Tropical fish outdoors uk (please reply)

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Plecostmus 1234

Jack Dempsey
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May 22, 2021
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My idea is to have a small greenhouse (one of the ones with shelves not somthing massive) Put an air heater in to keep it at a steady temperature and to use tubs instead of tanks to try and keep costs low (I would like to spend as little as possible but obviously realise it will still cost quite a bit) I will have them drilled and filter down to a sump where the water will be pumped back up. I would like to keep some tropical live bearers and egg bearers outside so I can get a small breeding setup. I've done lots of research on this and don't see why it wouldn't work but i would like some other opinions on it to see if it is actually somthing that seems realistic to do

Please reply because anything is useful and I am open to all ideas but it must be outside because of space and nothing really expensive
 
When I was twelve years old (a long time ago) I wanted to expand my fish keeping on a child's budget.

I used 200+ polystyrene fish boxes sitting directly on other polystyrene fish boxes three layers high with only end front half visible (staggered) supported with cinder blocks at the back as needed. The thickest plastic sheet I could find underneath to channel lost water into a sump with a pump pushed plastic pipe through the fish box walls for central filtration. Within a few weeks, minor leaks stopped due to algae - not that leaks mattered with the plastic sheet. You can add glass panels easily to fish boxes but once you are cutting glass, making all glass tanks is just as easy.

To get free/cheap stock, I volunteered at the local aquarium store every chance I could. That lead to paid work maintaining shop customer ponds, aquariums and water features. So lots of free plants, fish, knowledge and word of mouth recommendations.

Your idea to heat the greenhouse won't work unless you have a large & free heat source but you can run cold water species or have tropical species with a short run time. Some fish species will be having babies in 45 days for example!
 
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It's physics but don't let that put you off from trying things out.

If you well insulated the greenhouse (so it's a shed) covered the surface of tanks (70% heat loss) and don't mind spending a fortune on heating, you might succeed. The fish would probably still get sick but some tropical species can handle cool water temperatures.
 
What species can handle cool water and still breed also could you if possible find an example of a small aquarium shed please so I can better understand what you mean
 
If anyone from the UK is planning to keep tropical fish in an out building then the building itself, or just the tanks, are going to have to be heated somehow, and not just for a couple of months of the year. Even cooler water species will need heating most of the time.

Current spiralling energy prices, and it'll get worse before it gets any better, I wager, will make your project financially unviable. Your energy bills, which are already on the increase, will become astronmical. You will get the shock of your life. Have you even considered this?

For now, until things improve, if they ever do that is, and you still insist on having an outside fish enclosure, then i'd consider natives. We've got lots of them!

I have a long term pipe dream of having a perch set up one day.
 
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What kind of natives are there I can breed or foreign fish that can handle the lower temperatures and my ideas was to have a small greenhouse and a larger heater would this work of energy prices eventually settled
 
Also what about a large coldframe would it work and if not what are seem cheap ways to have lots of tanks or tubs indoors
 
fishdance said:
When I was twelve years old (a long time ago) I wanted to expand my fish keeping on a child's budget.

I used 200+ polystyrene fish boxes sitting directly on other polystyrene fish boxes three layers high with only end front half visible (staggered) supported with cinder blocks at the back as needed. The thickest plastic sheet I could find underneath to channel lost water into a sump with a pump pushed plastic pipe through the fish box walls for central filtration. Within a few weeks, minor leaks stopped due to algae - not that leaks mattered with the plastic sheet. You can add glass panels easily to fish boxes but once you are cutting glass, making all glass tanks is just as easy.

To get free/cheap stock, I volunteered at the local aquarium store every chance I could. That lead to paid work maintaining shop customer ponds, aquariums and water features. So lots of free plants, fish, knowledge and word of mouth recommendations.

Your idea to heat the greenhouse won't work unless you have a large & free heat source but you can run cold water species or have tropical species with a short run time. Some fish species will be having babies in 45 days for example!
Click to expand...
Please can you tell me more about this is sounds really interesting
 
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