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#1
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I am building a small outdoor pond to breed cichlids in. I haven't decided
whether to go with Sounth American or African cichlids yet... Pond will be approx 500 - 600 Gallons.... Never done this before, so any advice regarding plants, filteration, feasability of raising cichlids this way, would be appreciated.. I am in the Toronto area on Ontario Canada. |
#2
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I am building a small outdoor pond to breed cichlids in. I haven't decided
whether to go with Sounth American or African cichlids yet... Pond will be approx 500 - 600 Gallons.... Never done this before, so any advice regarding plants, filteration, feasability of raising cichlids this way, would be appreciated.. I am in the Toronto area on Ontario Canada. Depending on your location... you'll probably need a serious heater to keep the water as stabily warm as it is in the native countries. I know one guy who is doing this and the #1 concern was building a permanent gas-exchange and heating system for the pond. |
#3
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
On Thu, 01 May 2003 14:10:56 GMT, "Madd Hatter"
wrote: I'm in the Toronto area (I think this equates weather wise to Michigan, near the lakes)... I don't plan to make this a year round thing. I heard that around june 1st the temp. gets warm enough to keep atleast South American in there. I know there will probably be a lot of temperature fulx between night and day... Is there a minimal depth i should dig to to minimize that? I'm digging it in a large raised bed veggie garden. The angle of my yard would make it pretty difficult otherwise, as I have the runoff drain for 3 or 4 houses in my yard. This way the water level will be above ground level. Ofcourse this also means that I need to go deep enough to to have some temperature stability. I hit clay at about 12"... Would about 3' be enough for the deep end (2' at shallow) or should I make 3' the shallow end? I'm planning to create it in steppes instead of a slope, so I can avoid everything sliding to the deep end. A couple of things ... 1) in toronto and environs if you go to 24 inches deep you need to get a pool permit and have a pool fence... which is a pain... I went to 22 inches to keep my pond in the "water feature" category and still help overwinter the goldfish. 2) going deeper will help you maintain temperature stability, but around here that means the deeper you go the cooler your water will be... I have not paid a lot of attention to my temps but even at 22 inches I only seem to occasionally get up to the mid 70s' and then only if it is really hot out... as a kid we had an inground pool (unheated) that would range between 68 and 74 degrees. |
#4
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
"Madd Hatter" wrote:
I'm in the Toronto area (I think this equates weather wise to Michigan, near the lakes)... I don't plan to make this a year round thing. I heard that around june 1st the temp. gets warm enough to keep atleast South American in there. They would be a lot easier. Africans require water chemistry unique to lake Malawi (?), very high pH and tropical. You'll have to pull them out, and put them inside when the temp drops. From my experience, with an Texas Cichlid in an aquarium, they are very prolific. |
#5
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
Africans will live for a time in that sort of temp. range, but it will
eventualy kill them... South Americans seem to be hardier "Sam Hopkins" wrote in message .. . I may try the same thing. I kept chichlids at 65-68 and they looked fine. It depends on the chichlid though I suppose. These where bumble bee's and kenyl's. "Madd Hatter" wrote in message e.rogers.com... I am building a small outdoor pond to breed cichlids in. I haven't decided whether to go with Sounth American or African cichlids yet... Pond will be approx 500 - 600 Gallons.... Never done this before, so any advice regarding plants, filteration, feasability of raising cichlids this way, would be appreciated.. I am in the Toronto area on Ontario Canada. |
#6
