shed, and pond, and would love to keep monster catfish.
So I have made the hardest decision and decided to close down the pond and rehome my monsters.
Fish list:
Marmoratus cat 28”
Marmoratus cross 20”
Tiger shovelnose cat 22”
Tiger shovelnose cat 14”
Lima shovelnose cat 20”
Ripsaw cat 26”
Asian redtail cat 20”
Asian redtail cat 18”
Hemibagrus nemurus 12”
Hemibagrus filamentus 14”
Asian upside down cat (male) 9”
Asian upside down cat (female) 16”
Granulosus cat 12”
Clarias cat 12” x2
Pim Albo 12” x 5
Gibbiceps plec 24” x 3
Gibbiceps plec 10” x 2
Synodontis featherfin 9” x 3
Synodontis schall 10”
Six bar distichodus 12”
Hampala barb 12”
Wallagonia micropogon 20”
All we’re living happily together for the past number of years but obviously we’re not getting any smaller so would have needed thinning out soon.
Moving them was a military operation!
Two years ago my wife and I made the decision to buy a holiday home as neither of us are getting any younger and as retirement approaches we want to start doing more things we love together.
Yes, I love fishkeeping, however for the last 26 years my wife has been a fishkeepers wife, as it’s not a hobby she loves the same way I do.
I hadn’t really thought about it a lot but 18 months ago I was running an outdoor koi pond, two large tanks in our house (one 6x2x2, one 4x2x2) and a fish house 34 ft x8ft, in which I had 18 tanks ranging from multiple 6x2x2 to little 10g tanks, and of course my indoor tropical pond. The pond was built at one end of the insulated fish house shed and it was wood built, standing 4ft tall, it was filled 3 ft deep with viewing window.
I made a decision to cut back the number of tanks as we were spending more weekends away and these were maintenance days! So over the year I have cut my tanks right down to just six including the two indoors. Generally keeping the largest six running.
However, all the monsters were still in the pond, which was built 14 years ago, out of wood. It stands 4ft deep although is filled to 3ft. It’s just over 10 ft long and almost 7 ft wide, with a viewing window in the front. Whilst it’s been running 14 years I have had my share of issues (which you can see in other threads) but an exceptional amount of pleasure from it.
However, I knew the insulation was thinning (the bottom was originally insulated with old carpets and and underlay to stop the cold from the concrete base seeping up, the pond walls were insulated and the shed itself insulated. The pond has never been heated as the room was generally around 72 degrees as all the individual tanks were heated. The pond has run at 80 in summer and 68-70 in winter for all those years.
Until I started removing tanks!
The more tanks I closed down, the colder the shed got. Last year the tank winter temp was 65 and this year generally it’s been around 60 with the occasional low of 58.
Now these are all tropical fish, mostly catfish.
The one loss was unfortunately the jelly cat.
Well, finally after 14 years the pond back wall has rotted at a corner, so it started to push outwards against the shes wall unnoticed. Until 3 weeks ago I noticed a drop in temperature and a slight breeze, and realized that the back wall of the shed had gone and the pond was bowing outwards.
Fortunately the shed was built up against my boundary fence which was built with 4x2 posts. So the, pond had pushed out almost 10” but fortunately the liner still held.
I dropped the water level to 2 ft and had to start the daunting task of either rehoming the fish or figuring out how to fix it.
Thankfully I have a relative 80 mile away that has built his own shed, and pond, and would love to keep monster catfish.
So I have made the hardest decision and decided to close down the pond and rehome my monsters.
Fish list:
Marmoratus cat 28”
Marmoratus cross 20”
Tiger shovelnose cat 22”
Tiger shovelnose cat 14”
Lima shovelnose cat 20”
Ripsaw cat 26”
Asian redtail cat 20”
Asian redtail cat 18”
Hemibagrus nemurus 12”
Hemibagrus filamentus 14”
Asian upside down cat (male) 9”
Asian upside down cat (female) 16”
Granulosus cat 12”
Clarias cat 12” x2
Pim Albo 12” x 5
Gibbiceps plec 24” x 3
Gibbiceps plec 10” x 2
Synodontis featherfin 9” x 3
Synodontis schall 10”
Six bar distichodus 12”
Hampala barb 12”
Wallagonia micropogon 20”
All we’re living happily together for the past number of years but obviously we’re not getting any smaller so would have needed thinning out soon.
Moving them was a military operation!
that weekend. 