Oversized fishtank

[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