Arapaima Pond Build

[Luc70]

I guess it is a high density mix, maybe with additives to hard out differently or anything like that.
Will check. But makes the no-liner idea more attractive. Not sure also on the walls and bottom, going with something like Kaya's Arowana pond, tiled in a light color, makes the fish better viewable.

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

I heard from other arapaima keepers that arapaima's can grow to 6' in length from 5-10" in two years. You may want to reconsider the width of your pond if you plan on keeping him longer (if possible).

 

[Luc70]

I heard from other arapaima keepers that arapaima's can grow to 6' in length from 5-10" in two years. You may want to reconsider the width of your pond if you plan on keeping him longer (if possible).

He is about 3-3.5ft now. 10ft is max I can go.squeezed between two houses.
Backup plan if he outgrows is a big pond/lake at a friends house, or to build a cheap liner pond at my factory, or to have it going to one of the public aquaria here.

Waiting to get the quotation first and see what that will be.
Then race to get the details worked out and start digging.

 

[Luc70]

It will be wait and see how fast he grows and of course how he settles in his new home once finished. Not ideal, best would be a big lake, but for at least a couple of years he should be fine. After that, no way to tell now. 20x10ft hopefully keeps him comfortable, if not, it will be relocation to a more suitable place. The pond stays in use, might convert it to swimming pool if I ever get bored with fish...lol..

 

[Luc70]

Good news today is that Mr.T is chewing on pellets. So went out to buy Koi food and mixed with cheaper pellets he is happily swallowing it, spitting it out, swallowing again. Will keep an eye, but seems we can reduce the prawns, though much to his unliking it lol.
Saves me a ton of money for sure...about 10-fold less.

Bad news though is that I've put on hold the pond at home. Too costly and after talking with my boss on it he agrees that given uncertain times ahead, he appreciates my declining it.
Anyhow, this will mean that the coming two months we will further get used to each other. Learn on Mr.T's food habits and set in motion plan B, bigger pond at the factory.

Given that our fish is pretty much happy, shooting over to the corner for feeding when i show up, I think we can start digging a pond bigger than I could do at home. 10-12 ft wide, 25-30 ft long and About 5 ft deep.
Sand that comes out will be used to build up walls at the sides, back is a concrete wall, so I only have to worry about the front where I plan steel wire mesh frames to hang for jumping.
Pond will be partly done under his current temp-housing, makes it all the easier to transfer him to his new house. Just break down sandbags on one side, water will pretty much fall into the new deeper pond together with Mr. T. Take out rest of the old pond and start diging.
Then roll the remainder of the liner out in the new pond

 

[Super Turtleman]

Sounds cool. Looking forward to the project.

 

[fishwhisperer]

post the plans you have gotten from the contractor and the engineere, (not like you are pattening the plans) and we may be able to help you more, also post some pics of your site b4 your start digging, that way there is more of a "b4&after" effect, another suggestion, barry your drums at the end of the pond, maybe leave them open and put a grate bridge over them for matinance also i reccomend a 2 ft wall (min) on the edge of the tank incase another flood comes and raises the surrounding water and allows Mr.T to swim away into harms way... just a few suggestion.. please post pics!

 

[Luc70]

Thanks for the comments. I will sure make more pictures.
See if I can make some tomorrow for the pond.
As for the plans of the contractor, not much chance I think. Plans all go on the backside of an envelope if you know what I mean.
Looking forward to start digging, have to wait for a quiet day to get some of the guys to start. Do have plans of the factory, so will copy some plans in it and make some cross section cut-outs.
Will have steel wire mesh surroundings for jumping, front on hooks or rails for easy removal for feeding.
That wire mesh going up to about 2 meter will also make it flood-proof, freely letting smaller fish in to feed him, though I don't expect flooding to happen again. They started already building permanent floodwalls to secure the whole area.
Also, this might mean he will never make it to my house. By the time I would start building, he might be double in size. Will see, can't predict the future.

 

[Luc70]

Some time ago, but we have finally started digging.
There's quite some pipes and other stuff that we need to plan with, but eventually, the overall pond will be a half circle with the sharp corners filled in a bit to make it more or less an elipse.
Deepest point will be about 100 to 120cm. 60cm above the ground, 60cm into the ground. Lots of things to plan for still, but at least I'm on the way.

Will make pictures of the first digging later, almost finished the raw ground-work.
Next step will be a concrete wall for the front. That wall will be about 10 meters long, the full length of the pond. 50cm into the ground, 50 above, against the concrete pavement. So looking from the side, it would be a T-shape on it's side...Concrete pavement is about 25 cm thick so no issue with that to support the wall.

Sides are earth-dikes, same as backside, but backside earth dike is sloping down from a concrete wall/fence. Once the liner is in, the sides will be covered with grass to avoid erosion of the earth-dikes. Need to put a structure in place also that will allow me to hang steel-nets at the sides so that flooding will keep the fish in the pond, as well as jumping being covered.
Same for the front, need to check how to do that for daily use, we'll see.
Pictures later, no cable for the camera with me.

Mr. T. is doing great, had a treat from our cleaning-lady. She gets the lottery-numbers from Mr. T. and she was lucky again...So a kilogram of prawn...he loves it.

 

[Luc70]

Ok, promised pictures of the pond area and the digging done so far.
A concrete wall of 50-60cm high above the pavement, same 50cm below the pavement as the front.
Then behind that wall, liner-pond with deepest point about 120-130 cm, various levels, of dept.
Filter will be a drain-pump at the front, long hose to the back-side, feeding 2 drums to filter the rubbish out.
From there, it will be gravity fed back into the pond.
Deepest point is right behind the concrete wall, so all rubbish will collect there for easy cleaning.

You see that the temporary sandbag-pond is in the middle of the new pond.
When part of the concrete-wall is finished, we will put the liner in, then make a small opening in the old pond and let Mr. T find his way into the deeper new pond.
Will be nerve-testing job, but I think by lowering the water, then removing the sand bags, and then slowly lifting the far side of the old liner to push him to that opening.
From there, he will slide into the new pond, which we then backup with sandbags before starting to dig the second section.
Once the second section is complete, we can start rolling out the rest of the liner and fill up the rest of the pond.

Will be quite some planning to do, might take some time to finish all.

Still not sure about putting an area in that's only 20-40 cm deep for smaller fish with lots of plants for bio-filtration.
Maybe even above the waterline as a 'trickle or overflow' type of filter. Area of 3-4 square meter. Could make it filled with guppies and gravel, putting the plants in the gravel.
Water flowing in and then dropping over a wall into the main pond...

That can easily be done later..for now, hope tomorrow to get started on the concrete wall.
Cheers,
Luc