FISH FOR POND

[abominus]

This is some of the best advice you can get on here. Get to a point where you can meet the needs of fish then start doing research. Granted I’m guilty of doing a lot of research on red tail catfish and other monster fish but the key is waiting until you’re ready to get one before pulling the trigger. I’m 26 and I’ve wanted a red tail cat since I was 12. I’m still not ready to get one and am not even going to consider it until I get my own house and dedicated fish room.

Based on this post and previous posts it sounds like you’re pretty young. You might not be worried about the electrical bill for these fish but your parent might. If you do still live at home I would do research on how much the heaters you are planning on buying will raise the electrical bill, and run it by your parents before getting them.

Many of us who started out young on monster fish keepers didn’t get to own big fish until later in life. That is because it’s a costly hobby. That’s why I keep advising cold water fish. If you have this big of a pond already your parents must be fine with it. You could also keep fish like channel catfish and other large catfish to prepare for when you eventually can own tropical fish. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere and jumping off the deep end into 3ft+ monster fish early in the hobby is rarely a good idea. I’d slow down, start with something cold water that maybe gets between 1-2ft and work your way up.

ok i won't get other fish and yeah i am pretty young. My parents were disagreeing with the pond at first, but now they like it. They don't want me to get rid of my current stock and trust me, here in ksa, there are no concepts of ponds, like koi ones or other predator ones. The owner of my previous RTC (which died)
was shocked to see i had such a big pond. He has been in the hobby for years and couldn't find anyone with such a big pond. So even if i sell my stock, they will end up in a 6 foot tank at most

 

[FLA]

The real question is how cold does it get where you live? I don't know the weather where you are. You might want to run the pond through the winter and put a data logger in. This will tell you what is realistic. In Florida many tropical fish are farmed in dirt ponds. They are between 10,000-30,000 gallons. To get through the winter the ponds are covered with plastic. It makes a small greenhouse over each pond. Some are covered with hoops; some are covered with cables pulled across the pond and the plastic just a few feet above the water. The lower covers generally stay hotter than the hoops. In extreme cold they will add water to the pond. Even with that very few have been successful pulling RTC's through the coldest winters. When I gave my recommendations, I assumed you had the temp squared away, based on your location and the RTC.

 

[abominus]

The real question is how cold does it get where you live? I don't know the weather where you are. You might want to run the pond through the winter and put a data logger in. This will tell you what is realistic. In Florida many tropical fish are farmed in dirt ponds. They are between 10,000-30,000 gallons. To get through the winter the ponds are covered with plastic. It makes a small greenhouse over each pond. Some are covered with hoops; some are covered with cables pulled across the pond and the plastic just a few feet above the water. The lower covers generally stay hotter than the hoops. In extreme cold they will add water to the pond. Even with that very few have been successful pulling RTC's through the coldest winters. When I gave my recommendations, I assumed you had the temp squared away, based on your location and the RTC.

the lowest here gets 7 degree celsius at night, but its rare while its normally 14 degree celsius at night. the day temp is always 20 to 23 degree celsius

 

[FLA]

That is going to be tough. I would say build the pond with a greenhouse over it and put a data logger in it through the winter and one outside the greenhouse. This will give you the ambient-water differential. If you can't make it work don't lose hope. You just have to do what all of us have done at times and compromise on the dream a bit. I would look at Mahseers. They are awesome fish that are a bit more temperate. If you are successful with them, breed them and you would probably be the only guy on here to breed them. You could contribute a ton on here to our knowledge of those fish. There are lots of other monster temperate fish you could keep.

Your temps could be very good for Gymnogeophagus. Some of them are from extremely far south and handle cooler temps.