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
On Thu, 01 May 2003 16:46:56 GMT, "Madd Hatter"
wrote: I'm digging it in a raised bed that is about 18" above ground level... The ground under it is pretty steeply sloped because I have the run off drain on my property. If I put the "deep end" on the low end of the slope, I figure I can go almost 2 feet deep and still be above "ground level". I figure I'll only be 1.5' or so below that level at the deepest.. This will give me temp. stability, hopefully at a bit higher temp. because the upper 2/3's of depth are actually above the ground level... Does my logic hold water? (pun intended!) or am I over the limit? I never really thought about it like that, it certainly sounds logical... I know at the other end that plants in raised beds are more susceptible to root damage from freezing, so the other side should work too... |
#7
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I hope so, cuz I jus finished digging!... Can you recommend any good cichlid
candidates to stick in there? America's or Africa... So far, I'm considering The Jewel Cichlid, Convicts, Jaguar Cichilds and maybe Oscars. Might add a really annoying Acei pair (7.5"+) later in the summer... "ajames54" wrote in message ... On Thu, 01 May 2003 16:46:56 GMT, "Madd Hatter" wrote: I'm digging it in a raised bed that is about 18" above ground level... The ground under it is pretty steeply sloped because I have the run off drain on my property. If I put the "deep end" on the low end of the slope, I figure I can go almost 2 feet deep and still be above "ground level". I figure I'll only be 1.5' or so below that level at the deepest.. This will give me temp. stability, hopefully at a bit higher temp. because the upper 2/3's of depth are actually above the ground level... Does my logic hold water? (pun intended!) or am I over the limit? I never really thought about it like that, it certainly sounds logical... I know at the other end that plants in raised beds are more susceptible to root damage from freezing, so the other side should work too... |
#8
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
On Thu, 01 May 2003 20:35:39 GMT, "Madd Hatter"
wrote: I hope so, cuz I jus finished digging!... Can you recommend any good cichlid candidates to stick in there? America's or Africa... So far, I'm considering The Jewel Cichlid, Convicts, Jaguar Cichilds and maybe Oscars. Might add a really annoying Acei pair (7.5"+) later in the summer... I've bread Jewels and Oscars in tanks and probably would not want to try them in an outdoor pond... Convicts are supposedly easy to breed... to be honest I think I would start out with Texas Cichlids until I was sure my temps would support others.. |
#9
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I think that is pretty sound advice. I've kept Texas cichlids before. They
breed at a pretty small size.. Mine were under 3" (inc. the male!) When they spawned for the first time... Unfortunately I needed space for my africans so I ended up getting rid of the adults. And the fry.... well, we won't talk about the fry.. how about the Jaguar cichlid? I've always found them to be amazing fish, but they are absolutely insane in aquariums. They tend to want to kill everything. I figure I should have a lot of room in that pond (approx. 700GAL range) and I plan on planting as heavily as I can... DO you know if they can take the temperature? Most sites list the range from about 68/70 all the way up to 75. "ajames54" wrote in message ... On Thu, 01 May 2003 20:35:39 GMT, "Madd Hatter" wrote: I hope so, cuz I jus finished digging!... Can you recommend any good cichlid candidates to stick in there? America's or Africa... So far, I'm considering The Jewel Cichlid, Convicts, Jaguar Cichilds and maybe Oscars. Might add a really annoying Acei pair (7.5"+) later in the summer... I've bread Jewels and Oscars in tanks and probably would not want to try them in an outdoor pond... Convicts are supposedly easy to breed... to be honest I think I would start out with Texas Cichlids until I was sure my temps would support others.. |
#10
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
"Madd Hatter" wrote in message ble.rogers.com...
