outdoor stock tanks...successes and failures
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
Why not? You could use a break from your typical Thunderdome-style tanks.Maybe a giant goldfish?
It's okay not to walk around clenched up all the time, wondering who's killing whom back in your fishtank...in fact, it's really nice.
Last edited by a moderator:
Speaking of a-hole fish...
After killing his rival male, the dominant male C.dimerus and his lady have been heaping abuse on the third-wheel female, and I will be removing her as soon as I can catch her without too much drama. The pair has produced about 80-ish fry, who have been free-swimming for a couple days. Their number is already down to about 20-25; this pair is just about the lousiest set of parents I have ever seen, fish or human, and has eaten all its progeny for the past two summers. They seem to be off to a gang-buster start this year as well.
The G.rhabdotus have at least three families of fry being shepherded about by their guardians...likely lots more, but three is the largest number I've seen at one time. Today I watched one parent with 40 or so fry approach another with almost twice as many. As the adults passed by...without incident!...the two clouds of fry merged, then separated and each parent continued on its way with what seemed to be the same number of offspring as before. I had to wonder if they were the same fry or if they just swapped out at random.
Also have lots of new Jordanella floridae, Medakas (fry so small they are almost invisible), and of course tons of Green Swordtails.
After killing his rival male, the dominant male C.dimerus and his lady have been heaping abuse on the third-wheel female, and I will be removing her as soon as I can catch her without too much drama. The pair has produced about 80-ish fry, who have been free-swimming for a couple days. Their number is already down to about 20-25; this pair is just about the lousiest set of parents I have ever seen, fish or human, and has eaten all its progeny for the past two summers. They seem to be off to a gang-buster start this year as well.
The G.rhabdotus have at least three families of fry being shepherded about by their guardians...likely lots more, but three is the largest number I've seen at one time. Today I watched one parent with 40 or so fry approach another with almost twice as many. As the adults passed by...without incident!...the two clouds of fry merged, then separated and each parent continued on its way with what seemed to be the same number of offspring as before. I had to wonder if they were the same fry or if they just swapped out at random.
Also have lots of new Jordanella floridae, Medakas (fry so small they are almost invisible), and of course tons of Green Swordtails.
Last edited:
The season for my outdoor pond and stocktanks is an unusual one in many ways. For reasons I don't understand, the Hornwort and Guppy Grass I put outdoors in most of the tanks has almost completely failed this year. Most years the Guppy Grass takes off like wildfire immediately, while the Hornwort sheds all its needles but then bounces back and overwhelms the ponds. This year, both species have virtually vanished; the inground pond normally needs a minimum of two purges during which at least a couple bushels of Hornwort is ruthlessly removed and composted, whereas this year it is open water.
Other plants...Duckweed, Cattails, Papyrus, Wild Garlic and others...are thriving, as is Hair Algae. The latter is pulled by the handful from various stocktanks to be thrown into the two tanks containing Jordanella Flagfish and a new bloodline/strain of Ameca splendens I recently got. Both species eat the stuff as fast as I provide it. Amecas are especially ravenous of the stuff; the young are born live at a size of .5 or even .75 inches, and are fully capable of eating adult food...hair algae!...immediately.
The Medaka tank is so full of fry of various sizes that I am puzzled how they survive. In other years the tank is thickly choked with plant life, and yet relatively few fry are seen or caught at summer's end. This year the plant life is sparse and yet the fry are everywhere.
The Gymno.rhabdotus are their usual productive selves. This year they have an 8-foot-round stock tank all to themselves. At any given moment I can usually spot 4, 5 or even 6 family groups of parents and fry milling about simultaneously. Some parents seem like good neighbours and friends; the adults mix amicably and the schools of fry merge into one large group, but moments later as they continue on their separate ways they split up again, all with no aggression. But other mixes do not work as well; some pairs of parents remain very aloof and keep their fry well away from others, and also keep other adults away with determined charges. At first I thought that the "friendly neighbours" would be a single male and two females with their respective broods, but careful observation shows that there are definitely two pairs involved. Sadly, these assorted interactions are not as easily studied from above as they would be in an aquarium. There are also numerous larger fry from earlier spawns now on their own and moving randomly about. This stock tank is a maze of rocks, wood, pipes, hair algae, cattails, papyrus, even a couple trays of Vallisneria; the fish have plenty of opportunity to seize and protect territories...but most of them roam around seemingly randomly with their broods, resulting in interactions that vary from totally benign to fairly vicious. They'd better watch themselves; one of the things I like most about these fish is their generally calm and unaggressive (for cichlids) demeanour. If they start to turn into buttheads like most other cichlids...I will lose interest. Maybe
FINWIN
will take the lot of them? Depending upon survival, I'll have several hundred, and my freezer is mostly full. Hmmm...cichlids as catfish bait, perhaps?
