Guppy Farm

[Darkness9876]

We keep down pipes on our spillway pipes just for this reason. We only have one without it and we peel a turlte off about weekly.

I like to think its for the turtles instead of just to keep the pipe flowing anyway.

Down pipes are big pipes coming of the spillway pipes that stick up past the height of the dam. They provide a way for air to enter the pipe incase something closes of end of it allowing the object, which is most of the time a large turtle, to swim away once the pipe fills with air and equalizes pressure. Another thing we put on the end is a cone made out of suckerrod, essentially tempered smoot rebar thats 3/4 of an inch in diamater that prevents anthing from getting to the pipe to create a seal. These two things greatly reduce the damage to flood spillways and to the dam itself.

Of course our ponds are 4-5 acres in size, One has 2 10" spillway pipes with one that runs most of the time as it is spring fed. However I have seen an excess of nearly 15-20,000 gallons entering it a minute before when it rains hard. Most days its probably around 500gpm.

Any way moral of this is I would advise adding a cone as it will keep large particles such as leaves, fish, and turtles from reaching your pre-filter and keeping your flow rate high.

 

[mrchillman]

OK! so i took your advice and got a shatter proof heater that is supposed to be good for a 90 gallon aquarium. I figure that if it can keep a 90 gallon aquarium in the high seventies it can keep my 150 gallon ish pond in the mid to low 60s which should be tolerable for my guppies. I ordered it last Friday and it should be here by Wednesday or Thursday. I hope the guppies make it till then because lately its been cold here! (well for California standards) Yesterday morning i took the temperature of the water and it was 53 degrees. The guppies are still all accounted for though and recently had even more babies (there are about 200 new born fry swimming around now).

I also ordered a solar powered fountain and another smaller heater and I am going to get a big 45-50 gallon tub or horse trough or something like that to house more guppies :] At this rate i might even be able to start selectively breeding and selling them on ebay or something.

 

[Darkness9876]

to help keeps temps up as well I would put a cover over part of the pool that touches the water and is black. That should help warm it.

 

[mrchillman]

i installed the heater yesterday afternoon and this morning my pond was a solid 65 degrees! Thats way up from 53 even if it was a little warmer yesterday

 

[mrchillman]

my pond is awesome! now that the heater is keeping the temperatures up the plants are a lot greener, and my lilies are actually starting to grow ( i moved them into the shallow end because my turtles kept eating them) It rained here all day and night yesterday, and today my guppies were all at the surface, and i could see them. They are REALLY NICE! i didn't know a hodgepodge of random colored guppies could get together and make just as cool looking ones. The first batch of babies is fully grown up, and they look amazing almost better than their parents. (at least the males do the females are all black and white)

 

[Darkness9876]

You might want to buy a few fancy guppies at the lfs every couple of months, guppies that aren't of a pure strain tend to lose their color genes after a few generations. It will also add some new strains of color to your pond and keep them from inbreeding.

Post some new pics to plz. I want to see how this is going.

 

[mrchillman]

I think i am going to get 1 goldfish to add some life to my pond. SInce my turtle died, its really boring...the other turtle never shows itself any more the only way i still see it basking from time to time from my bedroom window but thats it. I think i might try and catch him and give him away or sell him to my lfs or something...If i am not going to see him i would rather not have to worry about him eating my guppies. If i got one goldfish would it do all that much damage to my guppy population? Would it just eat a few of the fry or would it eventually be able to eat the adults too?

 

[wataugachicken]

it would eat your guppies. probably not all of them just because it wouldn't be able to catch every single one, but goldfish will eat whatever they can catch and fits in their mouth. i learned that the hard way with a 3 inch black moor and $30 worth of endlers. argh.

 

[Winterose]

also goldies are cold water guppies are tropical

 

[mrchillman]

Ok no gold fish for me i guess. I just cleaned my pond yesterday. I cut back the parrots feather, (accidentally cut a small hole in my liner with gardening sheers, but its near the top, and i sealed it with some sort of plastic epoxy stuff i had lying around the house.
The reason i cleaned the pond was because i wanted to cull off some of my ugly guppies, and the water was too murky to see them, or catch them (my pond water brought new meaning to pea soup water). I did a 90 percent water change and culled about 20 guppies that look different from the rest, or were just plain ugly. Im not quite sure what to do with them now... I dont want to kill the poor things.
I also caught 3 really good looking red ones, and They are in my 29 gallon aquarium. I am going to try and stick to one strain of just red guppies, and keep a pure line of them going in my aquarium. Then i can add them to the pond to keep the ones in the pond's colors lookin good too.

For now the pond water is REALLY CLEAR, but it will probably be back to pea soup before i know it. Ill take some pictures today.

OH ALSO! I HAVE A PROBLEM ... Dragon flies: late summer i saw a whole bunch flying around my pond...great they were laying eggs right... I thought my guppies would eat the larvae when they were little, and not let them get big... boy was i wrong. As i was cleaning the pond yesterday I saw dozens of huge 1-2 inch long dragon fly larvae in my pond. I was pretty freaked out. I caught and killed as many as i could, but there are LOTS more i'm sure. I know that they eat tadpoles; do they eat fish too? Is there any way i can get rid of them? I HATE dragon flies (been bitten three times, and it hurts!)