gobies et al Posted June 7, 2008 Report Share Posted June 7, 2008 Outdoor pond season has arrived. For some of you, your thoughts go to goldfish and koi. There are options. I like to make my ponds like a community tank. These are some of the fish I have kept in my outdoor pond (not overwintered): Koi Common Goldfish Comet Goldfish Rosy Barb (Barbus conchonius) Weather Loach (Misgurnus angullicaudatus) White Cloud Mountain Minnow (Tanichtys albonubes) Zebra Danio (Brachydanio rerio) Common Hypostomus (brought in when water temperature dropping under 60 F) Boesemani Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia boesemani) (brought in ~60 F) Western Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia splendida australis) Rosy Red Minnow Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis) All brought in beginning of September or water temperature staying in low 50's. Others I have heard can be out but haven't tried: Gold Barb (Barbus schuberti) Green Barb (Barbus semifasciolatus) Pearl Danio (Brachydanio albolineatus) What others have people had success with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted June 7, 2008 Report Share Posted June 7, 2008 Any SA fish that comes from higher altitudes will do fine - maybe even now! Some Apistos, Geos, Gymnos, Corys. etc. will probably love being outdoors for the summer. Catching them come fall may be tough, tho. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted June 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2008 Catching the barbs was interesting too. They were still very active @ 55. I had to use a drag net for them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qattarra Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 It would be fun. I hear that fish kept outdoors under the sun have the most vibrant beautiful colours. I also heard it triggers many to breed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted June 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Any SA fish that comes from higher altitudes will do fine - maybe even now! Some Apistos, Geos, Gymnos, Corys. etc. will probably love being outdoors for the summer. Catching them come fall may be tough, tho. If I ever set up another pond, I'll have to look into trying some of those! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arixonbarnes Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 swordtails (helleri) do okay but if the temperature drops into the low sixties you need to pull them out as that seems to be the minimum temperature for them in my experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodsboys Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 I've kept guppies(fancy and feeder),blue gill and green sunfish, and baby bullhead catfish in my ponds. This was in Florida and Virginia. Up here the only non goldfish I have tried is the dojo loaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodsboys Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Oh yeah, I have also kept betta fish in my ponds.Multiple males and females. Usually end up with plenty of extras come fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted June 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Oh yeah, I have also kept betta fish in my ponds.Multiple males and females. Usually end up with plenty of extras come fall. That's neat! I have only tried 1 in an indoor pond. How many males and females did you have and in what size of pond? What temperature range did you have? How did their fins stand up to the cooler temperatures (fin rot) and competitors? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodsboys Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I threw in 3 males and 3 females.All veiltails. These were goldfish in there as well. I did not do anything special for them or worry about temps. It was one of those preformed 125 gallon ponds. By fall when I removed them there were about 50 bettas. They all looked healthy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finbert Posted June 10, 2008 Report Share Posted June 10, 2008 I read that axolotls do quite well in outdoor ponds, because they prefer cooler water. (After seeing them at the auction, I became smitten and did a bunch of reading) Not sure they'd be a good community critter though, because they have big wide hungry mouths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobies et al Posted June 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2008 I read that axolotls do quite well in outdoor ponds, because they prefer cooler water. (After seeing them at the auction, I became smitten and did a bunch of reading) Not sure they'd be a good community critter though, because they have big wide hungry mouths. It is too bad that they are such indiscriminating eaters! They would otherwise be great to keep the populations under control. Fascinating creature!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lotsafish Posted June 13, 2008 Report Share Posted June 13, 2008 mine are a little bigger...I'll have set up by next summer, aligator gar pond, catfish pond and my sw bamboo shark bond (to be housed in heated quanset) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrogFan23 Posted June 13, 2008 Report Share Posted June 13, 2008 (edited) I read that axolotls do quite well in outdoor ponds, because they prefer cooler water. (After seeing them at the auction, I became smitten and did a bunch of reading) Not sure they'd be a good community critter though, because they have big wide hungry mouths. It is too bad that they are such indiscriminating eaters! They would otherwise be great to keep the populations under control. Fascinating creature!! That they are. Not only are they fascinating, but they are very smart and incredibly good hunters. Best kept at 15 C, however. Edited June 13, 2008 by FrogFan23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted June 13, 2008 Report Share Posted June 13, 2008 I put around 50 feeder guppies outside in a 150 gal trough around 6 weeks ago Just checked on them this morning had to move the 2 inches of duckweed floating on top but they are alive and well even saw some baby's in there, and it hasn't been that warm latley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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