The Goldfish in the inground pond engaged in numerous spawning frenzies throughout the summer, but with no hornwort thickets in which to scatter their eggs they have instead been plunging into the cattails along one side of the pond and wormed their way well into the vertical tangle to lay. I have seen no fry at all; the open water makes them easy for the adults to pick off so thankfully I will have no worries housing another goldfish glut this year. In terms of enjoyment derived per unit of effort expended...Goldfish are contenders for the top crown. The gentle bubbling and gurgling of a school of Goldies snatching up food as you toss it into the pond is incomparable. And I don't care if they are as common as stink...they are peaceful (i.e. stress-relieving, not stress-inducing) and beautiful.
And, finally...as usual...my Cichlasome dimerus have enjoyed the summer in their spacious 6-foot tank...have produced and hatched at least 2 broods of eggs of which I am aware...and have eaten apparently every dang one of their offspring! Third year in a row of this nonsense; I'm getting thoroughly fed up with those fish.
If I take another pic of them it will probably show a thawed dimerus corpse impaled on a hook, protruding from the mouth of a big Channel Cat.
It's not even August yet, and already nighttime temperatures are well down into the single digits some nights. Last night got down to 7C, with water temperatures less than 10C when I checked this morning. Of course, daytime will rocket back up into the 20's. Not a problem, yet, but...the end is in sight...all those almost-empty tanks in the basement will be filling up sooner than later.
Other plants...Duckweed, Cattails, Papyrus, Wild Garlic and others...are thriving, as is Hair Algae. The latter is pulled by the handful from various stocktanks to be thrown into the two tanks containing Jordanella Flagfish and a new bloodline/strain of Ameca splendens I recently got. Both species eat the stuff as fast as I provide it. Amecas are especially ravenous of the stuff; the young are born live at a size of .5 or even .75 inches, and are fully capable of eating adult food...hair algae!...immediately.
The Medaka tank is so full of fry of various sizes that I am puzzled how they survive. In other years the tank is thickly choked with plant life, and yet relatively few fry are seen or caught at summer's end. This year the plant life is sparse and yet the fry are everywhere.
The Gymno.rhabdotus are their usual productive selves. This year they have an 8-foot-round stock tank all to themselves. At any given moment I can usually spot 4, 5 or even 6 family groups of parents and fry milling about simultaneously. Some parents seem like good neighbours and friends; the adults mix amicably and the schools of fry merge into one large group, but moments later as they continue on their separate ways they split up again, all with no aggression. But other mixes do not work as well; some pairs of parents remain very aloof and keep their fry well away from others, and also keep other adults away with determined charges. At first I thought that the "friendly neighbours" would be a single male and two females with their respective broods, but careful observation shows that there are definitely two pairs involved. Sadly, these assorted interactions are not as easily studied from above as they would be in an aquarium. There are also numerous larger fry from earlier spawns now on their own and moving randomly about. This stock tank is a maze of rocks, wood, pipes, hair algae, cattails, papyrus, even a couple trays of Vallisneria; the fish have plenty of opportunity to seize and protect territories...but most of them roam around seemingly randomly with their broods, resulting in interactions that vary from totally benign to fairly vicious. They'd better watch themselves; one of the things I like most about these fish is their generally calm and unaggressive (for cichlids) demeanour. If they start to turn into buttheads like most other cichlids...I will lose interest. Maybe
FINWIN
will take the lot of them? Depending upon survival, I'll have several hundred, and my freezer is mostly full. Hmmm...cichlids as catfish bait, perhaps? The Goldfish in the inground pond engaged in numerous spawning frenzies throughout the summer, but with no hornwort thickets in which to scatter their eggs they have instead been plunging into the cattails along one side of the pond and wormed their way well into the vertical tangle to lay. I have seen no fry at all; the open water makes them easy for the adults to pick off so thankfully I will have no worries housing another goldfish glut this year. In terms of enjoyment derived per unit of effort expended...Goldfish are contenders for the top crown. The gentle bubbling and gurgling of a school of Goldies snatching up food as you toss it into the pond is incomparable. And I don't care if they are as common as stink...they are peaceful (i.e. stress-relieving, not stress-inducing) and beautiful.
