I finished revamping my outside pond. It now is about 850 gallons, i'm running the pump with water lilies in it to get it started, but there are tadpoles thriving in it now so it seems fine. My biggest problem is that the pond is near a lot of treas (OAK trees), so the leaves give the pond a lot of tannic acid. As you can imagine it means that i would need fish that are both hardy and bright enough to see in the dark water. I now have a small top pond that added the extra 50 gallons, and the pump outputs there, and the small pond splits into two small streams feeding back into the large pond. I was wondering A) if I could heat the upper pond and keep a school of cardinal tetras, which hail from the rios orinoco and negro and should if anything like the tannic acid. My only issue is that although we don't get snow, the pond might skin over once or twice in the winter, so what kind of heating could be needed? I could also bring them in to a vacant kiddie pool in my greenhouse for the winter, but i'd rather leave them where they are. B) what can can I keep in the lower, 800 gallon pond, fish and otherwise. I've considered watersnakes (mainly because I found some cb for $3.00 each, turtles (probably penn cooters or a softshell or the like, but fish have me stumped, as I want to do something really different, and i especially want to avoid plain ol' koi. i am very open, so post your ideas.
Fun With Tannic Acid/Cardinal tets in temperate US?
- Thread starter viciousconvict
- Start date
viciousconvict;511558; said:
There are plenty of natives that would be nice. think about it. if yes, then I am sure we can come up with a short list.
I am Anti-Koi myself
Go native.If you look you can probably find some colorful sunfish instead of neons.Also anti-koi.
I have a bunch of goldfish and sunfish in my pond right now including a really cool albino goldfish. Oh also a channel cat. And next year my bowfin and large mouth bass will go in. I would go native. BTW my pond is also about 800 or so gallons.
Chad
Chad
right, I am a natice fan, but i'm also pretty conscientious. Here in NC it requires 'game' fish vending license of all (and among other) things to own and keep natives outside, and I prefer not to collect, legally or illegaly. There are two main things keeping me away from the natives in the pond, although I do have several native tanks and indoor pools. 1) the commercial license means that for a dozen pumpkinseeds and bluegills, I pay a flat $250 a year, plus a 10% tax on supplies and I have to have my 'breeding and raising facilities inspected annually' at an inspector's fee of $50/hr. Which is too bad, because the original plan was pre-tty cool. It was a NE mountain biotope which was to have brook trout (as opposed to tets), a hellbender and community of perch-like fish in the main pond. Alas, it was not to be. 2)The tannic acid is quite high, which is what put me on to the idea of the amazon in the first place. Should I just try to neutralize it? that's a lot of chemicals. The channel cat might be interesting. That's Ictalurus puctatus, to be clear? I just looked up the sturgeon. The only reputable looking guy I found was int he UK, and I don't really want to ship internationally.
Also, I know nothing about keeping chondrichtys ( cartilaganeous fish), and I don't want to ruin the sturgeon.
would the bowfin handle the tannins? how about gar from the swamps?
Also, I know nothing about keeping chondrichtys ( cartilaganeous fish), and I don't want to ruin the sturgeon.
would the bowfin handle the tannins? how about gar from the swamps?
the original plan was actually a mimic of a specific pond, known as sunfish pond on the AT at the delaware water gap.
I am not exactly sure what you mean by tannic acids..... If they are just tannins from like wood or something then I think it would be fine for a bowfin. Bowfin are really hardy and live in alot of different conditions. BTW is there a way to measure this "tannic acid" or whatever it is because then I could tell you what it is in my bowfin tank.
Chad
Chad
tannic acid raises acidity, and creates tea-colored water. If you tell me the ph. in your tank ,that would be helpful. Tannic acid usually comes from oak chips being boiled in water, and is used to make leather.