Oversized fishtank

[Jeremy87]

Hey guys
I was think about turning our pool into a fish pond again (done it once before, it went well for about 18 months before we had a fish kill but i know what went wrong). I was thinking this time about putting a few species that can live in fresh and salt i.e. chucking a few fish in that i've caught down the local creek around the freshwater interface. So my question is how would one go about acclimatising something like a bream into full fresh water?

[Luc]

I've done it many years ago with butter bream.

I placed them in a fish tank (36x15x15 inches) filled with water (from where I caught them) then a couple of times a week I took out 5 litres of tank water and replaced it by the same amount of aged fresh water.

Slow and steady is the way to go.

Keeping the water slightly salty is a good way to keep most freshwater diseases away.

Luc

[Vindicator]

Yeah I've heard the same sort of thing. A guy I knew had a bream in a fish tank which he converted to fresh by taking out a cupful of water and replaced it with a cupful of fresh. I don't know what period it took but I think you'd need something bigger than a cup.

Cheers
Kezza

[cqfreshie]

With any fish that can migrate to the fresh ... bara, bass, eel etc, you should be able to change over wihin 24 hours by trickling in the fresh and draining out the salt via separate hoses. After all, they swim up into the fresh much quicker.

Bream may be another proposition ... correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they only go up as far as the brackish waters?

Cheers

[Cammy]

or you could just buy some freshwater bream from the pet store, but i would rather converting them myself, just so i can say i have done it before and it would be fun. im actually gonna do it for a friend soon, ;D its gonna be interesting.

i recon give it a go i have heard stries about the same sorta thing ur doing and they turned out good.

cam

[bayfisher]

Fish like bream, jacks etc can be converted to fresh water quicker then most people think. I would say take half a day slowly converting the water by adding fresh water, but it probably could be done in half an hour if necessary. In the wild, fresh water flushes in creeks occur rather quickly and i would not think it would be unusual for a fish to swim from a salt brackish section of a river into a fresh section in a day.

Cheers Chris

[cbs]

So What's the problem of just keeping it salt water?

[Jeremy87]

So What's the problem of just keeping it salt water?
The pool is 66 000 litres, thats alot of salt. As stated above a bit of salt is always a benifit for fish anyway but i also might put some purely freshwater species in aswell.

[mik01]

so whats the plan Jeremy? when the weathers bad you fish in your own backyard??;)
fishing parties at Jeremy's place?;D

[loophole]

yeah this would be a rather good idea actually preety cool.

so with the breambos mate i actuaaly go cast nettin in a small creek which is brackish and other than the livies we get ive also picked up flathead and bream
so i would say keep em in a different tank then do a conversion there not fully till about 70% fresh.

then chuck em in ya pool. then invite me over so we can have a fish for em lol;) ;D

[Horse]

Many estuary sp can be quickly adapted as Chris pointed out. They can go from high salinity to almost fresh by rising out of a deep hole when a river starts to run fresh. I have converted Mono's and a Flatty to pure fresh overnight.
Sounds like a great idea to me

[Jeremy87]

Thanks for the feed back guys, i've caught alot of estuary species in pure fresh and figured they would be fairly tolerant. I was planning on starting with a few bass, yellows and maybe some barra from a pet store that are already of a decent size and then adding whatever fish i catch in tinny creek as i catch them. So that could be jacks, bream, estuary cod, tarpon, flathead etc. Last time round i had spangled perch, bass, silver perch and barcoo grunter. But the algae built up to much and to cut a long story short i had and oxygen drop and they all went ass up, but this time round i wont be using any pellet food to keep the nitrogen levels down and have come up with a way that should be able to remove the algae.

Ok now so the next big question if i chuck in a 40cm jack (caught in the wild) and have a bunch of 15-20cm bass (bought from a pet store) how many can i expect to be undiggested the next morning? I plan on regualarly stocking the pool with guppies from the local water hole and going and netting poddy mullet on a regular basis as a food supply for the predatory fish, so if i keep the food levels up will they play nicely?

[loophole]

Jeremy jacks NEVER play nicely lol

i think if u got a jack in there with any fish half his size then hes gunna be boss

put ya barra and bass in first then introduce others you will need heaps of guppies and mullet in there to keep up the food source. u gunna have some structure in there for these guys?

