chazycraig Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 (edited) talkin to a few fish enthusiasts that have ponds and other outdoor systems i have realised there is a large variety of fish able to live outdoors even during winter (assuming they were placed in during spring/summer). really would like to know and probably would get some in the spring as i originally stuck to natives (empire gudgeon and crimson spot rainbows). so what i want to know is; what fish and other aquatic life live in the ponds during the winter? smicko's setup - http://www.qldaf.com/forums/ponds-aquaponics-142/14ft-pond-dreams-lol-91661/ butch50s setup - http://www.qldaf.com/forums/ponds-aquaponics-142/butch50s-pond-setup-91963/ rainbowrunner - uses bathtubs, old spas, plastic and fibreglass ponds that i know of atm: bristlenose (albino and longfins) - smicko kribensis -smicko gouramis (three spot/gold, paradise) shrimp (red/glass cherry) - butch50s, smicko live bearers (guppies, mollies, swordies, platys) - yodapswnsasmurf brassilienses - smicko convicts - smicko fenestratus - smicko, yodapswnsasmurf crimson tides - smicko electric yellows - smicko jack dempsey - yodapswnsasmurf flowerhorns - yodapswnsasmurf synspilum - yodapswnsasmurf bettas - yodapswnsasmurf ventralis kalubamba - shon982 NATIVES non lake specific rainbows ( Crimson spot , ornate , Eastern, ) Rhadinocentrus Ornatus: Teewah Creek, Searys creek - grubby Pacific Blue eyes - grubby gudgeons (Firetail, empire, Firetail) - grubby spangled perch - oscar fiend rainbow runner list: Eastern Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia splendida splendida - Boyne River Crimson-spotted Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia duboulayi - Pine Rivers, Noosa River/Lake Cootharaba, Obi Obi Creek Ornate Rainbowfish - Rhadinocentrus ornatus - Snapper Creek, Searys Creek, Noosa River/Lake Cootharaba Pacific Blue eye - Pseudomugil signifier - Obi Obi Creek Honey Blue eye - Pseudomugil mellis - unknown location Empire Gudgeon - Hypseleotris compressa - Snapper Creek, Noosa River Firetail Gudgeon - Hypseleotris galii - Obi Obi Creek Glassfish - Ambassis agassizii and Ambassis marianus - Nth Pine River, Boyne River Flyspecked Hardyhead - Craterocephalus stercusmuscarum - Boyne River known fish that can tolerate it: white clouds goldfish i would like to edit this post to create a list, so any additional info would be appreciated (any heating, water depth, location and in direct sun or not). Thanks. Edited July 5, 2013 by chazycraig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yodapwnsasmurf Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Most of those fish will need to come in during winter, unless the water body is large enough to provide a very stable temp. But I've got/had White Clouds Goldfish Fenestratus Jack Dempsey Paradise fish Platys Flowerhorns Synspilum Bettas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazycraig Posted July 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 (edited) i saw smicko's and he said they are fine out side tho the pond is pretty big. he also does have empty bottles floating to attract heat. Edited July 5, 2013 by chazycraig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazycraig Posted July 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 oops double post. yeh size does matter thats why i would like to kno other info like how they were kept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
floppingflamingos Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 We kept endlers out door this year, they went really well. Winter killed them all but. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubby Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Rhadinocentrus Ornatus, Teewah Creek, Searys creek Pacific Blue eyes Firetail gudgeons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitmini Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 I have a goldfish , some white clouds, guppies and some sort of little orange fish from my neighbors pond. Heaps of plants . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shon982 Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Rainbow fish of different sorts 1 ochrogenys ndole bay some ventralis kalubamba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oscar_fiend Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 spangled perch and feeder gudgeons that mate and supply food for said perch... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainbowrunner Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 All natives Eastern Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia splendida splendida - Boyne River Crimson-spotted Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia duboulayi - Pine Rivers, Noosa River/Lake Cootharaba, Obi Obi Creek Ornate Rainbowfish - Rhadinocentrus ornatus - Snapper Creek, Searys Creek, Noosa River/Lake Cootharaba Pacific Blue eye - Pseudomugil signifier - Obi Obi Creek Honey Blue eye - Pseudomugil mellis - unknown location Empire Gudgeon - Hypseleotris compressa - Snapper Creek, Noosa River Firetail Gudgeon - Hypseleotris galii - Obi Obi Creek Glassfish - Ambassis agassizii and Ambassis marianus - Nth Pine River, Boyne River Flyspecked Hardyhead - Craterocephalus stercusmuscarum - Boyne River and a few mullet - Mugilidae ? .... I use bathtubs, old spas, plastic and fibreglass ponds. I think alot of "rainbowfish" and "blue eyes" from northern Australia and new guinea will do fine too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cturner1 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Reviving