Breeding Fish in Ponds

[Peanut_Power]

Now that its summer I am thinking about setting up a few cattle tanks outside to let my fish grow out in and possibly get to breed for me.

I'm a little blank on the filtration issue, so any help there would be appreciated. Could I just use a whole lot of live plants to help filter it?

How many people here use outdoor ponds/cattle tanks to breed your fish or just keep your fish outside for the summer? What are you keeping in them? Any success with breeding? I want to hear your stories, experiences, and suggestions!

 

[HPIZZLE]

talk to jack. hes got his plecos and gouramis outside for the summer.

 

[mqktandy]

for filtration just use those stackable drawers, a 3 drawer one has room for your first drip tray, mechanical filteration drawer and bio filter drawer. use a pond pump. Bout the cheapest best way. thats what I use on my 350 anyway

 

[Peanut_Power]

Can you give me more details info on that stackable drawer filter? Got any pictures to get me an idea of how you got it set up! Thanks btw!

The problem is this will be outside, how do I keep it from the elements?

 

[AROWANA_MAN]

Try aquaponics as a way of filtering your cattle tanks

 

[Conner]

You could use one of the 3 or 5 drawer plastic cabinets from HD/Lowes. If you use the 3-drawer, set it on top of an eggcrate to get at least the top drawer or two out of the water. Then you put filter floss in the top drawer, and biomedia in the bottom two. Run a small pond/submersible pump from inside the pond up to the top drawer.

You shouldn't need to worry about the elements, since the unit will be plastic. You might install an overflow drain below the lip of the tubs to make sure that no fish get swept over the top in case it overflows from rain.

Beyond the filter tower, just toss a whole bunch of pond plants in there. Water lettuce is pretty good, and pretty cheap. Water hyacinth looks good, so do lotus.

 

[Conner]

What kind of fish are you planning on breeding? Cichlids? Geo's? Pikes?

 

[Muske]

AC's, livebearers, and Rainbows is what I have breed in the past.

Fronts and O's love summer camp and get some awesome colors, but never got big enough to breed in my short season. A perfect GO though....

Plants will be the best for fry cover and additional/only filtration. I have never used to tray filters, but they seem to work great and are cheap. I always used a 300 as the main tank with a 74 or 100 as the filter. They both have bottom drains (rubbermaid brand) and can be placed on cinder blocks next to the main pond. I would put a ball valve on the bung of the 300 for easy detritus removal and WC's. Using the bottom drain, a few pieces of PVC will make a return that willl never overflow, unless clogged. The pump goes in the main pond and pushes into the small tank. From the drain a small 6-10" nipple goes to a 90 pointed up. Another piece of pipe in the 12-18" range (but not higher than the top edge of the smaller tank)then goes to another 90 that is pointed into the the main pond. one final piece of pipe will get the water over the edge of the 300 and drop back into the main pond. A larger than the bung dia. PVC should be used to keep the flow up. I used 1 1/2" or 2" for the returns to make sure the pump would not over flow the filters. I used a 1/4hp sump pump to run (2) 300 gal. pond each with 100 gal filters. Water was cyrstal and fish happy. One of the filters housed Fantails the other Swords and Mollies for chiclid food. No media, just a bunch of Hyacinth that I would rinse weekly.

 

[Joe Fish]

Try aquaponics as a way of filtering your cattle tanks

Aquaponics is the way to go it done not have to be fancy I grow lettuce every summer here is a pic of my simple setup I usually use sunfish this year I am using 100 goldfish