[Jeremy87]

yeh mate last time i got some big plant pots and cut holes in them and weighed them down on the bottom aswell as adding in some lily pads and what not. I'll probably add in some tree branches and stuff aswell. At the moment the pool has only got about 5000-10000 litres in it and is home to a heap of tadpoles which i'm going to have to remove so they don't become fish fodder. I'm going to have to put the bottom drain plug back in tomorrow so i might have to drain some water out to do that. I'm then going to make the most of this rain and divert my roof run off via the rain water tank if it take a while to fill up i don't really mind. I've heard that mineral salt or sea salt should be added in to fresh water to keep algae down and improve the health of the fish. How much do i need to add in grams/litre.

[loophole]

yer all sounds good yer mate use the most of this rain and fill ya pond you will be surprised how much it will fill.

id say 10 grams per litre i really dont know i put a table spoon in my 400l tank

[Cammy]

loophole's right about that jack man, when he settles in he's gonna rule the pool and smash anything that goes near him, bass yellas barcoo r gonna get hammered, the only fish i recon would live with a jack of that size would have to be barras or some cod, as you know they get to a respectable size and could probably hold there own in a fight with the jack. but the jack will probably keep trying to attack them.

with the salt, i go by the rule 1 teaspoon per 20l, with my tanks and the tanks at work, but in your position i would say 1 teaspoon per 50-60l. but hey some one might have a different method with usuing salt.

give me a pm when your ready to add fish into your pool,i have some barramundi that need a good home to go to, averaging around 45cm now.

cam

[udlman]

Don't forget that any fish caught from the wild have to be of legal size as well.

Brad.

[Jeremy87]

Ok i've put the bottom plug in cleared out a bit of the leaves and transferred most of the tadpoles off to a safe location (the ones i don't get tomorrow will either have to grow bloody quickly or they'll end up as fish food). tomorrow i'm going to go get some of that native duck weed and go net some mullet and guppies. i'll probably go for a fish next week some time and bring back 5 or 6 just legal bream and see how they go. As for salt, i figure after emptying the rain water tank into the pool theres somewhere between 10 000-15 000lites in there atm. i'll say 12 500 at one teaspoon per 50 litres thats 250 teaspoons. hmm i'll just weigh 10 teaspoons of salt and see what it works out at.

Hey Cam if you've still got those barra in about a month of so's time i might take you buy them off you, i just want to establish some plants and a few smaller fish first before chucking in some decent fish. I'm just a little concerned about the barra keeling over during the winter as our pool has got below the 10 degree mark before and it would be a shame to kill your pets.

[Cammy]

be carful with the duck weed it is very annoying to get rid of, usually to get rid of the weed you have to drain the tank or pond, just grows everywhere.

yer with the barras its gonna be a bit difficult with the water temp, hmmmm yer i would hate it if my pet barras died:-/ is there anyway you could get heat in the pool? like a pool heater, if you have one.

cam

[Jeremy87]

be carful with the duck weed it is very annoying to get rid of, usually to get rid of the weed you have to drain the tank or pond, just grows everywhere.

yer with the barras its gonna be a bit difficult with the water temp, hmmmm yer i would hate it if my pet barras died:-/ is there anyway you could get heat in the pool? like a pool heater, if you have one.

cam
yeh i want the duck weed as an algae control. I need a good cover to reduce sunlight and act as a nitrogen sink and just periodically removing a portion from the surface. I intend to put a divider across the pool keeping thick on one side and open on the other. It will also act as a food source for insect and small fish life which in return feeding the larger fish. Well thats the theory, i got a bag of the small leaved native stuff but it will be a long while before it covers a good portion of the surface and even longer now that the 500 tadpoles still left in the pool have taken a fancy to eating it. I need to put in quite a few lily pads aswell for the same reason.

I netted a heap of little shrimp toady aswell as what seem to be baby spangled perch and an assortment of gudgeons and mosquito fish which are now happily swimming around.

As for the barra no i don't have a heater installed and don't have any intentions of buying one so it looks like they will have to find a alternative winter residence. At this stage i'll probably stick with bream, bass and maybe a jack at a later stage.

[loophole]

can u somehow make up like a solar hot water system for your pool to keep the barras happy?

[two dogs]

I'd love to see some pics if you get the time...good luck with it

[ffejsmada]

Jeremy, get some White Cloud Mountain minnows and some Rainbows, they'll breed like crazy. There's your live food, bugger catching them.

I pulled some Rainbows out of my creek this morning, also got a freshwater anchovy about 100mm long:). Quite rare...

I've tried to breed Gambusia before, (mosquito fish), but they are very hard to breed and are cannibalistic. The rainbows, white clouds and guppies are the way to go, you'll have stacks of live feed before you know it!
Especially Rainbows, being native. They can all handle winter without a heater as well.