a dead post! I have a 2 and a half foot catfish( not sure what it is but it is definitely native. Will post picks of it later on.) and thousands of mosquitofish, lots of fire tail gudgeons( when I introduced them to the pond I put around five in and they breed like crazy! And there is also some ornate rainbowfish. I have caught all of the fish at a few creeks, except for the catfish who inherited from a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TED Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 I have had peppermint bristlenose survive in an outside tank (5x2x2) for 4yrs without any worries. Although there was a heater in the tank, the water temp was at 4 degrees one morning and im sure it didnt get too much above that in the middle of last years winter. They never bred but were all healthy big fish. Swordyz were also in the tank with the peppermints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sclero p Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 I have a sunken boat ornament Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubby Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Rhadinocentrus Ornatus, Teewah Creek, Searys creekPacific Blue eyes Firetail gudgeons Add Florida flag Fish to this list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo89 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Got a roughly 5k litre pond that will soon be used to test out some archer fish, I suspect they should be okay over winter however time will tell, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warren63 Posted June 8, 2014 Report Share Posted June 8, 2014 Have guppies, firetail gudgeons, bristle nose and some cherry shrimp. Had the gudgeons for years but first winter for the rest of them so hoping that the majority are fine. Just reading about a population of wild bettas in the NT so might add a few of those to the mix in spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chazycraig Posted June 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 i think im being a derp, but it seems i can't edit my post. what am i doing wrong? ><. thanks for the new info . edited: it seems i can edit this, it might be cos the other post is alot older? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smicko Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 I had the advantage of it being a metre deep and the fish that survived winter where bred in that pond over summer. Trying tangs in bathtubs this year I will let you know how it goes. Cheers mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishfriendzzz Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hi. I know this thread is a little older but I just tripped over it so thought i'd throw in some info. My pond is around 2000L, entirely above ground and semi shaded. I am a little west of Ipswich and air temps so far this winter have been 0 or below on a number of consecutive nights. I tend to think of, and treat, my pond as an oversize fish tank rather than *just* a pond, and stock accordingly. So far this year, night time water temp has not fallen below 23c. My night time winter temps are better than my day time summer temps! How the hell you ask? I made my own solar water heater! It is supplimented by a 300w Jager but I truely do only mean supplimented as the Jager is set to 20c and rarely kicks in. This has allowed me a bit of freedom in critters. I've probably forgotten a few but here's a list of what's been in there to date: mollys platys swordtails guppies goldfish feeder gungeons neons bristlenose catfish siamese algae eatters long arm shrimp glass shrimp cherry red shrimp apple snails ramshell snails assorted brown snails red claw crayfish blue crayfish freshwater muscles freshwater sponges 2 x oscars - now in their 3rd year, have even laid eggs! venustis manango gourami ... and doubtless a few more forgotten! not everything has coexisted happy, mostly due to large, ever hungry oscars, but I have not to date lost anything due to low temps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubby Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 Rhadinocentrus Ornatus, Teewah Creek, Searys creekPacific Blue eyes Firetail gudgeons Add to that Platys and Florida flag fish. I was reading in a UK fish mag that they use hayin ponds to combat algae. Anyone know why ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grubs Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 I made my own solar water heater! Details, photos? Coils of black dripper hose or something more elaborate? -2.0 here last night... my 1000l pond is 7C brrrrrrrr..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grubby Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 I have a solar swimming pool heater on my roof, when we build our new pool, we wont be using the heater. When that happens I will probably offer it for sale on here if anyone is interested I am sure that it will be easily adapted for pond use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve6610 Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 We kept endlers out door this year, they went really well.Winter killed them all but. Lol lol, we tried that last winter with the same results, its taken me 12 months to get my endlers back, not making that mistake twice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishfriendzzz Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) Grubby, the hay they are most likely talking about is barley straw. it is used a fair bit in ponds for algae control. and counterintuitive as something rotting in your