I got a greenhouse for Christmas, and I'm putting a pond in it. I have a 110 gallon tub, which I'm going to plant. It has a bog filter of a couple square feet, run by a solar-powered pump, which will be heavily stuffed with reeds and irises. It won't ever freeze, but the fish are going to have to be relatively heat-tolerant for summertime.
Right now, I have 5 giant danios in QT, and I'll add them once the pond has some plants in it. I hope they'll eventually breed for me. I've also been eyeing a small livebearer that's in a pond at my local college campus. I haven't IDed them, I've only seen them from the top, but they look like platy-sized sailfin mollies. They're in with turtles, so it might be they've been selected for small size and agility. If I can find out what they are and get permission from the groundskeeper, I think I want to put some of them in here.
I'm also contemplating a couple of other options. I'd like a common goldfish, and I like weather loaches. Not sure if I can keep one or both of those, though, I'm shooting for low-maintenance so they're fine if I don't have the energy to go care for them. They'll be eating pellet food from an auto-feeder, and water changes will be limited to a couple buckets of water a week, to be used to water the cacti in the greenhouse. To help compensate for that, this is going to be very heavily planted, with some large plants rooted in goldfish-proof pots and plenty of floating plants. I'll periodically remove bundles of floating plants to compost, so that should remove some waste.
I want to keep this lightly stocked, but I'm not sure what "lightly" is for a 110 gallon planted pond. Could I keep one or two kinds of minnow-sized fish, a goldfish, and a weather loach or two?
Right now, I have 5 giant danios in QT, and I'll add them once the pond has some plants in it. I hope they'll eventually breed for me. I've also been eyeing a small livebearer that's in a pond at my local college campus. I haven't IDed them, I've only seen them from the top, but they look like platy-sized sailfin mollies. They're in with turtles, so it might be they've been selected for small size and agility. If I can find out what they are and get permission from the groundskeeper, I think I want to put some of them in here.
I'm also contemplating a couple of other options. I'd like a common goldfish, and I like weather loaches. Not sure if I can keep one or both of those, though, I'm shooting for low-maintenance so they're fine if I don't have the energy to go care for them. They'll be eating pellet food from an auto-feeder, and water changes will be limited to a couple buckets of water a week, to be used to water the cacti in the greenhouse. To help compensate for that, this is going to be very heavily planted, with some large plants rooted in goldfish-proof pots and plenty of floating plants. I'll periodically remove bundles of floating plants to compost, so that should remove some waste.
I want to keep this lightly stocked, but I'm not sure what "lightly" is for a 110 gallon planted pond. Could I keep one or two kinds of minnow-sized fish, a goldfish, and a weather loach or two?