Cheers Jeff.
ps. good luck mate;)

[Poodroo]

Jeremy I have had a lot of experience in the aquarium industry which of course included ponds. There are just so many species which would go well in there. Some things that do well from salt into fresh include Scats (Scatofagus argus or scatofagus mulitfasciatis), Monos or butter bream, bream, Mangrove jack just to name a few. The way I used to acclimatize them was to have them in a large bucket with aeration and used a length of air tubing (the sort used on air pumps) to slowly trickle the water out of the bucket normally attached to the bucket by a peg or something. You can also use an inline tap or control valve to slow or speed up the rate at which it drains. Then using a similar method I would have another bucket with fresh water to trickle feed into the bucket with the fish in it which very slowly replaces the salt water. Once empty repeat the process at least one more time and by that stage they are fully converted over.

Another cool fish to have in large pond situations is the Saratoga. They grow huge.

Jeremy, get some White Cloud Mountain minnows and some Rainbows, they'll breed like crazy. There's your live food, bugger catching them.

I pulled some Rainbows out of my creek this morning, also got a freshwater anchovy about 100mm long:). Quite rare...

I've tried to breed Gambusia before, (mosquito fish), but they are very hard to breed and are cannibalistic. The rainbows, white clouds and guppies are the way to go, you'll have stacks of live feed before you know it!
Especially Rainbows, being native. They can all handle winter without a heater as well.

Cheers Jeff.
ps. good luck mate;)

Good suggestion but I am sort of against having "non-native species" in pond situations. In case of flooding they end up in our waterways. Australian native fish breed once a year and most of the overseas introduced species breed all year through so they rapidly overtake native species which cannot compete for food etc. Rainbows are native but basically becoming endangered(largely due to introduced species,pollution, and heavy housing estate development) so I would not really target rainbows to use as feeders. A native species that is prolific however is the Australian native gudgeon. Several species out there and all you need is a collapsable bait trap with a bit of bread in the pocket and sink to the bottom of any creek. You will be amazed at how many gudgeons will end up in there. Gambusia (mosquito fish) are on the government list of noxious fish and are illegal to keep so not a recommendation to go breeding them in your pond.
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/14477.html

Regards,

Poodroo

[Jeremy87]

Two dogs i'm going to put a bit more water in today, i'll try to post some photo's this evening.

Jeff i've got a couple of kids sand pit clams set up as frog ponds which will hopefully act as breeding ponds for feeder fish. I'm trying to keep as many natives going in the equation as possible.

Poodroo, yeh a saratoga would be cool i was also thinking about tarpon aswell. All the fish i have been collecting so far have been downstream of my house so if the pool overflows then it will only be restocking it with fish that are already in there. I also don't intend on filling the pool the whole way so the risk is minimal. At the moment i've got some little spangled perch and a couple of species of gudgeons in there. I think there are some gambusia aswell. I love it how the government makes a balls up and introduces these fish everywhere and when they realise that it was a bad idea they go oh crap lets make it illegal to posses them that will solve the problem.

Loophole nah i don't think i'll bother with the heater, just another thing to go wrong plus if i end up forking out some money it will be on a filtration system.

[Scott nthQld]

As for filtration, you can just use your pool filter, but taking the chlorinator out, it will keep the water clean and circulating, and without the chlorinator, will not produce chlorine from any salt, hardener/softner you add to maintain water quality.

[Big_unit]

Poodroo,

Im glad you said that, I was starting to exhibit high blood pressure symptoms when I read about exotic & noxious species being stocked.

Cheers
James

[Jeremy87]

a few photo's of the pool as it is filling

[abbot_86]

Good suggestion but I am sort of against having "non-native species" in pond situations. In case of flooding they end up in our waterways. Australian native fish breed once a year and most of the overseas introduced species breed all year through so they rapidly overtake native species which cannot compete for food etc. Rainbows are native but basically becoming endangered(largely due to introduced species,pollution, and heavy housing estate development) so I would not really target rainbows to use as feeders. A native species that is prolific however is the Australian native gudgeon. Several species out there and all you need is a collapsable bait trap with a bit of bread in the pocket and sink to the bottom of any creek. You will be amazed at how many gudgeons will end up in there. Gambusia (mosquito fish) are on the government list of noxious fish and are illegal to keep so not a recommendation to go breeding them in your pond.
http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/14477.html

Regards,

Poodroo


Yeah good point. I should of engaged the brain.:-[

[Poodroo]

Two dogs i'm going to put a bit more water in today, i'll try to post some photo's this evening.

