Considering a Tropical Pond

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
get two and feed them often and you will have plenty of fish still in the pond. Plus its great when you can show friends a wels that will take from your hand!!
 
I hadn't pulled the cover back since removing the bog filters because it's been pretty windy. So I just did since the fish must be pretty hungry and Wow! the water looks so much better and the surface algae looks like it going away already. Not great pics but it looks alot better than it did...


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go with some hybrid farm raised Pbass they are cheap.. if you can keep the temp at 70 in the winter you'll be just fine.
 
tampa_bass said:
go with some hybrid farm raised Pbass they are cheap.. if you can keep the temp at 70 in the winter you'll be just fine.
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I got the mono's as my test cichla, they're farm raised and cheap. Maybe they are hybrids idk. Just need to get them pellet trained before they can go to the pond. Got all of them off of live. Two of them just started taking pellets about a week ago, the others are being really stubborn and will only take frozen foods...irritating. Hopefully they'll learn from the other two soon.

Keeping it at 70 wasn't a problem this winter. Do winter water temps get down to 70 in Florida where they are surviving?
 
Duncan6618 said:
I got the mono's as my test cichla, they're farm raised and cheap. Maybe they are hybrids idk. Just need to get them pellet trained before they can go to the pond. Got all of them off of live. Two of them just started taking pellets about a week ago, the others are being really stubborn and will only take frozen foods...irritating. Hopefully they'll learn from the other two soon.

Keeping it at 70 wasn't a problem this winter. Do winter water temps get down to 70 in Florida where they are surviving?
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In Central FL, I had a 10 incher flip over on me in my 1000 gallon pond which is only 3 feet deep. You might have better chances since your pond is deeper. It was a cold snap too, you know, 70 one day and then high 30 low 40 the next morning.
 
Duncan6618 said:
I got the mono's as my test cichla, they're farm raised and cheap. Maybe they are hybrids idk. Just need to get them pellet trained before they can go to the pond. Got all of them off of live. Two of them just started taking pellets about a week ago, the others are being really stubborn and will only take frozen foods...irritating. Hopefully they'll learn from the other two soon.

Keeping it at 70 wasn't a problem this winter. Do winter water temps get down to 70 in Florida where they are surviving?
Click to expand...
water temps can and do get into the lower 60's for short periods.. there was a minor die off from very cold temps last year.. remember the canals in south florida are fairly deep and several are connected to the aquifer where water flows out at 72 constantly so they can find warmer pockets to survive..
63-64 seems to be the limit for ocel/mono before their systems start shutting down according to the research done here..
 
I moved a few fish to the pond last week.

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The albino oscar was my favorite. He came out of the bucket and swam 15 feet straight towards the channel cats mouth while I yelled NOOOOO!:angryfire :wall:. RIP albino oscar :cry: .
 
Uncovered the pond today. The 2 new oscars and the tinfoil were smart enough to stay away from the channel cat :clap.

Pic doesn't really show the size very well but my pleco's have gotten huge over the winter.

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