Golden white clouds loving outdoor living

[greendeltatke]

A few weeks ago I set up an outdoor tub pond under a tree. I have water hyacinth, anachris and a snail, but no extra filtration or aeration. I've been keeping pretty close tabs on it since I've never done this before. I was expecting the five white cloud minnows to do well there, but I was a little nervous about how their golden white cloud cousins would do. I had heard that they are more delicate. Well, the goldens are really thriving. Their fins are scarlet red, and the body color is now truly golden. They are extremely active too, zipping around like crazy. I think they might be a really good choice for someone who wanted a very small pond fish who was more visible than the regular brown white clouds.

[Cruise Control]

I'm thinking of doing something like this in the neat future. I'm just sourcing for stuff now to build it. How did you plant your plants? Or are they floating?

[TipStylez]

can you guys share info you find on building it? links and ect...cause it sounds fun but i have no idea what you guys are talking about haha.

[greendeltatke]

I got most of my info from www.fishpondinfo.com/tubpond/htm The site owner describes different kinds of tubs you can set up as above ground mini-ponds. In my case I used a half-barrel from a gardening store and lined it with a cheap tarp and covered it with chicken wire to keep out animals. It's alot like setting up a new tank, you'd either have to cycle it or seed it with some material from an established tank.

I have one potted plant, a water lily. The other plants I just let float. The water hyacinth and water lettuce (forgot to mention that one) cover about half of the water surface. The anacharis floats somewhere midwater. Something has been nibbling my water lettuce- I suspect raccoons because they are caving in the chicken wire. The plants are very resilient, though. They look like a tossed salad but they keep sending out daughter plants.

[TKOS]

People stick those white clouds in small tanks all the time but I must say they are truely much better when given some space.

[greendeltatke]

My tub is only about 30 gallons. I'll spring for a much bigger one next summer. ;)

I've been amused at how the white clouds look from a top down perspective, just like tiny koi. Tiny, incredibly cheap koi who actually eat mosquito larvae. I'm really loving these fish. :D