Breeding Livebearers

[Ludwig Venter]

I have these outside ponds (with at this stage) Guppies and Mollies.... I only need heaters in the winter from May, to the beginning of August, but they just flourish..... The pics below shows about 20 guppy fry introduced in September this year and about 30 mollies since February.... Bursting out the seams.... They are in 3ft X 4ft x 3ft deep ponds.....

The Mollies

The Guppies

 

[pippoodle]

would be great to be able to do that in the uk
i envy you

 

[Truck]

i love your ponds,

there great, when im a bit older i might keep an outdoor pond....indoors, in the UK you see

 

[malakye]

Must be amazing to just keep them like that, I would love too but its way too cold here.

 

[OldMan47]

You can have almost the same setup in a temperate climate by using a large tub for some months of the year. As Truck said, it is not a real pond but is the way you might make an indoor / outdoor pond. I bought a 150 gallon stock tank, think horse trough, and had it in my back yard for a few months this summer. I'm afraid my ability to view the fish was as limiting as the one Ludwig showed in the pictures but I used a fountain to provide circulation of the water with a sponge filter on it. By the end of summer, when I had to bring the fish indoors, the fish looked better than any I had in my home tanks. Next year I am going to extend the season by raising goodeids in that tub instead of wild swordtails but I will expect them to do even better. After all, goodeids temperature preferences will mean an extra 2 or 3 months outdoors.
This is one picture of it under the shade of some trees. Around here it gets too hot in summer to leave the fish unprotected.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I also have some powerful pumps in there to circulate the water to the bottom of a 40 gal drum,... filled with grades of filter media to the top of the drum, where an overflow pipe gravitates it back into the pond.... The inlet suction side of the pump is a bit of a problem though....

I put the pump into a plastic bucket with lots of holes punced into the bucket, I cover the whole lot with one of my wife's silk stockings, (to prevent sucking up the fish, obviously) but after only a few days, all the holes get clogged, and the (hard) plastic bucket implodes with the suction power of the pump.....

Anybody got a suggestion how to overcome that problem??

 

[Tolak]

I had a very similar setup to OldMan47, 150 gallon tub, started with about 20 platys;

I started running it in April, lows down to the upper 20'sF. A 1kw agricultural bucket heater supplied heat, some old moving blankets for insulation, and a heat controller for the heater. You can see the controller on the pedestal on the left.

I was able to run it early April until November, when it was getting too cold to justify the electric needed for the heat. It was in pretty much direct sunlight, I would keep it covered with a large sheet of 2" thick styrofoam during most of the day.

I had a couple of powerheads attached to 2 liter bottles with bio media, floss, and a large sponge. This would need cleaning about once weekly, it would actually start to plug.

Planning ahead for next summer, I've collected a couple of more powerful pumps, some 1 gallon buckets, and plan on doing a super sized version of this; http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=85297

From what I have on hand so far, I figure 3 buckets, 1" pvc, a mix of gravel & bio media on the bottom, floss on the top. Submerge the whole shebang, when it needs cleaning grab the handle, pull it out. I figure the surface area of the bucket will more than diffuse the flow enough to keep fry from getting hung up.

Biggest problem I has was a really nice algae bloom, once I began covering it, and some water lettuce grew in it was resolved. Some of the fry did get hung in the bottle/filter contraption, so I figure more surface area on the intake equals reduced flow. I hope.

 

[Spannaz]

the biggest problem with ponds is getting the water out, not in. On mylast build (32' X 11' X 6') we found that sinking the filter into the ground level with the pond allows you to bottom drain the water into the filter. This meant that you obviously had to fit a drain but once that was done the filter filled itself up, never clogged or anything like that, and you only needed a small pump to return the water to the pond as it was all at the same level. This meant less power, noise and cost. To do this to a smaller pond/tank would be even easier and can be reproduced above ground if you keep both levels the same. Having them in the ground has the advantage of warming the water, so in the UK that can't be a bad thing. Maintenace on this system was simple and very quick. You can if you choose use a cloverleaf of buckets with different media thus reducing cost further more.
I'd love to do it but no longer have the garden for it, as i'd imagine that fish in natural daylight would probably be just like us, damn sight happier on a sunny beach than on a sun bed in the high street! lol

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Yes you're right Tolak... Not really reduced flow in volume, but definitely in velocity....

On one of my contraptions, the pump allows for that arrangement as it has a single inlet where I could fit a hose onto and at the other end of the hose, I put a cutoff 2l plastic bottle covered with netting, but the other pumps have multiple slotted inlets, which can only be covered with my bucket arrangement.... Geez!!... now I've confused myself, but I'm sure you'll know what I'm trying to say.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Apart from my Guppies and mollies kept outside as shown in the opening photographs, I also have my Blue gouramies in such setup, (photo below) & they breed spontaneously in there, as well as Convicts, which swim too close to the bottom for a decent photo of them.

 

[helterskelter]

I love your ponds

Wish we could do this in the UK.

Perhaps you should sell them to shops and stuff

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I love your ponds

Wish we could do this in the UK.

Perhaps you should sell them to shops and stuff

Have a shop in town,... but they're too clever to buy locally (at almost giveaway prices... & cash/ or equivalent in fish or stocks only collected after the fish are sold).... According to them, their water pH is not the same as the town water (they get it from a borehole) so they'd rather import their fish from Singapor.... The difference in pH will cause my fish to die in their waters....

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I took out the one pond in the garage yesterday, scrubbed it and put it up outside.... The Idea is to progressively move all my guppies to this pond (at a scoop per day) untill their pond is empty, wash their tank, move the mollies there etc, etc, until all the outside fish are in clean abodes....

This is todays' scoop... (one netfull) of guppies transferred to their new (Clean) quarters....It is less than a third of the total amount....

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Personally, I did not begin to realise how many guppies were actually in that original pond....

I've been scooping at least 300 per day for the last week, (cause after the first scoop, the bottom rubbish is stirred & I do not want to transfer this to their new pond), and there are still (at least) 1,000 of them left...

This is gonna take a month of Saturdays to get them all out of their old pond....

 

[Tolak]

This is gonna take a month of Saturdays to get them all out of their old pond....

This made me laugh, as it did take me at least a month of Saturdays to get mine half emptied. I brought platys to all the fall auctions, donated bags full of platys to the kids section we have with our regular auction, and still had lord knows how many. Every Saturday, catching a new batch, bagging them up, and filling a styro. By the time it got cold and time to shut it down, I filled a 40 gallon tank with platys, enough left for the next few month's auctions.

Hope you like having guppys around!