Kiddie Pool and Stock Tank Ponds

[ktrom13]

I'm not sure there is much point in breeding convicts. I don't think you will get many buyers. They are hard to NOT breed. Unless you can get one of the newer color varieties. There might be some market for them.

Would it be possible to cut the entire bottom out of the totes and replace it with that plastic cross stitch material (semi-stiff plastic grid material)? I have used that to make small breeder traps. It is easy to cut and can be stitched together with fishing line. Maybe you could use silicone to attach it to the tote bottom. The holes are a good size to let fry escape but yet keep the adults in. It would also give good water movement between the tote and tank.

wren

This is more just to try it out and see how it goes so im not looking for money. I wouldnt neccesarily be selling them but more as give aways for other hobbists in my area. Im sure theres a few MFKers up here who wouldnt mind some baby fish for food.

I think it would be possible to cut the bottom of a tote out and replace with that mesh. Probably tricky but still possible.

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[henningc]

I'll post up photos when I make the breeding tras and set the pools in March. I will try to post up some photos of my brood stock, they are off the charts.

Least Killies can tolerate colder temps, 60s and such and the convicts will eat the fry. Just saying.

As for frogs, you're not safe, these were tree frogs and we are a good mile from any body of water. The good news is cichlids eat tadpoles.

My hope is that people will follow and continue to post. Maybe a number of folks will try this and we can post results.

 

[henningc]

UPDATE

This weekend I am ordering my new pools. I'm getting them from Kmart on-line. I will order 2 Intex Sunfish Snap Set Pools. they are 8'x8'x18". I'm getting Intex because some other brands put algeacide in the plastic liners and that will kill your fish. Intex is tried and tested to be fish safe. My son tossed one of the vats on the wall of my Intex pool from last summer, so I don't know if it is usable. If not the two pools will give me about 1,000gals to play with. If the old pool can be salvaged, I'll have about 1,400 gals in just three pools. I'm thinking I can grow out a lot of swords in that much space.


As for brooders, my Showa Swordtails are going like crazy. I now anticipate approximately 25-30 females, up to 10 Koi and 6-10 black and whites. I'm working on a deal for a few other color females and that should bring my total close to 50 brooder females. I am currently working on a deal for 4 different color platys and trying to get 8-10 brooder females of each color. These will take longer to grow out, so I'll use my 110"x72"x24"deep pool. The Blond Endler project is coming along better than expected and I anticipate 15-20 brooder females. I will also be breeding Black Bars and Orchards in other pools. The great part is they can't hybredtize with the swords. I'll start colonies in the other 2 pools and 2 vats. By the time I need those for sword and platy growout I'll have a lot of Endlers. At some point, all but the Blonds will continue to reproduce with most fry feeding the growing swords and platys. The same pools will be used to reporduce Least Killies. Seeing that Least Killies are very temp tolerant, they will get a 4-6 week head start. I have found that not only do the Endlers not hybredtize with them, they don't bother eachothers fry either.


This weekend I plan to ATTEMPT to take some fish photos. I am not good at doing that. As soon as I get some usable photos I'll post them. If anyone else is going to pool breed, let me know so we can trade notes. This thread will go until October.

 

[ktrom13]

Ill have to wait until mid-late spring before i can get my totes up and stocked due to the weather. Im going to be using totes to try this because of lack of space in my yard and my dogs could possibly pee in/on them or rip them.

Ive changed my mind about the convicts and im askig LFS fish stores what fish seem to be popular. So far ive gotten mostly bread and butter type of fish( like neons, guppies, etc.), go figure. But there is some cichlids( mostly dwarf) that are becomig popular so i might try those out. Im hoping to have all these tanks filtered by the same filter but thats still a work in progress.

Im going to go by the local waterways and try to scoop up some mosquito fish to let them breed a little and have some fry to let the fish eat and to eat the mosquito larva. I already have rocks and some driftwood collected to put in the tank.

I highly doubt ill get frogs in these because theyll be setup on my porch and covered at night because we have racoons and sometimes skunks that like to venture on my porch.

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[wesleydnunder]

For several years I raised pearl gouramis in kiddie pools. I kept anacharis floating on top, which I thinned frequently and traded to an lfs for store credit. I didn't feed at all after the first couple weeks. No need as mosquito larvae and other aquatic fauna provided a rich diet throughout the season. I kept several totes going for fry growout and by the end of the season had traded/sold enough fish and plants to defer my hobby costs for the year. The hardest chore was keeping the birds, raccoons and dogs out. Birds and coons looking for a meal, dogs wanting to play in the water.

Mark

 

[henningc]

Great information. On the Leeris, Pearl Gouramis, did you allow them to spawn naturally in the pool or did you just grow out fry? That was going to be part of my project last summer before the gourami tank crashed and everyone went with it.


As for spawning tetras, you would need to spawn indoors and grow out fry outdoors. That is the way the fish farms do it.

 

[Andrewtfw]

As for spawning tetras, you would need to spawn indoors and grow out fry outdoors. That is the way the fish farms do it.

That depends on the type of tetra. Here in MD, my buddy brings his adult buenos aires tetras outside in early march. He brings them back in with many juveniles in late october (sometimes early november). He usually has 20-30 young each year.

 

[henningc]

You are correct, the tetras will spawn and some will survive. Keep in mind that tetras typically have several hundred eggs laid at one spawn. If the spawn once every 6 weeks that is three spawns. So you are looking at a very tiny survival rate.

You can use croshay fabric as a false floor for fish that have less adhesive eggs and pull the adults after 6-8 weeks. The eggs fall through and the adults don't get at them.

 

[ManEatingShrimp]

Im going to go by the local waterways and try to scoop up some mosquito fish to let them breed a little and have some fry to let the fish eat and to eat the mosquito larva.

Least killies are pretty popular and are livebearers so they breed pretty quickly. You could raise those as food and sell them as well.

Has anyone bred shrimp or CPOs in outdoor tubs? I have only tried plants outside but did see a lot of mosquito larvae for fish and plenty of algae for shrimp. I read about someone breeding shrimp outside and they said that they bred quickly and showed much better colors. If I had extra shrimp I would try it this year but my colony is just starting to grow. It would be cool to buy some cheap cherry shrimp and see how well they do though.

 

[wesleydnunder]

Great information. On the Leeris, Pearl Gouramis, did you allow them to spawn naturally in the pool or did you just grow out fry? That was going to be part of my project last summer before the gourami tank crashed and everyone went with it.


As for spawning tetras, you would need to spawn indoors and grow out fry outdoors. That is the way the fish farms do it.

They spawned naturally. When the fry were large enough to identify and net out, they were moved to the totes.

Mark