Starting A New Small Pond. . . Any suggestions? - Aquarium Advice

honmol · 11-02-2005, 07:29 PM

This summer I'm going to make a small pond. It's going to have a waterfall and I want to have small fish in it. It'll have floating plants to provide protection from any predators and I need to keep in mind that it gets cold in the winter (not really cold, and not for very long, but I still need to keep it in mind) I was thinking of maybe white cloud mountain minnows but am not sure of other fish to put in. Any ideas would be appreciated. I don't want an ordinary pond with goldfish and koi. I had an idea (not sure it would work. . . but, here it is)

The area where the waterfall would have to be is a realatively small area and the boulder from which the water will fall takes up about half of the space. So, instead of just having a tiny pond, I was thinking of digging a hole under the path that would limit the size of the pond and putting piping or tubing in to create a tunnel from this Area to another, bigger area. It would let me at least triple the size of the pond. Would this work?

dskidmore · 11-02-2005, 09:48 PM

Should work, but if the current in the pipe is too swift, the fish will eventually all migrate to the lower pond. Try to use the largest pipe possible, maybe two of them.

honmol · 11-02-2005, 10:56 PM

Thanks. What types of fish should I put in? I just moved from a more tropical climate to a cooler one so I'm not exactly sure what will live or die here. I can add a heater and some people say that you don't need one that'll cover the whole pond, just part, the fish will crowd around that. Does that work? The pipe connecting the two sections of pond would be as big as I can get because it would also provide cover from predators. Can you do a fishless cycle for a pond? What differences would you make for that? I've also before used large container type things to make ponds before but this would be different because of the shape and design of it. Nobody makes containers like that. So how do I build a pond? Is it okay to use concrete? Should I use a substrate? If so, what? I have wetlands and stuff near my house (down the street) Will I get tadpoles? If not, what types of tadpoles (if any) would work?

dskidmore · 11-03-2005, 11:41 AM

Fish species: Most everyone up here has catfish and goldfish. I wouldn't know what else to try, but anything that can tolerate temperatures down to 36 or so should be fine. They slow down thier metabolisim for winter, can survive without food or filtration, and just need enough oxygen. Just don't let the pond freeze to the bottom, and keep an open space at the top. (The deeper the better to prevent bottom freezing.)

Heat: If you get a cold tolerant species, you only need to heat a small area of surface water to melt the ice for gas exchange. They make little floating heaters for this purpose. Given there is no insulation on the surface of the water, you wouldn't want to try heating the whole pond, at least not with conventional technology.

Fishless cycle: Sure! I suggest you do your plantings first, some compost in the plant's soil should be all you need to cycle. If you don't see an ammonia spike, and want to be sure it's cycled, throw in some fresh compost like your bannana peels or such and try testing again. The plants will also take up ammonia directly, so you may not see a spike without a really large ammonia input..

Construction: You can do a quick test to see how well the soil absorbs water in your yard. Dig a hole two feet deep, fill it with water. Check on it the next day. If the water goes down, you need a pond liner. (Most people do.)

Find out what sizes of pond liner are available in your area. Plan your pond out so that the width of the liner will go down one side, across, and back up the other side, with a good sized flap sticking out on all sides. Dig out a hole in the shape you want. If digging a deep pond, it may be a good idea to have a shallower ledge around the edge for planting shallow water plants. If your soil is rocky or has lots of roots, you could go for the concrete, or put down a couple inches of sand. You don't want anything puncturing your pond liner when you fill it. Lay down your liner, pleating where necessary to make it lay down against all parts of your hole. Use rocks or concrete forms to hold down the edge of your liner.

Your tube idea is somewhat difficult. If you could, I'd dig the whole pond as a single unit, put in your pipe on top of the liner, then fill in your rocks and soil to form the path over the top. This way you don't have to worry about leaks around the pipe where it goes through the liner.

If you need to leave the path untouched during construction, you will have to find an adhesive that works with the pool liner and adhere the liner to the pipe.

You could use concrete, but it is likely to fiddle with the chemistry of your water. You could use concrete with a pond liner or pool liner.