pond helping sounds, it is thought, though they don't know for sure, that as the barly straw rots it produces something similar to hydrogen peroxide. in sustained low doses over a long period the algae snuffs it. Do a quick web search, there's heaps on it. Oh I forgot clown loaches from my list! lol lol Grubs patience petal! I've been thinking on writing up something on it for a while but that'd take almost as long as the couple years tweaking my setup has. For now, here's the 2 cent tour. Basicly there is a 4500lph pump in my pond that pumps water from the pond to a height of about 5 feet and into a foam box. You know the type fish deliveries come in? Yep, its one of them. Rather than just pump the water into the box it pumps it through a roughly 10m coil of 13mm black ag pipe and then exits back to the pond. It is a completely sealed loop, the pond water never contact the box interior. Inside the box is filled with water (about 50l less addins) and has a 2000lph pump which pumps this water up roughly 4 feet and through about 120m of 19mm black ag pipe and then back into the box. The pipe itself holds about 20L and is kept full in addition to water in the box being full. Also in the box are a number of clay pavers and tiles to act as heat traps, plus a small pump to circulate the water inside the box amongst these. This is again a closed loop and this water never enters the pond. By day, assuming good sun, the water in the box peaks from about 38-42c. The only time where the system doesn't work at all is when very windy. Even overcast, drizzly days manage to pick up at least some heat. Day time pond temps in the high 20s are common and well over 30 is possible as I fatally found out one day.... Beyond the actual heating itself there is a truckload of insulation on every pipe, over almost every surface and so on. Being cheap, and on a budget(!!!), this is mostly bubble wrap and foam boards. Not the prettiest, nor UV stabilised, but certainly cheap and functional. Rather than the heated water just being dumped straight back into the pond, I've put a little effort in to how and where it goes. Initially it is pumped into the pond amongst some larger rocks, with smaller as loose fill. This is done in a smaller subsection of the pond I call the hot pool. This is basicly a shallower area where the pond, rocks and false walls, thanks to some ceramics tiles ftom the dump, are designed around recirculating water in this area. This is supplimented by a cheap 2000lph powerhead (thought rarely run that hard) + sponge. This area basicly warms and then radiates out to the rest of the pond water which constantly circulates down a small waterfall via an 8500lph pump. Ok, so I'm sure there are a million questions but first things first. Yes, there are a lot of pumps involved. For the purely heating side of things, the power draw from these is less than a single 300w heater, and I would argue, more effective. And yes, I know I could've, or should've or whatever but my main goal was for a reasonably consistant temperature over a longer period. I don't want a huge spike followed by sudden drop off. From people I've talked to using home solar water systems and just dumping everything possible in, it doesn't work anyway, the heat just bleeds away. By using heat traps and rocks heated to higher temps than the surrounding water in the pond, heat is released more gradually. I am generally able to get heat into the pond until at least 3.30pm, if not quite a bit later, and well and truely past the point a straight solar system can collect heat. And yes, there are some major flaws and deficiencies in the system, particularly that at the moment it is manual control. To work effectively, taps changing the flow of water from going through the box to bypassing it need to be flipped based on pond water temperature in pond, temp of water flowing out of the box, temp of water in the box etc. I haven't found thermostats versitile enough to handle this, let along within my budget and water friendly to boot! I have started playing with arduino which seems to have the potential for control all this via solinoids and temp sensors but I haven't got that far yet. I have looked at a few other arduino builds which could be extended to my needs but for what its worth I might as well build it myself. And yes, there are many possible improvements, such as using something like oil or salty water through the heating loop on the roof to pick up and maintain more heat. Want to be a little more sure there is no potential for pipe leakage on that one though! lol And yes, the system can potentially be scaled up to heat larger ponds. Two of the biggest limitations are the size of the heating box and the coil inside it. Having talked to a few people with larger ponds about doing something similar, someone came up with the brilliant idea of using and old fridge or chest freezer. It's already insulated, reasonably easy to flip on its back and make water tight, and away you go! That might be something I try next winter This is my second winter using the system so I consider it an evolution. And yes, the devil is in the details as far as fittings, flow valves, bleed points etc but hopefully this has given you a broad overview! Edited August 12, 2014 by fishfriendzzz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckshot Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 (edited) fishfriendzzz you've lost me lol. Need a video on YouTube. Sounds like a great heater though. Edited August 12, 2014 by Buckshot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
