Thank you for the education, Barb! I'm really excited to get my little eco system cranking now. So, I did some rennovations to my pot. Less plants, and a bubble stone this time, as you can see. The pump is visible in the picture, but now I have it hidden under the up-side-down pot, raised off the cement, and I put the Caladium on top so as not to poison the fish this time! So Barb, if I understand correctly, I can put the fish in a few days from now, but don't feed them, or just feed them sparingly? And is there a way to test the water for all those wonderful little poo eating bacteria you talked about, or should I just assume they're in there after about 4 weeks? ( photo / image / picture from beth3980's Garden )
Good girl. Yes feed sparingly when you get fish. Comets are feeder fish which is what you want to get an ecosystem going. I used to sell them for 10 cents. Look for them. Feed one flake....not per fish nor for each mouthful. Just one flake. I prefer Hikari pellets. If they are still called that. They are little "green" the size of pin heads or small beebees. The fish may not eat them at first. Feed one only each day and I guarentee you in a week, they will be eating them whole. Then after that you can feed about 2 or 3 to each of them. That is much cleaner. Make the fish come to the top for food. Don't let the food sit on the bottom for them to graze later. We should never eat in between meals for the next meal our appetite will be spoiled. Now fish is a good thing to put in at the start. It will start the cycle. Don't let the kids name them till they are in there for 1 month. Tell them "if they decide to stay with us for a certain length of time they will become ours, but they are not ours till then." Now then. In the first week you may see cloudiness. That will be the ammonia. It will look like the kids added a shot glass of milk to the tank. Do a 1/4 water change. No more than that. If you do everything correctly, add only a few fish, feed correctly, and water change, all of a sudden the cloudiness will be gone.....just in one day.....you will be shocked....then it will be in the nitrite stage. this stage is far less harmful to the fish and you are well on your way to completion of the nitrogen cycle. You shouldn't have to test but I used to test my customers water for free. You should make sure you at least get ammonia if you are going to pay for it. Remember that would be about 7 days into it after you add fish. I realize many of you think I am all wet but this is how a very new person can grasp the whole thing. I lived every minute of every day of the year teaching new hobbyist. I did it for 27 years. I loved my work. I don't miss it but I am always willing to help my fellow human.....Happily. I have an aquarium patent, have a copy rite book in the library in the Library of Congress. My hubby is a master breeder, past president of the fish club of America, Betta and general show judge and we are published in the major fish hobbyist magazines. Barb in Pa.
Fantastic info! Thank you SO much. And what great advice about not letting my son name the fish right away. We certainly learned that one the hard way last time! Well, stay tuned... I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks again, all!
We've had our fish for over a week now, and they seem to be doing well! I got a small underwater plant, the kind they sell in pet stores for fish tanks. Wasn't sure how it would do in an outdoor pot, but it looks great so far and the fishies love it. Like how we resolved the issue of the jumping fish? We just taped skewers around the pot and wrapped plastic wrap around it. We kept it on for about a week so they could adjust to their new home. Took it off a few days ago and so far nobody's jumped ship. I noticed when I was in the pet store that they had different sizes of koi, sm, med, and lg. Any advice about my itch to add a small koi? Bad idea, fine idea? ( photo / image / picture from beth3980's Garden )
Great solution for the "jumpers"! I've never owned a Koi... so I won't offer any advice in that dept. I've actually been considering one... so I'll keep watching here to learn more about them.
Took this happy fish pic with my underwater camera! ( photo / image / picture from beth3980's Garden )
So, in essence, what you did with that plastic was to lover the water level or made the little tank taller. Whatever works. So you want to add a Koi?? Remember they have 2 little whiskers under their mouth. Remember they will grow. Start small.
Barb, do you think this pot is large enough to support one small Koi? It's about 18" across and 5" deep to the pebble floor. And will the Koi only grow in proportion to the pot or is it possible it could outgrow it? Also, today I noticed the fish were extremely active and eating a lot. Normally I can barely see them because all they do is hide out. What's up with the sudden burst of activity you think?
It wouldn't hurt if you added a Koi. You just never know if it will grow to the size of the home our outgrow it quickly. It really depends on the fish. I don't believe anyone can tell you how large a fish will grow because there are too many variables. I do know that the one thing to make them grow faster is small water changes very very often, about every other day. That's not the only way to do it but breeders do this to get the fry up to selling size in 6 weeks. Not sure why they're more active when you are around. Maybe they are getting more used to their now home and their outside family. (you) Fish do recognize their keepers. You can tame them and have relationships with them. They are very smart in their own little world.
You could try Shubunkin Goldfish mine have been in the pond for 5 years now and each spring when the ice melts there they are. Shubunkin Goldfish are the ones with the mettalic collars ( photo / image / picture from gbronner's Garden ) Good luck with your contaner
I have Shubunkin too. They are more expensive than the Comets, but they seem to survive longer. Not to mention, they are prettier.
I promised myself not to come back to this thread but I did and now I cannot sit on my hands, Please do not add koi to that tiny pond. Koi do not grow to the size of the container, they grow to the size they are genetically programmed to grow, We raised koi for many years, they are very special fish and they need good filtration, they also need depth to develop properly, 3-5 feet is recommended as minimum. If you do not believe me go to one of the online koi boards to look for minimum water conditions. www.koishack.com is a good one. I helped found that board years ago.
No worries, LynnD! I did enough research to realize that adding koi would be a very bad idea! I'll just have to wait until we move somewhere where a real pond will be more feasible. gbronner, thanks for the Shubunkin pic! I might look into those... they're lovely!
My fishies are still doing great! We added a Shubunkin to the family and he's just wonderful. Any suggestions for controlling algae in such a small environment? With the weather getting cold I really don't want to be outside scrubbing wet green gunk every few weeks!
