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RE: Future plans for pond

DazzleDiscus — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:26:38 GMT

...According to the chart, the tamps would rarely get below 32*... Goldfish would be fine with that. I've had goldies in my pond before and it can go down in the mid 20s here. (No heater in my ponds)

Koi can live for decades and can reach 4-6 feet long if properly cared for. I have seen 7 koi in a huge pond toping 5ft long- a beautiful sight! personally I wouldn't go more than 3 koi in that pond, along with maybe some smaller goldies. you would need good plant cover for the goldies to survive the koi once they get bigger. They should also breed in the pond so you'll have many replacements...;)

RE: Future plans for pond

filipem — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:30:38 GMT

Goldfish from what understand do not tolerate colder temperatures like Koi do. If it was me I would bring the goldfish inside for the winter

RE: Future plans for pond

Mindnova — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:23:01 GMT

They should overwinter quite well in a 4 foot deep pond. The main purpose of a pond heater is to keep a hole in the ice for gas exchange not to heat the water. Yes I cycled my 200 gallon pond just by not putting fish in for 3 weeks and added creek water.

Adding the plants helps add bacteria and outdoors means you get frogs and stuff blowing on the wind to inoculate your pond. I actually used a couple gallons of water out of the creek with a few rocks with moss. I guess a couple shrimp could be used like someone used in one of the posts.

I think 30 gallon for fancies and 50 for feeder goldfish. Not sure about koi although I consider my 200 gallon pond too small for koi.

Check this out from fosters and smith it's a bog filter (I love lots of plants) http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=2153 I'm trying to figure out how to work one in my established pond.

By the way where did you get that chart it's cool.

Good luck and it's so much fun playing in the mud again.

Future plans for pond

Maraqua — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:26:11 GMT

I was wondering about stocking and overwintering and just a few questions like that. We are renting a house right now but have plans to buy in a few years. I'm just curious if I built a pond that is 6 ft L x 4.5 ft w x 4 ft deep which comes just over 800 gallons how many fancies could I have (orandas, moors etc)? Also I know that fancies like the water a little warmer then their common/koi cousins, I'm thinking size has a lot to do with it. I live in Portland OR which is on the border of Washington state so it does get cold. If I had a pond heater do you think I could over winter, or would I need to bring them inside. I looked up the average highs and lows here is the chart below:

Of course these are averages and we get occasional snow days and Ice storms too. One other question how does one go about cycling a pond??? Is it the same fishless cycleing on a bigger scale,? Of course I'd have lots of plants too and a filtration system and a fountain. I would get the pond system at big Al's for my pond size. Anyway this would be a totally fun project :D