Well its a pond but its for tropicals

[chipmaker]

So I added it to this section.
The wife came home the other day with a preform and informed me I needed to get busy and get it setup, by the patio........duh! That section is where I was going to build my new shop........not anymore so now I have to relocate the shop further  back, as she always wins......(can't argue with a working wife and super cook) So, since I did not have funds for a new shop yet (probably never will but I can dream) I dug a hole for her preform, which is eaither a 160 or 220 gal, all I know is its more hole than I was realy wanting to dig........Anyway its now installed, and of course all the other odds and ends that have to  go with it, simple submerged box filter with fountain head etc, low voltage lights around it, flower beds, submersible lights, go to big pond and divide a selection of plants to put in the new preform, add a bunch of patio pavers for a new area to set a table and chairs etc.....it never ends.....Its all finished but adding that weed barrier material and mulch, and then go to work making one huge rock into smaller rocks for a necklace around the ponds edge........Rocks here are scarce, and the place that sells rock, gets close to $4 a pound....so anytime I am ever gone away and happen to see rocks laying on the sides of roads etc, I certainly pick them up. Last time I went to Birmingham, I found a large rock along the roadway, and brought it home., and its sturcture allows it to be eaily split into thinner rock, as its a form of slate or shale...Probably goes about 200+ pounds, so that rock is worth some money here.

Her plan is to have ciclids in it this year.....She also has paradise fish and bettas and various gouramis, platys, guppies, plecostemous and dojo loaches in all her other water features she has scattered around outside the house. We move em inside during the colder months, and out they go when its warm enough. Once outside they are a piece of cake to take care of, but come winter, all those fish inside makes for a lot of work.  As much as I like goldfish and koi, a preform full of tropicals sure is nice.

[Pond God]

Cippie,
 How can you possibly enjoy that much "stuff"!
 Just go fishing

[Werner]

Chipper--When I use to live up north, it was great fun to put my tropicals outside for the summer months. They usually doubled in size and their colors intensified. I used to sell or trade the larger specimen to the local pet shop. Keeping them for the winter required more space and work than I was willing to manage.

Now that I'm in FL, the challenge is gone. It's too easy to keep tropicals outdoors here.

[chipmaker]

Werner
We kept half a dozen paradise fish outside over this past years winter, along with a dojo loach.  They appeared to do just fine, but I have to admit, in this area we certainly did not have much of a winter, if thats what you call colder weather in this locale......I was prepared to bring em in if needed though. It is amazing just how big fish like neon tetras etc can actually get in just a few months outside.

To be honest, I would rather look at a preform pond or other water feature full of tropicals than just a few koi or goldies. Its just that we have a large pond and the koi are big enough we can see em from the house rolling around onthe water just fine........and in the hot summer, we keep the house so cold you can hang meat in it, so that means running heaters in the tropicals tanks to keep em warm......so outside they do just fantastic. The wife routinely thins em out and sells em to the one LFS here....as there is always someone with a large FW aquarium that wants large tropicals.

Pond God
I admit I do have way too  many irons in the fire and I add more and more irons every day.....All I can say is I am glad I am retired. Between all the water features and ponds, the goats, the peafowl the dogs and the wolf hybrid, and folks wanting various odds and ends made or repaired in my home shop, its more than a full time job for me. I think I need to start thinking on retireing from my full time of being retired, and take a break.  Every year the wife gets to wanting to take  trip here or there, and then we look at all the critters etc we have, and say, not this year.......we just have to wait until the critter load thins out to a more normal level, but we continually add to it all year round, and all it does is grow. Were doomed to stay  here just to take care of what we have....At least I did my traveling when I was in the military, so I am not missing out on much.

[Mr StJohn]

Here's a difficult pic through the window of my koi pond:

You can just about make out some platys and some mosquito fish (also livebearers).
They've been there for a few years and cope with winter temps that drop to about 14C (57F).
What amazes me is that they all go for the koi pellets, the koi then approach the pellet, politely wait for the mosquito fish (who are little bigger than the pellet) to move aside, then swallow the pellet without ever making an attempt to swallow the little fish.

Here's another pic that should look ominous for the platys, but isn't!


The paradise fish got eaten by the skimmer

[Pam]

Hey Chipmaker, have you thought about planting some liriope around the ponds edge for border? They are green year round here, and would save you the backache of working with rock  I love a planted edge on the pond.

[Pond God]

Tryst,
  I am going to get some dang little fish soon...just to control the midge population...

[chipmaker]

Hey Chipmaker, have you thought about planting some liriope around the ponds edge for border? They are green year round here, and would save you the backache of working with rock  I love a planted edge on the pond.

IIRC it stays green year round here as well. This morning were heading to the nursery so I may look and see if they have some. Liriope is whats planted along walk ways etc around here IIRC and has a purple or blue flower on it. The wife is wanting to get some dwarf gardeneas, so things stay green all year round. I refused to buy any more of the mexican heather this year.....It usually comes back during summer, but it takes for ever, and thewn its time for it to go dormant again. Hard to play around with mexican heather and get it growing arain when you can get a  gal container in full bloom for $2.50.......but it still gets old replacing it all the itme.......evergreens from now on.......

Another nice small compact tree that looks good, and does well around a patio or pond is a tree olive....Keeps leaves all year round,m in winter the leaves get a bronze color, has tiny white highly fragrant sweet blooms......not a very large or fast growing tree.

[Pam]

I wonder how Chipmaker's tropical pond is doing?

[Fuzzy]

If we ask him nicely he might come back with an update.