And, finally...as usual...my Cichlasome dimerus have enjoyed the summer in their spacious 6-foot tank...have produced and hatched at least 2 broods of eggs of which I am aware...and have eaten apparently every dang one of their offspring! Third year in a row of this nonsense; I'm getting thoroughly fed up with those fish.
If I take another pic of them it will probably show a thawed dimerus corpse impaled on a hook, protruding from the mouth of a big Channel Cat.It's not even August yet, and already nighttime temperatures are well down into the single digits some nights. Last night got down to 7C, with water temperatures less than 10C when I checked this morning. Of course, daytime will rocket back up into the 20's. Not a problem, yet, but...the end is in sight
...all those almost-empty tanks in the basement will be filling up sooner than later.
Last edited:
Bearing in mind that I don't buy fish by mail, it can be difficult for me to sometimes find some of the staples of the hobby (let alone rarities!) in the LFS. I don't often venture into the steaming quagmire of humanity that is Winnipeg, but when I do I always check out one or two shops in case they have something I want. And yesterday I found a tank full of skinny and overpriced Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis). Score! I only ever see the albino version of this old favourite being offered, but these were the much more attractive natural variety. I scooped up a half-dozen, doing my best to pick out 2M and 4F. They were installed in a rain barrel at the bottom of one of my downspouts, which has contained only a few guppies this summer as a mosquito control measure. The surface of the water is heavily overgrown with Duckweed, and it has a good growth of hair algae.
The fish are about 1.75 - 2 inches in overall length; they look okay but far from great. The plan is to fatten them up for another month or so outdoors, then move them downstairs into a quarantine tank in my cooler basement to overwinter them. If all goes to plan, they will get their own proper stocktank outdoors next summer.
It's been less than 24 hours since I got them home...and it's already not going according to the plan. This morning I peeked into the barrel and was greeted by the sight of a nice gooey, gelatinous bubblenest in the duckweed. At that point they had been in there about 12 hours! I hadn't even offered them food yet, although there were mosquito wigglers and other small life in there for them to snack on.
If they successfully hatch a brood in there, I'll likely lose many of the youngsters to predation by the guppies, but the ones that avoid that fate will likely do okay with no supplemental feeding by me. The fry are very small, but I have a stocktank full of Medakas (Oryzias) who also produce tiny fry and there are many hundreds in there now, many of which are 3x larger than others and have obviously fed and grown well. I'm just never pleased to see a new crop of small fry this late in the summer, knowing that I will be hard-pressed to catch them out of that barrel in a few weeks.
But it's great to have the Paradises again; they're old friends. They were one of the few species of fish which I kept for a number of years when school, work and moving around made a deep commitment into aquariums impossible; I kept a single tank and really wasn't much of an aquarist at all, but these guys kept me from actually being...a non-aquarist!
The fish are about 1.75 - 2 inches in overall length; they look okay but far from great. The plan is to fatten them up for another month or so outdoors, then move them downstairs into a quarantine tank in my cooler basement to overwinter them. If all goes to plan, they will get their own proper stocktank outdoors next summer.
It's been less than 24 hours since I got them home...and it's already not going according to the plan. This morning I peeked into the barrel and was greeted by the sight of a nice gooey, gelatinous bubblenest in the duckweed. At that point they had been in there about 12 hours! I hadn't even offered them food yet, although there were mosquito wigglers and other small life in there for them to snack on.
If they successfully hatch a brood in there, I'll likely lose many of the youngsters to predation by the guppies, but the ones that avoid that fate will likely do okay with no supplemental feeding by me. The fry are very small, but I have a stocktank full of Medakas (Oryzias) who also produce tiny fry and there are many hundreds in there now, many of which are 3x larger than others and have obviously fed and grown well. I'm just never pleased to see a new crop of small fry this late in the summer, knowing that I will be hard-pressed to catch them out of that barrel in a few weeks.
But it's great to have the Paradises again; they're old friends. They were one of the few species of fish which I kept for a number of years when school, work and moving around made a deep commitment into aquariums impossible; I kept a single tank and really wasn't much of an aquarist at all, but these guys kept me from actually being...a non-aquarist!
While puttering around the inground pond today, I found a nice big patch of Hornwort which had somehow grown to about 3 x 3 feet in size without my noticing it. Unlike typical Hornwort thickets which are floating right at the surface, this stuff was loosely anchored on the bottom and much less obvious. I have no idea why I almost lost it this year but it is now well on its way to "time to compost!" levels.
