On May 9, 11:52 am, Olde Hippee wrote:
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
3 clown loaches purchased May 1991, and still going strong in a
planted aquarium.

I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too
short to make it practical here.
d.

wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 9, 11:52 am, Olde Hippee wrote:
Hi All, I don't think I've ever seen this asked before.
3 clown loaches purchased May 1991, and still going strong in a
planted aquarium.

I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too
short to make it practical here.
d.
==================================
Eeeeek! Do you live in Alaska?
--

RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
ISP: Hughes.net
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

On May 20, 2:30 pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:
Do you live in Alaska?

I'm in northeastern Canada and would rather be in Tennesee as far as
climate goes. Heck, upstate NY would be a climatic improvement.

BTW there was an AKCarol posting on another group last year,
purporting to be from Alaska. An ummmmm, acquaintance of yours??
d.

Coming from zone 5, having lived in zone 3-4 for 11 years, and lived
in zone 7 (I think) I can tell you that the shorter your summers, the
MORE you need a pond. But not just any pond, you need one inside at
minimum a wind barrier, better yet one inside a greenhouse of some
sort. greenhouses DO NOT need to be glass or "hardware", they can be
plastic or even made of ripstop nylon on the sides as long as the top
is plastic to let in the sun.

I put a plastic cover over my pond, drop in a tank heater and my fish
are active nearly all winter even tho my pond is partially above
ground. Most months the temp is above 50 and I feed lightly.

I am now in the process of constructing an outdoor room around the
pond so we can enjoy sitting out there all year long. A big part of
my design is a cheap ceiling mounted combo halogen light and quartz
heater. It is infrared which means where I am sitting can be warmed
nicely without heating the whole thing.

Ingrid

On Sun, 20 May 2007 10:38:27 CST, wrote:
I'm still dreaming about a pond but the summer season's really too
short to make it practical here.
d.

On May 21, 10:01 am, wrote:
Coming from zone 5, having lived in zone 3-4 for 11 years, and lived
in zone 7 (I think) I can tell you that the shorter your summers, the
MORE you need a pond. But not just any pond, you need one inside at
minimum a wind barrier, better yet one inside a greenhouse of some
sort. greenhouses DO NOT need to be glass or "hardware", they can be
plastic or even made of ripstop nylon on the sides as long as the top
is plastic to let in the sun.

Good advice, thank you. It's a friendly group you have here.

Does anyone here keep small aquarium fish - danios etc - in ponds for
the summer?

I'm in the colder part of zone 4a close to zone 3 - if Canada uses
same system as the United States for plant hardiness zones. The boreal
forest - think Russian taiga - is a 40 minute drive to the north, and
our lakes get thick ice that leaves in mid-late April.

Any normal garden pond would freeze to the bottom, and fish would need
to come in for the winter. A greenhouse (pond house?) would certainly
work, but instead I have a handful of aquariums. I still look at the
"Laguna" pond kits in the store, and imagine setting up a small pond
for plants and my zebra danios and platies - we'll see. The kits are
sold in my town, and relatives in warmer parts of Canada certainly
have kept goldfish ponds.
d.

Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Oldest koi is around 25 years old, but pond is now 29 years old and
we also put 40 tiny baby Golden Orfe in several batches over the
first two years and we still have about a dozen of them (they are
huge and it's not worth putting any more koi in whilst they are
there since the koi respond to the adult orfe pheromones and now
don't grow!!)


We have not added orfes. How did you learn about the pheromone
influence of orfes on koi?

Phyllis
Phylliss

Sorry for late reply.

The issue of pheromones is well documented (I've seen many references since
I started to keep fish and I was also into marines - seahorses, in
particular - for a long time). I was a member of British Koi Keepers and
British Marine Aquarists, read all the magazines available over here, in the
UK, and also tried to get as much as possible from the USA. I also attended
the UK trade association for a couple of years as a representative of the
Seahorse group I set up.

