Pleco's & cold outdoor pond

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Magnus30

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 18, 2006
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Michigan
I have a 14' x 11' koi pond, I live in MI, gets cold :( anyway I have a 17" pleco & could I put him in the pond in the summer or possibly all year?
 
the Pleco would not handel the cold weather very well at all unless u live in Florida i wouldn't do it, even florida is pushing it in the winter , but i have seen it work there
 
i also live here in the frigid cold hell we call michigan, my plan is too make the pond be a summer vacation home for my fish. i think the pleco would be fine in the summer but i would move him back to the warm tank before the first frost. my 14" pleco will go into the pond along with his tankmates shortly after uor first 70 degree day of the year, that seems to be the point where our weather starts to steadily stay nice
 
I think only a common pleco would survive.
 
My uncle has a 9000 gallon pond. Every year we put 5 or 6 plecos in the pond. At the end of the year though we bring the scale less koi indoors so we lower the pond and can catch the plecos. They wont survive the winter here though. We can do this also though because there is a hot tub heater hooked up incase it is needed. We also put 2 oscars, 2 pacus, and 10 tinfoil barbs in there each year as well. The heater is so the water won't drop below 60 degrees so that the tropical fish won't die. Then we bring them inside in the winter and put them in a pond that he built in the basement.

So the answer is you can put plecos in your pond. Just make sure that you are able to catch them before the winter and that you keep an eye on the temp of the pond to make sure that it doesn't get to cold. Just so you know we only put common plecos in the pond cause if for some reason they do die there cheep. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks,
My pond is about 5ft deep & the pleco is 17". I figure I can put him out there in the summer time, more algea, but getting him out will suck!
 
Yeah just keep an eye on the temp and make sure you get him out before it gets to cold. Other wise he should be fine. also he will probably get bigger. We put 5 2inchers in the pond and when we took them out they were all foot or bigger and that was just one season in the pond. Cant wait to put them back this year.
 
Honda12 said:
My uncle has a 9000 gallon pond. Every year we put 5 or 6 plecos in the pond. At the end of the year though we bring the scale less koi indoors so we lower the pond and can catch the plecos. They wont survive the winter here though. We can do this also though because there is a hot tub heater hooked up incase it is needed. We also put 2 oscars, 2 pacus, and 10 tinfoil barbs in there each year as well. The heater is so the water won't drop below 60 degrees so that the tropical fish won't die. Then we bring them inside in the winter and put them in a pond that he built in the basement.

So the answer is you can put plecos in your pond. Just make sure that you are able to catch them before the winter and that you keep an eye on the temp of the pond to make sure that it doesn't get to cold. Just so you know we only put common plecos in the pond cause if for some reason they do die there cheep. Hope this helps.
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Marietta LaFrancois - newbie
I have 3 plecos, 2 which are about 8", Central North Carolina. The 2 large ones just died. I have a pond heater on order. Too late, I guess.
What I ordered is actually a pond de-icer. Will this be sufficient in a 1,100 gallon pond for the 7 Koi I currently have? I would hate to lose any more fish, it has taken us a long time for the fish to be pretty sizeable.
I also have a terrible time with algae, having to clean off the pumps several times a day.. any suggestions there?
 
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