Substrate: to major choices, soil, or no substrate with all the rooted plants in pots. Pots make it easier to maintain the plants, but soil means you can put in some fast growth plants and cover the bottom fairly cheaply/easily.

Tadpoles: You'd have to study the current life forms present to find out. Be very careful about importing any amphibious critters into your pond, they are likely to get out into the wild population, and possibly cause problems. Talk to your county's cooperative extension office, or a biologist at your local high school or collage. They should be able to tell you what species are native to the area, and if they are likely to migrate into your pond.

honmol · 11-04-2005, 11:37 PM

I have 2 6 year olds that want "their own pets". They don't want their pets to be with the other people's pets either. I was thinking of making a 10 gallon pond for them. Obviously, this would be easier to heat and maintain. I might even let them have tropical fish. We might have to bring them inside when it gets coldest, but I think that it would work. I have an old breeding tank that they could live in when it got colder. One of the reasons that they agreed to fish instead of dogs and cats was that dogs and cats are much harder to breed. Are there any easy to breed, easy to care for, hardy fish that I could get them?

dskidmore · 11-05-2005, 11:48 AM

10 gallons is awfully small for a pond. If you want to keep it small, you might go for those water barrel gardens. I think they are around 25 gallons.

Goldfish are very hardy, I have heard of them breeding well in pond conditoins, but not in something that small.

White Cloud Mountian fish are cold hardy, I have not heard much about breeding them.

Guppies and mollies are probably the easiest to breed. They will need to be taken inside when it gets cold though. Guppies are hardier than mollies. "Feeder" guppies may be more hardy than fancy guppies, but fancy guppies are more interesting to breed, as you can try to invluence color/fin patterns over the generations.

Whatever fish you select, most fish need to be seperated from thier own children if the children are to survive. For example: a mother guppy has her appitite supprest for a few hours after giving birth, but afterwards is likely to eat her own children. That indoor aquarium might be used for growing out the fry until they are large enough to go back to the pond.

Unless your kids are into the gardening aspect of having a pond, they might be happier with indoor aquariums. It is much easier to observe the fish that way, and a little 10 gallon setup shouldn't be too expensive.

honmol · 11-05-2005, 02:01 PM

We don't really have much space indoors. The "pond" would be more like a small tank, just outside. I've shown them some pictures of guppies and they like them. They also like tetras, ottocinclus, and glassfish. I was thinking of getting as few guppies as possible (maybe just a female if she'd be okay without others of her own kind because even starting with one female I'll have lots of fry before I know it, if not, either 2 females or a trio) First I'll get the guppies, let them get settled in, and see if ottos would work. I don't think that I'll get glassfish but I'll look into the tetras. It'll probably turn out to be just the guppies and ottos though, I don't like to separate the fish because the [acronym:79fccb5187="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:79fccb5187] only takes the more colorful, mature guppies so I'd have tons while waiting for them to grow. I'll provide some plants and hiding spaces for fry and they should do well. Would it be ok just to get the female guppy and the ottos to start with?

dskidmore · 11-05-2005, 02:20 PM

I love ottos! They can be hard to keep though, are you familiar with thier dietary requirements?

I definately agree with the guppy plan.

honmol · 11-06-2005, 01:18 AM

Yes, I know about ottos. I haven't had them before but researched them before showing them to the kids because I don't want them to get to really want a fish and then tell them that they can't have it because It wouldn't work in the pond. I'm supposed to heat a slice of cucumber covered in water in the microwave for 30 seconds then attach it to some type of weight so that it'll sink in the pond for them, right? I don't know how often I should do this though.So the 1 female guppy is okay?Or do I need 2 or a trio? Should I get snails and shrimp? I'm not worried about snail infestation. Could I keep shrimp in the pond too? If so, is there any shrimp that's easier to breed? My [acronym:2b5d2ef78f="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:2b5d2ef78f] will buy shrimp. They put them in some of their tanks and find that shrimp are easy to sell. Do I need to separate the females and male guppy fry? How can I sex them at a young age? Will the males be aggressive towards each other? (some people say that they'll be peaceful together, others say they will fisht)

dskidmore · 11-06-2005, 11:05 AM

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