Anyone keep other pond fish besides koi and goldfish?

[derrickmickens]

Originally Posted by Reefmonkey

Who here keeps other fish besides the usual pondfish (koi, goldfish, etc). Does anyone keep tropicals? How about North American native fishes?

i keep freshwater stingrays in my indoor pond about 450gal?

[duaumun]

I saw that you live in Texas, you can probably get away with the tropicals and some NA native fishes due to the climate. I have also read about people keeping sharks (yes, I said it) in outdoor saltwater ponds after very CAREFUL preparation and measurements.

[acronym:7d53997d2a="By the way"]BTW[/acronym:7d53997d2a], this is my first post/visit to the site in A YEAR!!! IT is GREAT to be back!!!!!

I have 6 koi, 2 goldfish and 2 albino sturgeon and 1 sturgeon (UK)

just thought some 1 would care?.

[noncentric]

Red-eared slider (turtle) in parent's outdoor pond in Southern California - well, it's actually a hard-plastic kiddie pool...but will probably be changed to one of those in-ground pre-formed ponds after my next visit.

[coyotesweat]

I keep a bunch of rosy reds in my various pond/water gardens. the 180 gallon stock tank has about 15 rosy reds, who have just spawned twice, producing a bunch of offspring, some I guess to be about a week old and some maybe a few days old now, along with 2 adult goldfish and about 5 surviving goldfish babies.

In my 90-100 gallon brick planter water garden, I have one adult goldfish (about 4 inches and maybe two years old), and 6 rosy reds, no spawn yet that I can see. And in my 24 gallon planter water garden I have two baby goldfish from the bigger pond, and 3 rosy reds.

Yyou can buy the rosy red minnows from your local fish store (I got mine at Petsmart) as feeder fish for about 11 or 12 cents apiece. My first batch did well, and bred immediately, the second batch for the brick planter was sick and they all died but one, but I put some of the hardier ones from the back pond in there and they're doing fine. I'd recommend isolating the rosies in an aquarium for a week or so if possible to see if they're sick, then put them in the pond. They tolerate water from just above freezing to near 100 degrees in Texas August heat ( I live in Austin, and some of mine survived all year in the 24 gallon planter, from the surface being frozen over to the 110 degree days in August).

They're almost as pretty as goldfish, breed well on their own, and are very hardy. Love them!

Coyote

[Lance M.]

I've kept guppies outside and had tons of them...but then I forgot to move them inside and it got cold.

I had about 50 dead guppies....but I found one that survived!

You can also keep white cloud mtn. minnows out side. They are very cool and will reproduce in the plants, like I have a lot of hornwort and they will breed in there.

[DeFeKt]

friend of mine keep an assortment of african cichlids in her outdoor pond during summer.
Swims in it and calls it "Diving lake malawi on a budget"
Seems she has removed the pics from her host so theres no point posting the link up.

Anything is possible really

~Matty

[Elle2]

Originally Posted by noncentric

Red-eared slider (turtle) in parent's outdoor pond in Southern California - well, it's actually a hard-plastic kiddie pool...but will probably be changed to one of those in-ground pre-formed ponds after my next visit.

How do you keep the turtle from wandering off? Or does he simply not want to?

[crazyred]

I live down here in Harlingen,TX...right on the Rio Grand River and I'm thinking of doing a pond on my patio and stocking it with some Texas cichlids which are native to the Rio Grande. I think that they would do way better climate wise than any "cold water" fish....it does not really get very cold down here. It would be easier to heat the small pond that I'm thinking of doing thatn it would be to chill it!!!

[Reefmonkey]

Originally Posted by derrickmickens

i keep freshwater stingrays in my indoor pond about 450gal?

Unfortunately freshwater stingrays are illegal in Texas, so that's out. I ended up setting up the pond with 2 jack dempseys, 2 green severums, and a green terror, as well as a school of buenos aires tetra. Oh, and about a gazillion gulf coast toad tadpoles that were uninvited, but not unappreciated.