The big surprise was my water lily. After several years of a single water lily being divided and then re-divided...last year they all failed to grow. This spring I bought two new ones, but these were sold complete with roots and several lilypads attached; usually they are simply received as tubers. These things looked terrible, and the existing leaves (pads) quickly softened and fell apart. But new ones began to appear quickly, and this morning I was greeted with my first bloom from the new plants.
My previous lilies didn't even bloom until their third year in the pond, and their blooms were quite a bit smaller than this one. I'm pretty pleased with it.
The other one was placed in my largest stock tank, and although a bloom has not yet opened there is a bud approaching the surface, so I expect a beautiful flower there soon as well.
When a plant grows and does well under my inept care...you know it's tough!
The big surprise was my water lily. After several years of a single water lily being divided and then re-divided...last year they all failed to grow. This spring I bought two new ones, but these were sold complete with roots and several lilypads attached; usually they are simply received as tubers. These things looked terrible, and the existing leaves (pads) quickly softened and fell apart. But new ones began to appear quickly, and this morning I was greeted with my first bloom from the new plants.
My previous lilies didn't even bloom until their third year in the pond, and their blooms were quite a bit smaller than this one. I'm pretty pleased with it.
The other one was placed in my largest stock tank, and although a bloom has not yet opened there is a bud approaching the surface, so I expect a beautiful flower there soon as well.
When a plant grows and does well under my inept care...you know it's tough!
Well, I am officially ticked off. The last picture I posted of my goldfish...is the last picture of my goldfish. When Duke and I stepped out the door yesterday, he immediately bristled and rocketed for the pond, barking furiously. I had scanned the yard for bears as I always do before taking him out...it's getting to be that time of year when they are constantly on the prowl for food...but I hadn't noticed that the metal heron statue in my pond was now accompanied by a live friend.
A Great Blue Heron is a big-ass bird, and this one took off squawking indignantly and squirting about a cupful of liquid poop into the pond as it went. As Duke continued on to the limit of his electric collar doing the canine equivalent of "...and stay out!" I approached the pond with dread.
No movement. No fish. Nothing. Even the water lily was in a state of disarray, leaves all tangled up, its single beautiful bloom tattered and ruined.
A couple days back I had noticed that I could only count 26 big goldfish in there. I had put in 30 in spring, and regularly counted and inspected them; easy to do as they are...were...so friendly and outgoing and unafraid that they rushed forward for feeding whenever I walked up. As soon as they began swimming en masse in the same direction, it was pretty easy to count them down. So, when 4 mysteriously vanished, I was a bit concerned. Surely not a bear, no other damage was visible and bears are not neat and tidy. A mink? That's been a problem in the past, but not for a couple years now. Unsure of the nature of the problem...I did nothing...
And now this! Herons are cautious and wary birds, and don't allow close approach by people. When fishing or canoeing, getting within 50 or 75 yards of a live one is usually the best one can hope for. My pond...really just a puddle in the grand scheme of things, maybe about 11 x 15 feet...is only 20 yards from my back door and deck. In the warm weather, Duke and my wife and I spend a lot of time outdoors, and are constantly going in and out that door. Herons have never even been on my radar.
So this, like most of the other things that happen to our fish, is entirely down to operator error...negligence, complacency, carelessness. My fault when it comes right down to it. The fish weren't fancy or rare or expensive; I got them a couple years ago for free from a neighbour, who bought them for pennies apiece from the feeders tank at PetSmart. But they were now much bigger, some in the 9 - 10 inch size range, and I had grudgingly admitted that I was really falling for them. I chortled to the wife every time we sat by the pond how lovely they were, how peaceful and relaxing it was to watch them gliding around, how nice not to fret about aggression or predation or special food needs or...anything, really. Keep calm and watch the fish. Ommmmmm....
I always roll my eyes and chuckle when I read about the latest hijinks in the tanks of psychotic cichlids owned by
FINWIN
and others; the constant violence and bloodshed brings to mind Sons Of Anarchy or maybe The Boys...and now my pond has turned into Tokyo, right after Godzilla leaves. Complete destruction.
I have to figure out a way to carefully turn this into a teaching moment when I tell my granddaughters; they really loved those fish.
A Great Blue Heron is a big-ass bird, and this one took off squawking indignantly and squirting about a cupful of liquid poop into the pond as it went. As Duke continued on to the limit of his electric collar doing the canine equivalent of "...and stay out!" I approached the pond with dread.
No movement. No fish. Nothing. Even the water lily was in a state of disarray, leaves all tangled up, its single beautiful bloom tattered and ruined.
