So if you can keep them outside in Montana I should be able to do a pond outside in Oklahoma? DO you ever see your fish? You cant leave the cover off because of the temperature drop? You must have a hellofa electric bill warming all of that water? Love it though!!
Catfish Bonanza
- Thread starter necrocanis
- Start date
my electric bill with all my tanks here in montana is way cheaper than just having 3 tanks in north carolina. My power bill runs about $75 a month. My water bill runs about $15 per month. As for the pond, when it is very cold you will need an insulated lid. I built the pond jacuzzi style. It has hella insulation all around it. 2" plastic coated foam insulation all around, all gaps filled with great stuff, and inside of that insulation regular attic insulation in 16" batts. The lid has blown in insulation on top about 7" thick, and underneath it has the 2" plastic coated foam insulationl, all wrapped in a tarp. As a suggestion I would use something besides a tarp as it does not prove very water resistant and all the insulation there is now soaked. Just for gee wizz the pond is now in my garage, the outside deal was a temporary fix, because my idiot landlord wouldn't let me keep it in my garage at the time. I now am buying my own house, and I am going buck wild on my aquatic hobby. 2 new tanks in the plans right now. Hoping to at least get my 300-350 gal aquarium up and running this summer, and next summer have my 2500 gal aquarium up and running. Oh, and with all that insulation once the water got to around 78 f. it stayed there and the heater barely ran at all unless I opened the top to feed. Hope this helps. Where you are I would get one of these cattle troughs and bury it, there shouldn't be perma frost where you are during the winter so you should be fine to bury it, and just make an insulated lid for the winter. That will save you lots of dough.
But you would still insulate around the trough? Or just bury It and use a heater and a lid? What kind of heater do you recommend?
I would definitely use a titanium heater. Depends on how cold it will get there during the winter as to what size heater you will need. go here to calculated the size of your pond and the amount of wattage you will need in a heater http://boonedocks.net/fishtank/ftweb.php it's a really great resource. I would say just bury the pond I would think that the insulation around it wouldn't do much.
one thought that comes to mind is that if you dig a hole bigger than the pond you want to make, line it so that no moisture would get to the insulation, then you could put the pond on the insulation and seal it between the liner and the pond. That would provide you some great insulation. That way it is not in touch with the air or the ground. Should retain heat really good. I used 2 500w titanium heaters with a controller. Kept the temp 78 f. even at -30f. Just remember that only works with the insulated lid though. So you should be good like that otherwise you are looking at some major money to make an above ground pond capable of withstanding harse winter temps and weather.
Hey guys,
Here's the latest update. First off I am so greatfull to have such an understanding wife. She never says I have too many catfish. lol. Lucky me. I will be adding a 2100 gal pond to my setups. Hopefully within the next month. BIG NEWS!!!!!! I finally have a RTC!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I had to bargain with the owner of a lfs in order to get one in. I showed him all my tanks and catfish. He was awestruck by my big hybrid. He said he trusted that I could definitely take care of a rtc, so he ordered it. It came in yesterday as I got back from work. I went and picked it up and took him home. He was a little bit skinny, but I mixed up some smashed blood worms and red cichlid pellets in some aquarium water, and sucked them up in a small medicine dropper. He came right to the dropper and sucked up the food as I squirted it into his mouth. It was hillarious. YAY again. He ate instantly when I put him in the tank. He is only 1.5" by far the smallest catfish I have ever bought. I had no choice but to put him in the 10 gal for now, lol. My cory cats dwarf him as you will see in the pics. I have had my new tsn for 2 weeks now. He's grown from 3" to 5" as you will see again in the pics. It amazes me everytime how fast tsn babies grow. Now for the bad news, with the new comes the old. My belove planiceps died yesterday from a severe infection of his torn tail. I tried to house him with my hybrid and he got the short end of the stick. The hybrid ripped half his tail off. I immediately quarantined him, and started a salt, and melafix treatment. When i got home last night he was dead
he was 24" long, and I had him for about 7 months since he was 13". He will be severely missed. Such a beautiful catfish, and so hard to obtain. My albino channels are now approaching 9", and have beautiful fins. They are a far cry from the finless tadpoles I first rescued. Their fins are imaculate now. Judge for yourself in the pics. They had barely any fins at all when I first got them. They are fat as hell now lol. My lump head tsn is about 13", and very skittish right now. Can't wait to get my new pond up and running. There will be about a total of 200 gals of filter media, and sumps on it, and I will hopefully be turning over roughly 10,000 gph on it. It will be enormous. 12" dia. and 30" deep. Enjoy the pics.
