Need Advice.....

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Oldsgirl

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 19, 2008
14
2
0
Houston, TX
Hey, I'm hoping I can get some good advice on what to do from you guys... here's my situation...

First, the background:
I have two 150 gallons tanks at my house, and an outdoor above ground pond built into my deck (about 1500 gal). The pond has maybe 6 koi (probably about 6") along with some feeder fish that got put out to pasture instead of becoming lunch. One indoor tank has cichlids, mostly convict cichlids, and a couple of other types, it's pretty busy. The other indoor tank was home to 2 pacus (about 18" or so) a tiger oscar (full grown... maybe 12"?) and a black pacu (probably about 14").

I live south of Houston, and when the hurricane came thorugh I was staying at my sister's place farther north. I came home to check up on my house after a few days, and with the power out, my bigger (and better looking :swear: grrr) pacu was dead. (note to self: don't wait until right before a storm to buy battery powered back up air pumps). The other's didn't look like they were doing well, so I threw the remaining pacu, oscar, and black pacu in the pond, becuase I figured they'd have a better chance of living in a larger volume of water. I also caught the bigger cichlids and the 1o" pleco from the other tank and put them out as well. I haven't seen the pleco since (I'm sure he's in there somewhere) and everyone is doing fine outside. It's actually nice to see the big guys out in the pond, and the koi & goldfish are big enough that they're not being bothered at all.

I had acutally built the pond for the big guys (kown as my seamonsters) back when I also had a red tailed catfish. My 150 gal was overcrowded with all 5, so I built the pond, and Spanky (rest his little catfish soul) died right before it was ready to go. With out the cat in the tank, the others are ok (water quality wise). The red tailed catfish was my favorite and I'd really love to get another one... again, I'd love if it would be able to live outside in the pond.

Ok, here's my problem.....
The fish all seem fine outside, but I don't know if they're going to be ok over the winter (or "winter" as my friends up north would call it in Texas!) Last year I kept track of it, and the lowest water temp was 59*. I kind of hate to put them back in the tank after they've been in a larger area, but on the other hand, i'm sure they'd take a smaller house over freezing to death if given a choice. I thought about running some sort of heater, but I have no idea what there is for this kind of setup, and i really can't dump a ton of money into it right now.

So what do you guys think I should do?
(sorry for the long writeup!)

thanks :)
 
Maybe insulate and throw a heater into the pond for the winter. While it's not optimal, I think they could get by with a water temp of high 60s to low 70s. Don't put them back in because the 150 is too small for the pacus alone...
 
Oldsgirl;2328566; said:
Hey, I'm hoping I can get some good advice on what to do from you guys... here's my situation...

First, the background:
I have two 150 gallons tanks at my house, and an outdoor above ground pond built into my deck (about 1500 gal). The pond has maybe 6 koi (probably about 6") along with some feeder fish that got put out to pasture instead of becoming lunch. One indoor tank has cichlids, mostly convict cichlids, and a couple of other types, it's pretty busy. The other indoor tank was home to 2 pacus (about 18" or so) a tiger oscar (full grown... maybe 12"?) and a black pacu (probably about 14").

I live south of Houston, and when the hurricane came thorugh I was staying at my sister's place farther north. I came home to check up on my house after a few days, and with the power out, my bigger (and better looking :swear: grrr) pacu was dead. (note to self: don't wait until right before a storm to buy battery powered back up air pumps). The other's didn't look like they were doing well, so I threw the remaining pacu, oscar, and black pacu in the pond, becuase I figured they'd have a better chance of living in a larger volume of water. I also caught the bigger cichlids and the 1o" pleco from the other tank and put them out as well. I haven't seen the pleco since (I'm sure he's in there somewhere) and everyone is doing fine outside. It's actually nice to see the big guys out in the pond, and the koi & goldfish are big enough that they're not being bothered at all.

I had acutally built the pond for the big guys (kown as my seamonsters) back when I also had a red tailed catfish. My 150 gal was overcrowded with all 5, so I built the pond, and Spanky (rest his little catfish soul) died right before it was ready to go. With out the cat in the tank, the others are ok (water quality wise). The red tailed catfish was my favorite and I'd really love to get another one... again, I'd love if it would be able to live outside in the pond.

Ok, here's my problem.....
The fish all seem fine outside, but I don't know if they're going to be ok over the winter (or "winter" as my friends up north would call it in Texas!) Last year I kept track of it, and the lowest water temp was 59*. I kind of hate to put them back in the tank after they've been in a larger area, but on the other hand, i'm sure they'd take a smaller house over freezing to death if given a choice. I thought about running some sort of heater, but I have no idea what there is for this kind of setup, and i really can't dump a ton of money into it right now.

So what do you guys think I should do?
(sorry for the long writeup!)

thanks :)
Click to expand...
welcome ... oldsgirl ... i am sorry you lost your pacu,... and hope you get the advice you need to never go through this again,...best of luck
 
As for insulating the pond, I'm not sure what else I could do other than make a cover for it?

Here is a picture. I was going to say that this is an old pic, before the plants all filled out, but after the hurricane, it's pretty much back to looking like this again :irked:
It is built with 8' landscape timbers, and goes to the ground (the deck is about 6" up, it was pulled up in that section when I bought the house, so I decided to add the pond when I re-did the deck). There is a layer of carpeting under the liner.
P1011369.jpg


I don't have any good pictures of the tank with the seamonsters in their old home
P1011393.jpg

Thats the best i have (the one on the right, without the bulldog underbite from hell, is the one that died
side note: do you have an award for more boring/worst tank decor?? ;)
(this when when I was deciding if I wanted anything in this tank or not)

This is the other tank, with the cichlids (well...before the cichlids were added)
P1011430.jpg
 
Hi Oldsgirl, I lost my 17" Giraffe cat and 16" Red tail to IKE. Wish I had a pond ready or was better prepared to get through a super extended power outage... Count that as lesson learned.
 
that's a good idea with the bubble wrap, I hadn't through of that for the surface.
How would I heat it though? What kind of heater would be effective in something that size without being insanely expensive to run?
 
It might be easier to buy a piece of foamboard to cover the top of the tank. Not sure how the price compares to bubble wrap though. I know they make heaters in the 500-1200 watt range; you'd have to check the pond forums to see what people use for something that size though.
 
my house is gas powered.

There are some left over pieces of what look like pool equipment (actually, I think it was for a hot tub) and my neighbor said part of it was a heater. It looks pretty old, but would something like this work for a pond (assuming you kept it regulated somehow?) I know nothing about pools and stuff, I've never lived anywhere that had them (lol, I think when it comes to pools, boats, and horses, you're just better off having friends that have them, lol)
 
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