Jeff i've got a couple of kids sand pit clams set up as frog ponds which will hopefully act as breeding ponds for feeder fish. I'm trying to keep as many natives going in the equation as possible.

Poodroo, yeh a saratoga would be cool i was also thinking about tarpon aswell. All the fish i have been collecting so far have been downstream of my house so if the pool overflows then it will only be restocking it with fish that are already in there. I also don't intend on filling the pool the whole way so the risk is minimal. At the moment i've got some little spangled perch and a couple of species of gudgeons in there. I think there are some gambusia aswell. I love it how the government makes a balls up and introduces these fish everywhere and when they realise that it was a bad idea they go oh crap lets make it illegal to posses them that will solve the problem.

Loophole nah i don't think i'll bother with the heater, just another thing to go wrong plus if i end up forking out some money it will be on a filtration system.
Well this very thing is annoying I know but past government bodies were responsible for that fiasco, not the current government. The current government however IS responsible for the current laws and bi-laws and under these laws we are all held accountable in their eyes so if a government scout decides to mooch around and discovers gambusia breeding prolifically in someone's backyard pool I certainly would not like to be on the receiving end of the resulting fine. I know they are already in the creeks and that's where they come from but the crap rules that the government enforces never make sense. What they should do is focus on catching and eradicating them from our water ways.
Tilapia are another fine example. They are everywhere. If you catch one out of a creek that is fine but under government law you are to dispose of it. If you put it back in the water and a DPI inspector sees you do it you will cop a fine and a hefty one at that.

Poodroo

[loophole]

Jeremy pools looking good mate you have some good ideas with the kids sand pits acting as breeding ponds. thats the way to go also i reckon it be worth geting a pair of breeding crays and when the female lays and the young spawn you will have about 50-100 crayfish to add to your pool.

Good luck with finding a tarpon ive been looking for ages for one for my tank with not much luck it seems they arnet breed largely and can become a bit $$$ but it would be a great addition to your pool.

[Jeremy87]

I like the crayfish idea though i might have to set up something other than the clams to contain them as they like to go walk about.

I have and know of a few spots withing 40 minutes of my house that hold tarpon from time to time, i've even caught them in tinny creek which would be ideal. Pools got about 25 000l in it now and i can't put much more in until i have some more rain that puts some water back into the tanks so tomorrow i'll put some lillypads in and put in about 3.5kgs of mineral salt and then some time this week i'll go convert some bream and poddy mullet, it all seems to be moving along nicley, can't wait to have a bunch a decent fish swimming around just past my back veranda.

[Jeremy87]

Added in a 4kg bag of mineral salt today and added in 4 lilly pads, the ones that push up the move flowers.

[Jeremy87]

1st proper recruit for the pool, i caught this nice little 45cm lizard yesterday in about 80% fresh. I converted it over in about an hour and seems to have settled in nicely sitting on the drop off into the deeper end of the pool just behind the lilly pads.

[Nico.d.R]

nice flatty , if you didnt fill the pool you could have painted it black to help warm the water a bit through the day in winter . the crays should be alright in the shell pool as long as you dont have any hose's or any thing sticking out of it for them to climb out on , or you could put some acrylic over the top i have a bit laying around here if you want it let me know and its yours .

So are you worried about a back yard full of shags and pelicans lol .

When i was younger i had 2 talapia in my tank with my manigunese and i did not know what they were , i found out what they were at the ekka when my missus yeld out accross the dpi stand to me "HEY THESE ARE THE FISH WE HAVE IN OUR TANK" , yeah.... i dont think she noticed the sign saying $10000 fine per fish in possesion , so when i got home i got the hand line out and caught them out of the tank and got rid of them .

Have you thought about putting murry cod in there they would look good and you can get them from the pet shop and they should also be alright in winter .
Anyway mate looking good and keep them pics coming .

Nico.

[Jeremy87]

Yeh mate the idea is to put fish in big enough to withstand a shag attack, last time we did have a resident fish murderer but it was only an issue when we had no cover and the water was mega clear.

I'm a bit worried about some of the fish i've picked up but i know they are not the mozambique tilapia. They are I'm hoping they are spangled perch but they may be banded grunter or an aquarium fish that someone has let into the waterway but it is very difficult to identify what they are when the are only 35mm long. anyway the flathead is mopping up heaps of the feeder fish so they'll all be gone shortly whatever they are and i can put a fresh stock of mullet etc in there.

