outdoor cichlids

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pbeemer

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Apr 27, 2010
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i will be setting up an outdoor pond in the next few months, looks to be 10' x 10' x2' deep. this will be outdoors in southern california; no heater, fairly heavily planted is the plan.

i'm looking for a set (10 or so?) of colorful primary fish, say 8" + long, ideally schooling but independent swimmers would be ok. i'm not a fan of goldfish or koi, and it's been suggested that i look into cichlids.

any suggestions?
 

SubRosa

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Jul 3, 2009
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Mbuna are readily visible when viewed from above. Most fish aren't. But not many get 8", more like 4"-6". Mahseers and other large Cyprinids are kept as "tropical Koi" in warmer regions of Asia, but many get as big as Koi, or bigger. Arowanas look good in ponds but again get much bigger and are very prone to jump. If the bottom were light colored substrate I'd say Stingrays! But really, fish which are readily ejoyable from above are not very common. Could you get some native or introduced gamefish? Once they learn that you=food, Largemouth Bass can be very cool. Living in CA, you'd do well to check the legalities of any choices before you obtain them.
 

tanker

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Tilapia?? There are some red ones.
 

pbeemer

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all stingrays are illegal here; it was one of the first things i thought of :/ ditto a lot of tilapia species, although i will look into that.

a lot of 6" fish would be ok; i thought that the african cichlids couldn't cope with cold water; i would guess that a pond that size might get down to the low-to-mid 40s in a really cold winter because it isn't all that deep

i like the pictures of mahseer that i found. altho a 9 foot speciment would probably not be at all happy in this pond. any idea where i could find them?

most native game fish (other than the sunfish family) are trout and salmon; they like really cold water and would probably be unhappy in the summer. there are a lot of pretty sunfish species, but if i have a dozen of them won't they fight?
 

SubRosa

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I have seen them offered by Jeff Rapp at www.tangledupincichlids.com, and on AB. None listed right now though.Also Tilapia species are more laterally compressed than Mbuna which means there's less to see from above. Most Cichlids are very flattened in cross section, but Mbuna are almost round, which exposes more of their backs.
 

ktrom13

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A small mouth or large mouth bass would look good in there IMO or even some catfish such as the bullhead

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GEV83

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Using natives would be best since there use to our climate. Zimmermansfish.com has some nice natives and he does have different ones every so often depending on what he decides to breed that year. From what he has told me these fish get along pretty good when housed like africans. By that I mean the male to female ratio has to be adjusted to prevent the males from harassing the females to death from the want and need to breed.

You could also look on aquabid where they are currently selling some madtoms which are smaller versions of bullheads. A light colored substrate would make the fish stand out more in a pond setting where the only view window to there world is from above.
 
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