A couple days back I had noticed that I could only count 26 big goldfish in there. I had put in 30 in spring, and regularly counted and inspected them; easy to do as they are...were...so friendly and outgoing and unafraid that they rushed forward for feeding whenever I walked up. As soon as they began swimming en masse in the same direction, it was pretty easy to count them down. So, when 4 mysteriously vanished, I was a bit concerned. Surely not a bear, no other damage was visible and bears are not neat and tidy. A mink? That's been a problem in the past, but not for a couple years now. Unsure of the nature of the problem...I did nothing...
And now this! Herons are cautious and wary birds, and don't allow close approach by people. When fishing or canoeing, getting within 50 or 75 yards of a live one is usually the best one can hope for. My pond...really just a puddle in the grand scheme of things, maybe about 11 x 15 feet...is only 20 yards from my back door and deck. In the warm weather, Duke and my wife and I spend a lot of time outdoors, and are constantly going in and out that door. Herons have never even been on my radar.
So this, like most of the other things that happen to our fish, is entirely down to operator error...negligence, complacency, carelessness. My fault when it comes right down to it. The fish weren't fancy or rare or expensive; I got them a couple years ago for free from a neighbour, who bought them for pennies apiece from the feeders tank at PetSmart. But they were now much bigger, some in the 9 - 10 inch size range, and I had grudgingly admitted that I was really falling for them. I chortled to the wife every time we sat by the pond how lovely they were, how peaceful and relaxing it was to watch them gliding around, how nice not to fret about aggression or predation or special food needs or...anything, really. Keep calm and watch the fish. Ommmmmm....
I always roll my eyes and chuckle when I read about the latest hijinks in the tanks of psychotic cichlids owned by
FINWIN
and others; the constant violence and bloodshed brings to mind Sons Of Anarchy or maybe The Boys...and now my pond has turned into Tokyo, right after Godzilla leaves. Complete destruction.I have to figure out a way to carefully turn this into a teaching moment when I tell my granddaughters; they really loved those fish.
Well, I am officially ticked off. The last picture I posted of my goldfish...is the last picture of my goldfish. When Duke and I stepped out the door yesterday, he immediately bristled and rocketed for the pond, barking furiously. I had scanned the yard for bears as I always do before taking him out...it's getting to be that time of year when they are constantly on the prowl for food...but I hadn't noticed that the metal heron statue in my pond was now accompanied by a live friend.
A Great Blue Heron is a big-ass bird, and this one took off squawking indignantly and squirting about a cupful of liquid poop into the pond as it went. As Duke continued on to the limit of his electric collar doing the canine equivalent of "...and stay out!" I approached the pond with dread.
No movement. No fish. Nothing. Even the water lily was in a state of disarray, leaves all tangled up, its single beautiful bloom tattered and ruined.
A couple days back I had noticed that I could only count 26 big goldfish in there. I had put in 30 in spring, and regularly counted and inspected them; easy to do as they are...were...so friendly and outgoing and unafraid that they rushed forward for feeding whenever I walked up. As soon as they began swimming en masse in the same direction, it was pretty easy to count them down. So, when 4 mysteriously vanished, I was a bit concerned. Surely not a bear, no other damage was visible and bears are not neat and tidy. A mink? That's been a problem in the past, but not for a couple years now. Unsure of the nature of the problem...I did nothing...
And now this! Herons are cautious and wary birds, and don't allow close approach by people. When fishing or canoeing, getting within 50 or 75 yards of a live one is usually the best one can hope for. My pond...really just a puddle in the grand scheme of things, maybe about 11 x 15 feet...is only 20 yards from my back door and deck. In the warm weather, Duke and my wife and I spend a lot of time outdoors, and are constantly going in and out that door. Herons have never even been on my radar.
So this, like most of the other things that happen to our fish, is entirely down to operator error...negligence, complacency, carelessness. My fault when it comes right down to it. The fish weren't fancy or rare or expensive; I got them a couple years ago for free from a neighbour, who bought them for pennies apiece from the feeders tank at PetSmart. But they were now much bigger, some in the 9 - 10 inch size range, and I had grudgingly admitted that I was really falling for them. I chortled to the wife every time we sat by the pond how lovely they were, how peaceful and relaxing it was to watch them gliding around, how nice not to fret about aggression or predation or special food needs or...anything, really. Keep calm and watch the fish. Ommmmmm....
I always roll my eyes and chuckle when I read about the latest hijinks in the tanks of psychotic cichlids owned by
I have to figure out a way to carefully turn this into a teaching moment when I tell my granddaughters; they really loved those fish.
jjohnwm
sorry for your loss of your goldfish. Is there anyway you can cover the pond?