Rosy Red Minnows

[Autumnsky]

Finally cleaned out my 125G plastic preformed pond.

Thought I had just one Rosy color and one natural colored fish. BUT they evidently hide REALLY well and I had maybe a dozen or more.

Pond is cleaned out and they are now in a 5G bucket for a second night and just offered them to a local hobby friend but IF he has no interest in them, should I just refill the pond and try to keep them over winter which I have read they do well around here, and I can add a small heater to keep them from icing over.

Any thoughts and have you overwintered these guys in a small pond?

 

[ZxC]

Finally cleaned out my 125G plastic preformed pond.

Thought I had just one Rosy color and one natural colored fish. BUT they evidently hide REALLY well and I had maybe a dozen or more.

Pond is cleaned out and they are now in a 5G bucket for a second night and just offered them to a local hobby friend but IF he has no interest in them, should I just refill the pond and try to keep them over winter which I have read they do well around here, and I can add a small heater to keep them from icing over.

Any thoughts and have you overwintered these guys in a small pond?

Mine are currently in a 45 gallon rubbermaid in my basement, only reason I keep them in that is because my pond is tiny tiny and usually freezes solid. When I had a bigger pond though, I would just leave a small pump that broke the surface so as to allow gas exchange and all was good, I have thousands in there after 2 years.

Only thing to watch for is if the pump fails, massive die offs... ask me how I know

 

[FinsandFeathers]

You should be able to easily keep a 125g pond free of ice by using a floating stock tank heater, which you should be able to get at any farm and garden store for about $30.00. There are different wattage heaters for different size tanks, but a smaller sized heater should be sufficient for that size of pond.

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes, thanks guys. Before when I had a pond, itwas similar size but had a 1
55G homemade trash can filter to add aeration and filtering of course. Which had a covered walk deck area which was where the plugs were stationed and I used a high quality 300W tank heater to just keep the water a bit warmer, it was in good sunlight and the sun would also keep things melted fairly well.

I would add a 2nd fish tank heater when there was a long stretch of cold which was usually just a few days stretch here. The waterfall and the huge pump and turnover would usually be enough, just a couple times I had to chip out ice (there were small Koi and GF.)


This one is just the air bubbler added to it and different set up and housed under a deck in the shade almost all the day long - so much colder and icy conditions.

Hmmm.

Did you have Anacharis/Elodea anyone, did it seem to survive pretty well?

My Koi GF pond just had a water lily which I overwintered in the house.

Might just get a stock heater if The friend doesn't want these guys. ATM I am still trying to decrease the number of tanks in the house!!!

Might just look for a bigger cheap/used metal stock tank too

 

[ZxC]

I haven't grown anacharis in my pond per say, but judging by the amount I curse at and pull off my fishing lures in my local lake, I say it should survive just about any winter It may not look pretty in the spring, but it will survive.

 

[Autumnsky]

Probably deeper than 2ish feet!!!

 

[ZxC]

Probably deeper than 2ish feet!!!

In all seriousness, my local lake is more of a puddle. 10.5 deep at max, when I ice fish there you can reach into the hole and grab the anacharis so I'm confident it should do good in shallow water, possible even freeze up.

I laugh at what they charge for anacharis at the fish store. If I wanted some I take a 5 minute stroll down a pathway, reach into the lake and grab as much as I needed

 

[Autumnsky]

Yes that doesn't seem very deep!

It is a supply and demand. If you don't live near or go to a pond then fish store is a no brainer. I have tried to get pond plants around me and there have been little choices. Not always the case, but in my very close to me places none. Other than Cat tails, I have rush and cat tails regular and smallish ones as well.

Right now I am not at a place to be able to commit to a regular pond and the first one I made was a very fun experiment.

These Rosy peachy pink Minnows are really great color being out in the pond, not much comparison in the feeder tanks at the lfs!!!

I was quite shocked how they were able to slither into the muck I was scooping out with my hands, just like an eel/snake move!!! There was some leaf litter and the potted water plants I added got knocked over a few times and spilled out soil so there was a bit of accumulation in the bottom along with some misc gravel and stuff from the bottom of a couple tanks I shut down.

 

[ZxC]

Yes that doesn't seem very deep!

It is a supply and demand. If you don't live near or go to a pond then fish store is a no brainer. I have tried to get pond plants around me and there have been little choices. Not always the case, but in my very close to me places none. Other than Cat tails, I have rush and cat tails regular and smallish ones as well.

Right now I am not at a place to be able to commit to a regular pond and the first one I made was a very fun experiment.

These Rosy peachy pink Minnows are really great color being out in the pond, not much comparison in the feeder tanks at the lfs!!!

I was quite shocked how they were able to slither into the muck I was scooping out with my hands, just like an eel/snake move!!! There was some leaf litter and the potted water plants I added got knocked over a few times and spilled out soil so there was a bit of accumulation in the bottom along with some misc gravel and stuff from the bottom of a couple tanks I shut down.

Ya no doubt, plus the fish store has way less chance of pain in the arse snails, algaes and other baddies.

I bought these minnows to snack on pesky mosquito larvae, and they do a fantastic job, I really like these little fellas, I know your pain when trying to catch them tho, they seem to hide in anything, and being bright coloured I wouldn't think they could hide so well.
Give me a minute and I'll grab a vid of mine, they love swimming up into my hand, I can usually pick them out of the water, and they don't freak out.

 

[Autumnsky]

Nice, I would like to see them.

In the feeder aquarium at the store they look bad. After reading about a few different fish options, I though these guys were pretty darn good pond fish for a pretty small pond.

I would have gone for some fancy GF too if I could be committed to a long term set up. Might be moving and doing some traveling in a year or so and no one else in the family want to spend the, even small amount of time to take care of a little pond because they have other things taking up their time.

Fish selection for small ponds with lots of info is sparse. Even these Rosies I had to dig a bit over the past couple years for info other than the many times copied from info provider to info provider which seems maybe has been cut and paste from SeriouslyFish.

I liked Endlers but couldn't get enough of them at any reasonable price for the 2017 pond stocking.

 

[ZxC]

It's not the greatest vid, you'll have to take my word on them letting me pick them up, maybe they weren't too into it today because I wasn't feeding them

Can't really tell because of the Iphone quality, but they were pecking at my hand the whole time I was splashing around.

https://youtu.be/Z8FJvZT6HrU

 

[Fresh2o]

^^^ Rosy red whisperer.
The rosy reds I kept outside did not fair well over the winter in my shallow outdoor water feature (not quite 2’ deep, mid-Atlantic Virginia weather).
The mosquito fish, on the other hand, have done well over the last 3-4 years.

 

[Autumnsky]

Well with that said I feel like I am hoping the hobby friend wants to take them home!

ZxC I like that they are so friendly!

Mine were under a half inch of Duckweed and large Floating Wisteria for a number of months and didn't know what to do after it was mostly removed revealing a scary person who leans over looking at them and the very bright sunlight peeking through!