I think that is pretty sound advice. I've kept Texas cichlids before. They breed at a pretty small size.. Mine were under 3" (inc. the male!) When they spawned for the first time... Unfortunately I needed space for my africans [....] Let us know how it works out, Madd. I've got a looming overpopulation of Kribs in an aquarium (one very enthusiastic breeding pair!), so I may move a bunch of them to the head-pond when the water get warmer. They'll probably make decent mosquito fish. Don't know what I'll do with them in the fall, though (I'm in Ottawa). -- Steve |
#11
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I've finished digging the hole. I'm going to put the liner in tomorrow
morning.... hopefully I can start adding some fish by the endof the month. "Steve Watson" wrote in message om... "Madd Hatter" wrote in message ble.rogers.com... I think that is pretty sound advice. I've kept Texas cichlids before. They breed at a pretty small size.. Mine were under 3" (inc. the male!) When they spawned for the first time... Unfortunately I needed space for my africans [....] Let us know how it works out, Madd. I've got a looming overpopulation of Kribs in an aquarium (one very enthusiastic breeding pair!), so I may move a bunch of them to the head-pond when the water get warmer. They'll probably make decent mosquito fish. Don't know what I'll do with them in the fall, though (I'm in Ottawa). -- Steve |
#12
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
"Madd Hatter" wrote in message
e.rogers.com... I am building a small outdoor pond to breed cichlids in. I haven't decided whether to go with Sounth American or African cichlids yet... Pond will be approx 500 - 600 Gallons.... Never done this before, so any advice regarding plants, filteration, feasability of raising cichlids this way, would be appreciated.. I am in the Toronto area on Ontario Canada. Cichlids need really warm water, something you're not going to get around January, especially outside. Not unless you add a good sized water heater. I've never kept more then 2 cichlids in a tank, but I don't think breeding pairs play nicely with others. Do you plan on removing them from the pond when the weather starts to get cooler? If you have a place to keep them half the year, when the weather is cold, why not improve that area, and keep them there year round? 500 gal isn't that much as well, especially for highly territorial fish.. Sameer |
#13
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I plan to keep fish in the pond between june 1st and sometimein september. I
have 7 tanks running indoors right now, and am in the process of adding 8 more right now. I keep african cichlids in my indoor tanks, though I don't think I'll be able to keep them outside. I plan to use the pond to centraland south american cichlids that tolerate temperatures around 68 to 70 deg. My purpose here is to see if I can breed them effectively. I am moving sometimenext year and one of my options is to purchase a rural property where I can breed cichlids on a large scale. These experiments are geared towards determining feasability of such a project. "Snooze" wrote in message rthlink.net... "Madd Hatter" wrote in message e.rogers.com... I am building a small outdoor pond to breed cichlids in. I haven't decided whether to go with Sounth American or African cichlids yet... Pond will be approx 500 - 600 Gallons.... Never done this before, so any advice regarding plants, filteration, feasability of raising cichlids this way, would be appreciated.. I am in the Toronto area on Ontario Canada. Cichlids need really warm water, something you're not going to get around January, especially outside. Not unless you add a good sized water heater. I've never kept more then 2 cichlids in a tank, but I don't think breeding pairs play nicely with others. Do you plan on removing them from the pond when the weather starts to get cooler? If you have a place to keep them half the year, when the weather is cold, why not improve that area, and keep them there year round? 500 gal isn't that much as well, especially for highly territorial fish.. Sameer |
#14
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Breeding Cichlids in an outdoor pond...
I'd try somethin like yellow labs. They are cheap..so if you lose them....its
not a huge issue, and you can ALWAYS get rid of fry...not like convicts...who you have to pay people to take.. Madd Hatter wrote: I think that is pretty sound advice. I've kept Texas cichlids before. They breed at a pretty small size.. Mine were under 3" (inc. the male!) When they spawned for the first time... Unfortunately I needed space for my africans so I ended up getting rid of the adults. And the fry.... well, we won't talk about the fry.. how about the Jaguar cichlid? I've always found them to be amazing fish, but they are absolutely insane in aquariums. They tend to want to kill everything. I figure I should have a lot of room in that pond (approx. 700GAL range) and I plan on planting as heavily as I can... DO you know if they can take the temperature? Most sites list the range from about 68/70 all the way up to 75. "ajames54" wrote in message ... On Thu, 01 May 2003 20:35:39 GMT, "Madd Hatter" wrote: I hope so, cuz I jus finished digging!... Can you recommend any good cichlid candidates to stick in there? America's or Africa... So far, I'm considering The Jewel Cichlid, Convicts, Jaguar Cichilds and maybe Oscars. Might add a really annoying Acei pair (7.5"+) later in the summer... I've bread Jewels and Oscars in tanks and probably would not want to try them in an outdoor pond... Convicts are supposedly easy to breed... to be honest I think I would start out with Texas Cichlids until I was sure my temps would support others.. |
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