10ft dia, 4 ft height pond suggestions for breeders

[nixson]

Hello all,

i'm in the process of setting up a small intense tilapia farm, for fun first and then maybe one day for profit. The system consists (or will consist )of 6 heavily stocked ponds, one very lightly stocked pond with the brood stock, one for any emergencies and the last one id like to do something ornamental for fun.

i'm wondering what i could do in a 10ft diameter, 4 foot deep pond, i estimate about 2000 gallons of h20.

The pic shows their size, and the future set up, i still have to plumb them all together, bury the sump and attach the circulation pump. Will also eventually cover it with shade cloth.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what i can put in the ornamental tank for breeding purposes?

i was thinking 6 young arowana's - till a get a few to pair off? -

or i was thinking 6 stingrays?

once i have a pair or two i would removed the rest.

this pond will have its own filtration system, and wont be subject to the intensive conditions of the tilapia.

any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[tscharf]

wow, thats awesome, deff subscribed... id say you may be able to do both being that the rays would stay at the bottomg and the aros at the top and since rays are easier to breed they may be ur best bet, just make sure u remove the pups as soon as their born and remove the eggs from the father aro whens hes holding them in his mouth and put them in a tumbler so that the rays dont get them.

 

[nixson]

thanks!
i'm wondering about the access to the rays, it would be very difficult to see when a ray is preggers... etc. also with arro's i would have to cover - with netting- which would make looking in a bit harder. would you be ok with the stocking density of 12 juvies all at once? i'll have a 30 gallon barrel with bio-balls.

 

[nixson]

the 9th pond is just for fun, so maybe even a marine shark or two?

 

[tscharf]

filtering 2000gal? whats ur turnover rate gunna be like... id say 12 juvies would be fine until u get some pairing then u could knock it down to 6 or so, but even at 12 they may be ok for life.... id go with something like 50gal of bioballs, and maybe a drip system so u get a constant supply of fresh water into the tank something like 2-3gals and hour

 

[nixson]

i would have a 1321 GHP viaa aqua pump dedicated for the ornamental pond. would also have 4 air stones availible to the pond from a blower that is dedicated to the whole system. my filtration is limited to 30 gallons because thats the size of the barrel. i guess i could also put large sponge filters on the ends of the airstones coming from the blower. you dont think thats over kill?

 

[tscharf]

personnally id invest in getting 1 more pump and one more barrel and use that to run your ornamental pond for a total of 60gal and 2600gph roughly. most people try for a turn around rate of about 5x and even with 2 pumps ur not achieving even 1.5x, but i think with two barrels youd be ok, might want to think about doing 30gals of scrubbies as well in a wet dry format as biological bacteria tends to do better in that kind of setup.... look into the DIY sumps and take your ideas from there

 

[nixson]

i hear ya. when i said bio balls- i totally ment scrubbies dont want to go to huge on this fun tank (in terms of time or money). may just cut the stocking to half. stick to either rays or arrows.

 

[tscharf]

ah yea gotcha scrubbies should work fine, in one of the DIY tanks dude used scrubbies and 55gallon drums and had a regulator on the pumps that would raise and lower the water in the tanks so that they would get oxygen everynow and then

 

[nixson]

UPDATE: so i have added 4 baby arowanas over a period of 1 week. 2 more to go. 1 at at time. I also added 1 stingray: which was dead within 24 hours.

the ray looked to be in excellent condition in the store and the store owner claims he has been in contact with other buyers of the lot who say theirs are doing well.

i'm thinking the direct sunlight may be making the temperature too warm for the ray. I have not measured max water temp yet, will do tomorrow- but of course with direct sunlight i do expect it to get warm. I didnt expect a problem as the tilapia in the other ponds do just fine. The fox tail and floating plants are growing quickly, so the temp should be easier to keep down- with the extra shade.

questions:
1) These rays were imported from columbia. Google searches say they come from "northern rivers" in columbia- does anyone think they need cooler temps? i believe Their scientific name is Magdalena Freshwater Stingray (Potamotrygon magdalenae)

2) has anyone bred this species before? i don't want to waste my time with a species that doesn't/hasn't been breed in captivity.

thanks in advance.