Whiskey barrel pond

[galen]

Hi Galen,
I wasn't going to respond to your post cuz it seems that your mom will just empty out the pond every fall into the local river . However, just in case the fish might be kept, I will add my 2 cents. You said your mom had a whiskey half barrel. I would install a flexible or preform drop-in liner. The inside of most whiskey barrels are charred to add flavoring to the whiskey. This is ash, and will increase the acidityin your water. If you decide to get a liner, be sure to sand the inside really good to remove any splinters. Hyacinths are good plants to keep. You can even put in water iris or even bog plants like creeping jenny (although you may need to put in a cinder block to keep the bog plants from being submerged too deep in the water). Anacaris and Parrot feather are good water plants for the fish. If fish aren't going to be kept, you can go without the liner, but you will need to fill the barrel with water until the wood soaks, and swells against eachother to form a water seal.
Mr. U

good advice there U! thanks! as a matter of fact, she bought some anacharis and tied it to the lava rock at the bottom. the floater is a water hyacinth- i read your post after i posted my last one and it jogged my memory! she plans on some small fish that she'll either keep in the abrrel in the basement over the winter and fal or she'll use an old garbage can to house them. that's what she says at least- something like her girlfriends advised her on the garbage can idea.

 

[galen]

well, the pond is up and running. pics:

plants are a corkscrew something, a papyrus plant, and water hyacinths. oh, theres a bunch of anacharis on the bottom tied to a lava rock. works good, but needs a filter. when the water pump failed, the 3 fish in there died due to lack of oxygen and water conditions thickened. it resembled a swamp with the smell of a marsh. very foul. anyway, that's it for now.

 

[bettagurl]

Cute
You/your mom could get about 5+ rosy red minnows, they wouldn't get stunted and die like goldfish, and they look kinda of like small comets from above.
HTH

 

[jm1212]

it looks good, but you may want to thin the floating plants out a bit to make sure the ones below have enough light.

 

[sheloudre]

re: releasing fish to river in fall

I read that this could be illegal to do, since they are not native fish to the area. Correct me if i am wrong, please.

Otherwise, i was also told about wintering the fish in another container (or the small portable pond) over the winter in a outdoor shed, covering them with enough water to keep wet, but not feeding so that they hibernate essentially. Could someone else fill me in on this? Does it actually work?

 

[vic46]

My parents have one and they've had it for probably 5 years. Its adorable. They have a decorative frog fountain on the side and the water spurts out of its mouth and provides the aeriation into the little pond with is sunk completely into the ground. I was just looking at it on Sunday. It does have a black plastic liner. They keep small goldfish in it and since we are in Canada, they release them into the nearby river in the Fall (oh well). My mother has waterlilies growing in it and real frogs come to reside in it every summer. They cause a slight problem because here they hibernate by burying themself at the bottom of the barrel for winter and since the barrel freezes fully, the frogs have to be manually hunted down and put in the river also to save them from certain fate.

I should think that someone is looking for a real problem. Release of non-indigenous species is strictly forbidden. Think about the problem those adorable little bunnies have become in Australia. You should terminate the practice of releasing gold fish into the wild ecosystem. They are certainly not indigenous and will potentially create an enormous problem.

 

[Reefscape]

its a really nice looking pond...a little busy on the plant work for me, but, its great...a job well done there...

Niko

 

[Firebelly__girl]

I like it, anybody know if they sell them larger? =D I would like something like that, but something a lot longer.

 

[feemia]

With that many plants there really isn't any reason to have fish, since you can't see them anyway. Unless you want them for mosquito control. In that case, rosy red minnows are supposed to be even better than mosquito fish for eating mosquito eggs.

 

[galen]

whoa whoa whoa. i will NEVER relase a goldfish into a creek or stream- forget it.

update on the tank: fish died from overfeeding. she fed the little buggers too much and it caused like a MASSIVE ammonia/nitrite spike. so theres no fish now, but is home to the local toad who my mom says hangs out there before hopping into her garden for insect picking!

she might get another fish, but who knows. i hope not- it looks grand the way it is now!