Daily Log of Constructing a Tropical Fish Pond

[lousybreed]

good luck

I know....usually I am not too worried about my fish moves. But this one has me reading, researching, calling, basically making sure its ok. The guy from the fish store (who is a goldfish nut) said that it should be no problem. But I am hesitant. If the water doesn't crack 60 it is a no go, if it gets closer to 64 then its a no brainer. The temp in the tank right now is only 67......I will keep everyone posted.

 

[lousybreed]

Well I dumped the 4 dojos and the 3 un-named goldfish (2 pearlscales and one oranda) into yesterday. The water temp was only 56 but I still went for it and they are doing fine. The pearlscales are less active than the oranda. The rosey barb is loving the company! They are eating a little bit but the water is a little cold so I am not worried. This weekend when it is light out I will take pictures of the foam filter.

 

[Hoanglan]

I just went thru 23 pages of your project, and I want more :drool: Very well done.
ps.
This is my first post:headbang2:

 

[bigwave]

Well I just got caught up on all 23 pages of this thread. I must say it is quite a pond. I have thought about building something similar but it would have to be indoors, because it gets well below freezing here for about 5 months out of the year.

Keep up the good work, and the pictures.

You might like to look into underwater camera cases. A waterproof case for your camera would come in handy. They make cheap ones that look like a heavy duty sandwich bag, with a glass lense attached to part of it. I have one for a Hawaii trip last year, and it worked great in my fish tank also. Of course in my tiny tank there wasn't as much to see as there would be in yours!

 

[lousybreed]

Pics!

Thanks for the comments and suggestions! If I got an underwater camera or even spent 10 bucks on a waterproof bag my wife would kill me!!! Too much money being spend on these fish! I hope you guys can learn something from my little experiment so you won't make the same mistakes!

So today I got off my butt and did something with my pond. I cleaned off the sponge filter and I transfered all my goldfish to the pond. They are doing well and swimming around just fine. The water temps are at 60 right now and the plants have started growing too. I attached some pics of one of the orandas that has a weird lump by its tail. On the one pic it is hard to see because it is about the size of a scale and is orange. You can clearly see it on the other pic. It is the bump by his tail. After I took the pic, the lump scraped off. I have no idea what it was!

 

[lousybreed]

I feel real bad!!!!!!!

I gotta admit, I feel really stupid about this mistake I made today..... I have one powerhead that powers the sponge filter in the pond. The other powerhead supplies the waterfall. I plugged in the waterfall powerhead when I left for work. When I got back from work I notice the waterfall wasnt working so I went to check it out. It was plugged in but no water. Then I looked down in the water to see if it was plugged with something... Oh boy, its plugged with a goldfish! One of my unnamed pearl scale goldfish got sucked into the powerhead. The fish died! When I pulled the fish out of the powerhead its stomach was kinda extended from all the sucking power of the pump. I feel really bad about this. I buried him in the garden

All of last year I never had any prefilter on that powerhead and I never had a problem with it. But then again goldfish are much slower and probably would get stuck easier. The good news is that there is an piece I can install on the powerhead that would avoid this problem forever. I will install it tomorrow before anymore fish fall victim to the powerhead!!

Man this really sucks, and as an experienced aquarist I feel really stupid and irresponsible.....

 

[jaysen]

sorry to hear about your mistake, we all make them. at least it didnt cost you your pump due to overheating. i love this thread, you did an amazing job. lets see updates every day!

 

[lousybreed]

sorry to hear about your mistake, we all make them. at least it didnt cost you your pump due to overheating. i love this thread, you did an amazing job. lets see updates every day!

Thanks, I am glad you like it....as for the pond not much is happening. I am thinking about putting some plants in the pond in the up coming weeks and getting some more lionheads! Back to San Francisco's China Town!

 

[lousybreed]

Alright dudes.....The goldfish have settled down and seem to be doing really good. It is crazy but even with 60 degree water temp the fish are really active. They have started chasing each other around. I am wondering if they are getting ready to spawn? I have been feeding them at least once a day in the morning. At night I feed once in a while. The plants seem to be growing a bit more. All this sunny weather is helping out. Later.

 

[FluffynTex]

Love the pond! Any updates?