Here's the latest update. First off I am so greatfull to have such an understanding wife. She never says I have too many catfish. lol. Lucky me. I will be adding a 2100 gal pond to my setups. Hopefully within the next month. BIG NEWS!!!!!! I finally have a RTC!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I had to bargain with the owner of a lfs in order to get one in. I showed him all my tanks and catfish. He was awestruck by my big hybrid. He said he trusted that I could definitely take care of a rtc, so he ordered it. It came in yesterday as I got back from work. I went and picked it up and took him home. He was a little bit skinny, but I mixed up some smashed blood worms and red cichlid pellets in some aquarium water, and sucked them up in a small medicine dropper. He came right to the dropper and sucked up the food as I squirted it into his mouth. It was hillarious. YAY again. He ate instantly when I put him in the tank. He is only 1.5" by far the smallest catfish I have ever bought. I had no choice but to put him in the 10 gal for now, lol. My cory cats dwarf him as you will see in the pics. I have had my new tsn for 2 weeks now. He's grown from 3" to 5" as you will see again in the pics. It amazes me everytime how fast tsn babies grow. Now for the bad news, with the new comes the old. My belove planiceps died yesterday from a severe infection of his torn tail. I tried to house him with my hybrid and he got the short end of the stick. The hybrid ripped half his tail off. I immediately quarantined him, and started a salt, and melafix treatment. When i got home last night he was dead
he was 24" long, and I had him for about 7 months since he was 13". He will be severely missed. Such a beautiful catfish, and so hard to obtain. My albino channels are now approaching 9", and have beautiful fins. They are a far cry from the finless tadpoles I first rescued. Their fins are imaculate now. Judge for yourself in the pics. They had barely any fins at all when I first got them. They are fat as hell now lol. My lump head tsn is about 13", and very skittish right now. Can't wait to get my new pond up and running. There will be about a total of 200 gals of filter media, and sumps on it, and I will hopefully be turning over roughly 10,000 gph on it. It will be enormous. 12" dia. and 30" deep. Enjoy the pics.
the tsn x rtc is somewhere around 33" and still growing. The limas are 11", 11", and 13-14". My biggest tsn with the lump head is close to the length of the biggest lima now. lol. It's been kinda funny to see the limas bigger than one of those guys for the past 4 1/2 months. The tsn has grown from 3 1/;2" to his current 13" in that time frame. My other tsn I have had for a little over 2 weeks and he is currently 5" got him the same size as the other one. The big hybrid is a loner for now. Might be a year before anyone can be housed with him. Then it will be up in the air. I will be putting my two tsn, and rtc in my 350 gal pond until they are big enough to go in with the hybrid. I so wish my planiceps hadn't died. It was the most beautiful catfish I have ever owned. I might also end up putting the limas in the pond after I move the larger cats. I want to try and breed them. I will be getting several more for this attempt. I hope to have 8 full grown limas in the pond for my breeding attempt. I am going to do a lot of research on it.
AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa good to see you finally got one and nice to see the owner of the LFS takeing
some interest in were the fish was going. Big boy is looking stunning now a real jewel in the crown of the catfish collection there. Keep up the good work and keep us updated.
some interest in were the fish was going. Big boy is looking stunning now a real jewel in the crown of the catfish collection there. Keep up the good work and keep us updated.