How cool are the murray cod, there are some 35ish cm specimens at pet super store but they're like 135 bucks ouch. I might get a smaller one and rear it up in a tank.

[Nico.d.R]

at boondal fish shop they used to have them about 10cm for about 10 bucks each , but it sound like a good idea to let them get bigger first as 10 buck each for feeders is a bit harsh if they get eaten . Have you thought of getting a pool cover (like the ones used to save water) , it might help to keep the birds away until the fish get bigger . Good to see the flathead is doing ok .

[reelemin1974]

buy a few rubber snakes and place them around the pool, that should keep the birds away. My mum uses it to keep ducks from cra ing on her pool edge.

[kingtin]

Jeremy, I'm surprised that you haven't picked up on my freebie in the for sale section. I've got heaps of elodea here, and azolla if you want some. I can also put you onto (nearby) some water plant that grows like vallis in winter (submerged) and then comes up broad leafed like plantain in summer. Also, if you're staying fresh, and when your water matures, some goldfish. I'm Northside though.

Fine, 4 to 6lb mono staked round the pool will deter the herons...........they hate the feel of it on their legs and take off as soon as they touch it.

kev

[Jeremy87]

I haven't been looking in the for sales section mate so i didn't see i'll send you a pm.

[Jeremy87]

ok this is the unknown fish i was talking about, this guy is about 35mm long but they are growing rapidly, as you can see buy its gut they are well fed. markings that you can't see are a small black dot on the posterior region of the dorsal fin. Very agressive feeder, they have been attacking the baby frogs and just about any fish or shrimp smaller than them. I'm hoping they are spangled perch and am about 99% certain that they are not mozambique tilapia (though they are found in the place i caught them from).

[Jeremy87]

Just flicking through grants it looks very much like a banded grunter, which means that some d!ckhead has illegally introduced them into a waterway.

[kingtin]

Jeremy, the pic is showing a fish with a protruding lower jaw and a convex tail. That is indicative of a juvenile yellowbelly.

kev

[marty+jojo]

It does not look like a spangled perch to me, nothing like it.
Marty.

[kingtin]

It does not look like a spangled perch to me, nothing like it.
Marty.

yeah, the only fish I know of with both a convex tail and a protruding lower jaw, is the Golden perch. OTOH, this illustration is of a juvenile fish and they could be different when that small.

kev

[o bag]

i think pure rainwater is bad for fish, i did a full water change for 2 of my tanks and all fish in them died, it could have been something in my water but i dont no, if ya get 2 types of aggresive fish and grow them up togther when they are small they should be alright, i had monos fully converted(slowly dripping freshwater throguh an aerator hose into the salt and taking the salt out)with a barra and they were fine, the monos heckled the barra if anything, sorry about going off topic but it might help....:-/

[kingtin]

i think pure rainwater is bad for fish,



Mate, you should never do a full water change. Syphon a quarter off once a week or fortnight, and top up.

kev

[Little grey men]

What a great little project you've got going there, I was fishing out west at Christmas time and collecting yabbies for bait, we caught some amazing little fish in the traps, the little spangled perch were very silver with distinctive gold spots along the sides, caught stacks of them, got a little yellowbelly about five inches long, and came across a few species which I've never seen out there before. One little fish was a dead ringer for a Jackall Wakasagi TN 50.:) Beautiful fish. Purple and gold shine on silver body. Would have made a hell of a bass bait:P
Really makes you wonder what people are letting go in our waterways.
One good sign was no carp at all. Didn't even get one while fishing.
People are right about the escaping crays, when I was a little fella out west I had a great big black one in a little fishtank, it used to escape most nights crawl into my parents room and start wacking it's claws on the old kero heater. clang clang clang .....Mum was not impressed. had to let it go in the dam.:(
keep up the good work Jeremy.

[loophole]

i think pure rainwater is bad for fish, i did a full water change for 2 of my tanks and all fish in them died, it could have been something in my water but i dont no, if ya get 2 types of aggresive fish and grow them up togther when they are small they should be alright, i had monos fully converted(slowly dripping freshwater throguh an aerator hose into the salt and taking the salt out)with a barra and they were fine, the monos heckled the barra if anything, sorry about going off topic but it might help....:-/

you should never fully do a full water change on any tank with fish living in it
as a tank needs certain bacteria in it to help it cycle.

[loophole]

hey jeremy hows the fish pool comin along with all the rain added some more fish lately?

[Cammy]

where were you getting the yabbies from LGM?

