Hi,
my name is Adrian and Grouch is our pet Barramundi (Lates calcarifer). Grouch became so named when he shared a tank with an Oscar and my young son decided they should be Oscar and Grouch after the Sesame St characters.
My eldest son found Grouch as a fingerling (about the size of my thumbnail) in January 1997, in a pool that was drying up at the bottom of our weir. We put him in a 2' tank with Platy's, etc and within a couple of days he was eating fish bigger than himself, so he was moved to a 4' tank with larger tankmates, he soon outgrew them and the tank and it was then he went into a standard 6' (66G) tank with Oscar. It wasn't long before he couldn't reall turn around in this tank, so I had a 6' X 2' X 2' tank built for him. He lasted about 12 months in this tank living on a diet of live fish caught in the local weir before he grew too big for the tank and we had to find somewhere else for him.
I contacted a local plastics factory to see what they had available and they had a 8' diameter water tank that hadn't formed properly in the mould (the lid was incomplete). I went up to their factory and got them to cut the top off (it was now 5' deep) and then threw it on my trailer and off home.
We set the "pond" up in the backyard with about 4" of rough gravel on the bottom and a selection of driftwood and rock "snags", a few waterlillies and some large Val. The filter is a massive pond setup with interlocking sections that are run by a swimming pool filter pump 24/7 (wife hates the power bill).
Grouch is now over 4' (120cm) long and would weigh in the vicinity of 10kg. She (Barra change sex at about 3' long - all small fish are male, all really large fish are female) gets fed 2-3 times a week with live fish and is happy in her pond and has been now for about 6 years.
I have a photo we took of her when my son emptied her pond about 3 years ago and he transferred her to a wading pool while we did the big clean, and I'll try to find it if anyone is interested.
Well that is us and our Monster Fish. I have been keeping fish for about 38 years and have many tanks in my office as well as outside and planted outdoor ponds (ya gotta love living in the tropics!!!!!!!!!!!!).
Cheers
Adrian
my name is Adrian and Grouch is our pet Barramundi (Lates calcarifer). Grouch became so named when he shared a tank with an Oscar and my young son decided they should be Oscar and Grouch after the Sesame St characters.
My eldest son found Grouch as a fingerling (about the size of my thumbnail) in January 1997, in a pool that was drying up at the bottom of our weir. We put him in a 2' tank with Platy's, etc and within a couple of days he was eating fish bigger than himself, so he was moved to a 4' tank with larger tankmates, he soon outgrew them and the tank and it was then he went into a standard 6' (66G) tank with Oscar. It wasn't long before he couldn't reall turn around in this tank, so I had a 6' X 2' X 2' tank built for him. He lasted about 12 months in this tank living on a diet of live fish caught in the local weir before he grew too big for the tank and we had to find somewhere else for him.
I contacted a local plastics factory to see what they had available and they had a 8' diameter water tank that hadn't formed properly in the mould (the lid was incomplete). I went up to their factory and got them to cut the top off (it was now 5' deep) and then threw it on my trailer and off home.
We set the "pond" up in the backyard with about 4" of rough gravel on the bottom and a selection of driftwood and rock "snags", a few waterlillies and some large Val. The filter is a massive pond setup with interlocking sections that are run by a swimming pool filter pump 24/7 (wife hates the power bill).
Grouch is now over 4' (120cm) long and would weigh in the vicinity of 10kg. She (Barra change sex at about 3' long - all small fish are male, all really large fish are female) gets fed 2-3 times a week with live fish and is happy in her pond and has been now for about 6 years.
I have a photo we took of her when my son emptied her pond about 3 years ago and he transferred her to a wading pool while we did the big clean, and I'll try to find it if anyone is interested.
Well that is us and our Monster Fish. I have been keeping fish for about 38 years and have many tanks in my office as well as outside and planted outdoor ponds (ya gotta love living in the tropics!!!!!!!!!!!!).
Cheers
Adrian