Koi not generating pheromones when they reach adulthood was common knowledge
(and is why koi kept in a koi only system only stop growing when they reach
their natural limit or the size dictated by the conditions, e.g. pond size
or, more exactly, depth), but all (or most) other fish do (used for sex
changes in some marine fish). It was "common knowledge" (in other words - I
can't remember the exact source, but there many!) in the 1970s/1980s that
although koi did not generate pheromones they react to other fish
(particularly goldfish since these are from the same family of fish) and
there were several references to orfe, as well. My own experience supports
this.

Peter
--
Peter & Elizabeth Corser
Leighton Buzzard, UK

I am not sure what you mean by "normal pond", but if you have lakes
with fish, then you can have a pond with fish outside. we had a person
in the group from some Scandinavian country and their solution is to
wait until the ice freezes and then they draw down the water leaving
an insulating air gap. the water doesnt freeze.

another person in Canada had an indoor pond. this is actually
something I am planning if my outside setup does not satisfy pond
needs. Ingrid

On Mon, 21 May 2007 09:02:11 CST, wrote:
Any normal garden pond would freeze to the bottom, and fish would need
to come in for the winter. A greenhouse (pond house?) would certainly
work, but instead I have a handful of aquariums. I still look at the
"Laguna" pond kits in the store, and imagine setting up a small pond
for plants and my zebra danios and platies - we'll see. The kits are
sold in my town, and relatives in warmer parts of Canada certainly
have kept goldfish ponds.
d.

On May 22, 10:47 am, wrote:
I am not sure what you mean by "normal pond", but if you have lakes
with fish, then you can have a pond with fish outside.

By normal pond I mean 3 feet deep or something. A pond that will not
require a swimming pool fence .

There are many lakes around here; indeed they're everywhere. A popular
winter pastime is ice fishing - sitting in a little heated shack
drinking grog while waiting for the fish to bite.
d.

On May 22, 9:42 pm, wrote:

By normal pond I mean 3 feet deep or something. A pond that will not
require a swimming pool fence .
There are many lakes around here; indeed they're everywhere. A popular
winter pastime is ice fishing - sitting in a little heated shack
drinking grog while waiting for the fish to bite.
d.

I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that
gets a good layer of ice on it every winter and I always have fish &
fry that winter over from 2-8" in length. I know of others who have
smaller ponds and notice that depth seems to be the deciding factor as
much as width & length. I know from talking to one of the pet store
owners here that she has a preform KOI pond that she overwinters every
year , as opposed to bringing in, and some of her koi are now huge.
As for ice fishing have never really enjoyed that, heated hut is nice,
but warm crackling fire is much better.

Elaine

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:58:13 CST, earhtmother
wrote:

I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that
gets a good layer of ice on it every winter and I always have fish &
fry that winter over from 2-8" in length. I know of others who have
smaller ponds and notice that depth seems to be the deciding factor as
much as width & length. I know from talking to one of the pet store
owners here that she has a preform KOI pond that she overwinters every
year , as opposed to bringing in, and some of her koi are now huge.
As for ice fishing have never really enjoyed that, heated hut is nice,
but warm crackling fire is much better.

Elaine

Hi Elaine, :-)

What do you do to keep an opening in the ice for gas/O2 exchange?
~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:58:13 CST, earhtmother
wrote:

I live in Gravenhurst ON, Z3 and have a 15' x 21' x 3/3.5' pond that
gets a good layer of ice on it every winter

On Jun 11, 2:06 pm, ~ jan wrote:
What do you do to keep an opening in the ice for gas/O2 exchange?
~ jan

We have a Laguna fountain in the middle that we just take the first
section of pipe & head off. This works well as long as you keep an
eye on the ice volcano that grows up around it and try to keep the top
open , although this year actually knocked the whole thing sideways
into the pond and still only lost 2-3 of the larger goldies. There
still LOTS of fry and at least 20 6-8" goldies so am not tooo worried
about it now. We also have a "sump' pump that pumps the ground water
that accumulates under the liner back into the pond so until that
freezes it is going as well. DH liked the look of the fountain
without it's sprayhead so much that we actually have npot put it back
together just left it to "jet" up as oppossed to the mushroom shape it
usually is.

On a side note what is the plant your frog is hiding out in, it looks
like a rhipsalis but I am not sure. I have become addicted to all
things rhipsalis and am always looking for new (to me) varieties.

Elaine