Cammo

[Jeremy87]

Just an update for those following the thread. The flathead and the bream have settled in well, i'd say the bream has grown a 1cm or so with the abundance of food thats in there, it always has a fat gut, a combination of all the rain we're having and the water plants i've put in (cheers Kev the azolla is growing really well) is keeping the water quality really clear and the wood that i've put in has almost put a week tanin stain into the water, the overall effect is pretty impressive. I've got a small fountain pump going around the clock slowly circulating the water. I'm going to go and try for some more bream this week sometime and am looking at buying some natives in the near future. I'll take a few photo's this week and post them up.

[Little grey men]

where were you getting the yabbies from LGM?

Cammo

Out past Chinchilla mate.

[mickstar001]

Look forward to the pics Jeremy, thats a classic well done. Misses would probably have something to say if i did it though!! Imagine sundays at your place, on the balcony with a beer in one hand and rod in the other, what could be better!!

Mickstar

[samsnap]

Hi there - good idea BUT check you don't get busted with water restrictions - a pool is a pool - but a fish tank comes under different guidelines - the rain is good while it lasts but how do you go with water changes/top ups? Also check with your local council - there is red tape about this sort of thing. Last thing you need is for some nasty person to dob you in $$$$. Ring Mark at Atlas aquarium at Wavell Heights (Brissy) He is Brilliant at fish stuff & a keen fisho too - he will be able to answer all of your questions on conversion & fit out & what will go with what. Regards Sammy

[Jeremy87]

Yeh mate it is still technically a pool and has all the regulation fencing etc, redlands in only on level 2 water resrictions atm so i'm not concerned. I have 30 000 litres of rain water being only used for garderning so again not concerned about having to use council water to top it up, even if the level does drop down a foot or more there is still enough water in there to keep the fish happy.

Right so i gave the top of tingalpa creek a hit this arvo in my small canoe, it was pumping fresh really hard so i think they ust have opened the flood gates. Good news for me as any fish i catch can go straight in the pool without having to convert them. so anyway the fishing wasn't that crash hot as you could imagine with it being purely fresh, there was heaps of little tackers but nothing of size for the first hour or so and wack nice bream probably just under the 30cm mark comes on board. Awsome water in the esky and in he goes. i fished on for about another 20 minutes and was just turning around to fish back. I cast to a fallen tree in some deeper running water, hoping the plastic back at a medium pace. Bump flash, bump flash, wack flash and a nice 40 odd cm tarpon hooks up and finds its way into the canoe. In the esky it goes. I paddled back hard to the car straight away as i had know idea how long he'd last in such a small space. I covered the 3 k's in about 15 minutes stoping twice to change the water. Canoe on the roof and i'm on the road, it's only a ten mintue drive so they didn't spend long in the car. I changed the water over with the stuff in the pool, took a photo and ten minutes later relased the 2 fish into the pool. They're both swimming around happily atm but i'm still a little concerned about the tarpon as he threw a coupleof scales.

Anyway here is a few photo's of the pool and the fish.

[magicmarlin]

unbelievable mate...well done...looks great

[Little grey men]

Looking good mate, is this project being done to help with your studies, or is it because it's just plain old good fun ?

Turtles ???

[mattooty]

Thats unreal mate!
Some quality fish are going in. The green shells are for breeding food right? I'd love to do that to our pool but i dont think its ever going to happen.
Matt

[Jeremy87]

Just plain old good fun LGM, i was thinking about turtles the other day, with the new recreational reptile license being only 55 bucks for 3 years i reakon its on the table. Not straight away though, turtles are pretty long lived and i want to make sure the whole thing doesn't go ass up again before commiting to them.

The green shells are home to tadpoles atm but i'll probably start breeding up some feeder crays in them or even drying them out getting some bran and turning them into a meal worm farm, pretty easy to do all you have to do is get a tub to start you off and cover them to stop other beetles and flies getting in.

[loophole]

A TARPON what a score hope hes going allrite. i reckon with the way the ponds going it wont be long before u can get a few barra fingerlings to put in there.

they would have to be one of the greatest aquarim fish. no wait a toga would be better.

[Jeremy87]

Another update. The tarpon has settled in really well, today for the first time i've seen him start to take bugs and stuff from off the surface, he is also eating cubed up pillies and whitebait that i feed to the bream aslong as it's in the deep end of the pool. I also went a bought 3 bass just under the 10cm mark and some tiny barcoo grunter and silvers. The bass have been put straight into the pond but the smaller barcoo and silvers are growing up in the clam shells so they don't get eaten. The flathead still won't eat dead food but is happy to chase te little grunter around (i think he's eaten 2) aswell as whatever guppies and little shrimp get in its path.

