Indoor/Outdoor Experiment

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FishDog

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Jan 2, 2008
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I waited to late in the year to start this experiment. I have 2 flowers almost the same size and color. My big tank holds 40-60ppm of nitrate, I have an outdoor 700 gallon Koi pond that is heavily planted. The pond is 24" deep and stays in full sunlight. The water is always 0 nitrates. I took my female flower and put her in the Koi pond. I wanted it to last a month but the night time temps are now dipping into the 60's so the water temp is fluctuating from 82 degrees in the day time and 68 at night. Because of this I had to pull her out. The whole point of this was to see if the female would outgrow the male and see what her color would look like. After one week, of course her size did not change but her color is out of this world. This now puts a rush on my drip system and to look into a more natural sunlight type lighting. It looks like she got a nice tan even through the green water :eek: Here are the before and after pics.

Before

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After

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very cool!

i would love to have an outdoor pond someday!
 
Cool idea, but I wonder if it is part of the sunlight or if it is because of the pond being darker. Meaning that the
water is green by nature making it darker in color. Therefore darkening her.
Where as in aquariums and indoor ponds it is ones goal to make the water as bright and clear as possible, therefore lightening the ray. Just an idea.
I would love to have an outdoor pond also, but wouldn't want to have to constantly transfer fish every spring and summer. Especially once they get larger.
And I would hate to live where it doesn't get cold and snow.
 
ShadowStryder;4442527; said:
Cool idea, but I wonder if it is part of the sunlight or if it is because of the pond being darker. Meaning that the
water is green by nature making it darker in color. Therefore darkening her.
Where as in aquariums and indoor ponds it is ones goal to make the water as bright and clear as possible, therefore lightening the ray. Just an idea.
I would love to have an outdoor pond also, but wouldn't want to have to constantly transfer fish every spring and summer. Especially once they get larger.
And I would hate to live where it doesn't get cold and snow.
Click to expand...

My ray tank is pretty dimly lit so I do not think it is the darker water. I am leaning more towards natural sunlight. The crazy thing is the flower got darker but the marble got lighter. I am going to post pics of the marble in just a few.
 
I am not much into lighting but what types of lights or should I say bulbs best simulate sunlight. I do know I like the new metal halide light much better than the old color max flo bulbs I used to have on my rays. It seems to bring out true colors where as the colormax gave them a blueish/purplish color. Especially during pics.
 
I think it's a combination. I bet it has a bit to do with direct sunlight (wasn't there a breeder here who had a collapsable roof for his rays, so everyday they got direct sunlight?), and that it has a bit to do with different nutrition present in the water being outside.

Either way, this is an interesting thread.
 
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