Hi!
I finally finished my dream pond last fall, a 45,000 gallon European swim pond with spa. Half is a giant bio filter of plants and gravel, the other half a walked swim area from 4 to 7 feet. There is a spa made of stone, with jets. The fish can swim anywhere. Max temp is 85, but lower in the deep. I don't have a min yet, but it's not cold enough to snow here. I have no herons, raccoons, or turtles, no predator fish yet.... I might need one to control populations.
It turns out the only pond fish in this area are koi and goldfish. I put 5 in for the winter and had to buy giant minnow seines and herd almost 40 goldfish into them this summer. I kept 3 shubukin and missed capturing 5 more normal fish, darn it! My 5 baby bluegill and 5 sunfish purchased from a fish farm have been reproducing like crazy as are the rosy minnows. So these fish are flourishing and don't need fed. I might need a bass to clean house at this rate!
Though the pond will drop below 60, 70 atm, I bought a few yellow males guppies and yellow and red females. I've dropped off over 300 beautiful fish at the local fish store to sell, though of course they gave me nothing. I am catching as many as I can before it's cold and hope a few crossed with the male mosquito fish and live. The most lovely I've kept in a tank to bed next year.
My friend is dropping of baby chichlids since her adults will just eat them. Better to freeze than be dinner! Tropical fish have 6 months to get busy in here, but these will get one to acclimate or die. I'm not sure if this is enough time for egg layers, but might try a few that are on sale next year. Are there any rare guppy species that I could sell?
I've added a few other fish this summer that are either gone without bodies, or hiding. Out of 4 plecos, 2 I see regularly that are over a foot long. I can see their eaten algae trail! The 5th pleco in my aquarium is only 3 inches. Lol One very happy clown loach shows up in the deepest water. One chinese algae eater is almost a foot. I saw him for the first time in 6 months last week, on a white rock. These are the missing fish that left no bodies as I usually see: my only koi, small yellow butterfly, 1 black Molly, 1 yellow spotted catfish, and sadly 3 tall finned sharks. The sharks and koi were seen for a week in the deepest area, then out of sight. :'( I only hope that next spring they appear.
I'd really be interested in breeding a few species of fish next year since whatever I put in here in breeding numbers thrives. This isn't an ordinary pond, more like a big aquarium I can snorkel in. If breeding works, maybe a partner that's biz savvy will want to ship and sell. Does anyone have suggestions?
Any suggestions on string algae control are welcome too. I've had to resort to copper, which lasts a few days only. Muck buster and barley extract failed. There are less nitites and nitrates in here than my aquarium so it's living off sunlite? I'm hand pulling 50lbs of string algae a week!
Thanks for your help!
I finally finished my dream pond last fall, a 45,000 gallon European swim pond with spa. Half is a giant bio filter of plants and gravel, the other half a walked swim area from 4 to 7 feet. There is a spa made of stone, with jets. The fish can swim anywhere. Max temp is 85, but lower in the deep. I don't have a min yet, but it's not cold enough to snow here. I have no herons, raccoons, or turtles, no predator fish yet.... I might need one to control populations.
It turns out the only pond fish in this area are koi and goldfish. I put 5 in for the winter and had to buy giant minnow seines and herd almost 40 goldfish into them this summer. I kept 3 shubukin and missed capturing 5 more normal fish, darn it! My 5 baby bluegill and 5 sunfish purchased from a fish farm have been reproducing like crazy as are the rosy minnows. So these fish are flourishing and don't need fed. I might need a bass to clean house at this rate!
Though the pond will drop below 60, 70 atm, I bought a few yellow males guppies and yellow and red females. I've dropped off over 300 beautiful fish at the local fish store to sell, though of course they gave me nothing. I am catching as many as I can before it's cold and hope a few crossed with the male mosquito fish and live. The most lovely I've kept in a tank to bed next year.
My friend is dropping of baby chichlids since her adults will just eat them. Better to freeze than be dinner! Tropical fish have 6 months to get busy in here, but these will get one to acclimate or die. I'm not sure if this is enough time for egg layers, but might try a few that are on sale next year. Are there any rare guppy species that I could sell?I've added a few other fish this summer that are either gone without bodies, or hiding. Out of 4 plecos, 2 I see regularly that are over a foot long. I can see their eaten algae trail! The 5th pleco in my aquarium is only 3 inches. Lol One very happy clown loach shows up in the deepest water. One chinese algae eater is almost a foot. I saw him for the first time in 6 months last week, on a white rock. These are the missing fish that left no bodies as I usually see: my only koi, small yellow butterfly, 1 black Molly, 1 yellow spotted catfish, and sadly 3 tall finned sharks. The sharks and koi were seen for a week in the deepest area, then out of sight. :'( I only hope that next spring they appear.
I'd really be interested in breeding a few species of fish next year since whatever I put in here in breeding numbers thrives. This isn't an ordinary pond, more like a big aquarium I can snorkel in. If breeding works, maybe a partner that's biz savvy will want to ship and sell. Does anyone have suggestions?
Any suggestions on string algae control are welcome too. I've had to resort to copper, which lasts a few days only. Muck buster and barley extract failed. There are less nitites and nitrates in here than my aquarium so it's living off sunlite? I'm hand pulling 50lbs of string algae a week!
Thanks for your help!