[Poodroo]

Another nice grunter normally readily available in the leading shops is the Coal Grunter(Hephaestus carbo) which is normally dark with bright yellow markings especially when juvenile. Very hardy and quite an interesting species. Go here http://www.nativefish.asn.au/coalgrunter.html if you are interested in reading up on them.

Cheers,

Poodroo

[Jeremy87]

Another nice grunter normally readily available in the leading shops is the Coal Grunter(Hephaestus carbo) which is normally dark with bright yellow markings especially when juvenile. Very hardy and quite an interesting species. Go here http://www.nativefish.asn.au/coalgrunter.html if you are interested in reading up on them.

Cheers,

Poodroo

Yeh mate the coals are a great looking fish, i was looking at them a few years ago when dad and i were thinking about setting up a tank. but alas its thermal tolerance is only 15degree's and the pool get's down to 9 in winter, for the same reason i can't put barra and sooties etc in there it's not on the list.

How much is a solar powered pool heater? maybe i should look at getting a 2nd hand one or something for next winter.

[Jeremy87]

just did a bit of reading doesn't look like a solar heater is going to cut it during winter anyway

[Poodroo]

My brother has a solar heated pool which remains a lovely temperature all year through. The solar panels are on the roof of the house and you can feel the warm surge of water when the water comes through. Only drawback I can think of there is the temperatures will fluctuate and unstable temperatures are more dangerous than a constant cold temperature. Be worthwhile to look at the variety of pool solar heating and make your mind up from there I guess.

Poodroo

[Jeremy87]

First week back at uni so my pracs haven't started up yet. As a consequence i've had lots of early finishes. I put my little canoe in today for a quick burn and managed this nice mid 30's bass within the first 5 minutes. The water is still close to fresh so i converted it over again in less than an hour.

[loophole]

nice work your really getting that pond stocked up now.

[Jeremy87]

yeh mate there is some real life in there now, i got 4 solid bream last week in a brackish lake system which i was going to put in cept they stressed out to much having 4 30+cm fish in about 20litres of water and figured they wouldn't survive the conversion process so i had to let them go. Apart from that all off my tranfers have been successful.

[Nico.d.R]

looking good mate , are you going to get a water proof camera and take some under water shots ? just an idea for heating could you use a kettle ellement some how and turn it in to a heater ? hook it up to a thermostat so it kicks in at what temp you want it . It could be dangerous if you dont know what you are doing but im sure a sparky could do some thing like that .

[mattooty]

How's it going mate? any more pics? I've been following this thread avidly since it started and it seems you've got a real ecosystem going there!
Goodluck and hope its all going well

[Jeremy87]

Nothing really to update on apart from everything going well, water quality is staying pretty good which i'm guessing is due to using the surface weed as a nuitrient sink. I'm going to go out tonight and try to catch some little fresh water mullet since the grunter things are getting fewer and fewer(down to 7 from 22). Depending on how organised i am tomorrow morning i'll wack the polarising filter on and try to get some happy snaps of the fishies doing their thing.

[loophole]

got any more pics of the fish pond jeremy?

[rando]

My mates dad ran some connected lengths of 19ml black polypipe along the garage roof about 60 lengths side by side, hooked one end to the pool filter the other to the filter return pipe. Water went onto the roof, picked up heat then returned to the pool.
When you stood on the inlet at the deepend even in the middle of winter it was like taking a hot shower (daytime)
It was just that cheap irrigation system stuff, cheap and effective.
I cant say what the temp would fluctuate like in winter though.
Just a thought.

[Martijnf]

just seeing this thread for the first time.

Awesome project mate, really very cool. Would be great if you could manage to get some pics of the fishies in the pond!

[Jeremy87]

haven't forgoten to take more photo's it's just that the lighting has been pretty pov each time i get a chance. Will try to get some more soon.

[jeffo]

love ya work jeremy.....now ya just gotta work out how to convert a black marlin, sailfish,YFT and wahoo to fresh water!!

[Jeremy87]

now that would be awsome, i could probably put a little trevally in there though, and people sometimes call tarpon freshwater marlin (do i get points for that). did you see on the news last night how they have managed to breed southern bluefin in capticity.

[mattooty]

I saw that jeremy. Its looking really good for the future of our fish stocks if they're more heavily reliant on farmed fish

[Az]

i think pure rainwater is bad for fish, i did a full water change for 2 of my tanks and all fish in them died, it could have been something in my water but i dont no, if ya get 2 types of aggresive fish and grow them up togther when they are small they should be alright, i had monos fully converted(slowly dripping freshwater throguh an aerator hose into the salt and taking the salt out)with a barra and they were fine, the monos heckled the barra if anything, sorry about going off topic but it might help....:-/

that would be due to the stress of the water parameters changing soo much...
need to do 15% changes mate.. never more than 50% in serious situations :o

[jeffo]

yeah i saw that on the news jezz, My mind wandered straight to black marlin in captivity.

[Nico.d.R]

come on stop holding out and take some pics for us , has it all been going good still ? How have they been the last few days with the colder mornings ?

[mitch92]

Any more on the pond front???

Any piccies yet???

Love the work

[Jeremy87]

Sorry guys forgot all about this thread, yeh ponds doing great really nice and clear atm. The big bass has settled in well and is ruling the roost but will only take live food (meal worms, earth worms, live fish, red claws). I've been using the azolla to start a worm farm which is doing well at the moment i am filling a 10litre bucket every 5 or so days with excess water plants (with all the water squashed out) so its working really well as a biological filter, it only went mirky for a few weeks after not having much rain during a hot spell but now that the weather has cooled off its a crystal clear tea colour. The flathead has finally started to eat dead food like little frog mouth's and white bait. I have a silver perch that i've been raising in one of the clams which has grown heaps, it will probably go into the pool in a few more months when i am confident that it won't get eaten by the flathead. Tried taking a few photo's but they've mostly turned out sh!t but i cleaned the weed out this arvo so i'll try to get a few action shots of the bass tomorrow morning smacking worms. I seriously need to get some more mullet. I've gone from 37 to 4 with only 1 dieing of causes other than being eaten (had lots of missing scales and ended up with a fungal infection). I'll take a few photo's tomorrow of what the pool looks like and hopefully with a few shots of the bass.

[Jeremy87]

Light was terrible yesterday, i spent ages wondering wether to post these photo's up or not, hopefully i can do the same thing on a sunny day because the bass behaved perfectly and i could end up with some really good shots

[mitch92]

Jeremy,

what ever happened with the pool fish tank?? did it work out or not?? still going??

[Jeremy87]

still going, was going really good until some ducks came along and ate all the water plants and shat everywhere, the water is well lets just say not very clear anymore. the fish don't seem to mind but the pond definately doesn't have the asthetic value it used to. I'm going to have to find some more azolla somewhere to hopefully clean the water up again.

[BeastMaster]

Speaking from experience in keeping Jacks in fish tanks .
Jack Vs Bass . it will be Jack 1 / Bass 0 overnite or quicker.
Infact a jack( size dependant) will kill everything you mentioned . They even eat catfish , it just takes them a little longer to learn how to get around the spine problem.
They are not friendly fish.
Beast

[NEWBY]

A pool as a fish tank???Gees we have an 8 footer that we cant workout

[swabio]

hey how is this project going?

[greenie.77]

My mum gets the shits with ducks cr@pping on her REAL pool so she has 2 or 3 rubber snakes surrounding it and they mostly stay away!

[jacksnbarra]

any updates? Is it still going?

[shayned]

Ok i've put the bottom plug in cleared out a bit of the leaves and transferred most of the tadpoles off to a safe location (the ones i don't get tomorrow will either have to grow bloody quickly or they'll end up as fish food). tomorrow i'm going to go get some of that native duck weed and go net some mullet and guppies. i'll probably go for a fish next week some time and bring back 5 or 6 just legal bream and see how they go. As for salt, i figure after emptying the rain water tank into the pool theres somewhere between 10 000-15 000lites in there atm. i'll say 12 500 at one teaspoon per 50 litres thats 250 teaspoons. hmm i'll just weigh 10 teaspoons of salt and see what it works out at.

Hey Cam if you've still got those barra in about a month of so's time i might take you buy them off you, i just want to establish some plants and a few smaller fish first before chucking in some decent fish. I'm just a little concerned about the barra keeling over during the winter as our pool has got below the 10 degree mark before and it would be a shame to kill your pets.

Try 5 parts per thousand, ie one litre of water equals one kilo. 5 grams of salt per kilo is right so try 5kg for every 1000 litres of water.

[Jeremy87]

Still going. I've settled with 2 grams per litre of salt. Seems to be enough to prevent them getting sores but not so strong that it will effect the water plants. Currently the biggest bass would be close to 50cm.

[Triple]

Bringing back an old thread.. Updates? Is the pooltank still going?