4x2x2 Heated Pond

[ourmanflint]

New year new project. We finally moved out of grizzly London back in January to the not yet sunny Kent coast. We're just renting for now but this is the first proper garden I have had apart from the old allotment, for over 20 years, and it needs a water feature.
After deciding probably not best to dig up the garden in a rented property I bought a cheap but sturdy Koi holding tank approx. 48 x 24 x 30 deep and sunk it 6 inches into the ground to provide some stability.

Moved a couple of baskets from the allotment pond, added a bag or barley straw and all looking ok so far.

Will be keeping it heated to about 5-6C during winter just using a small aquarium heater to stop it from icing over and giving the fish a better chance over the winter.
Would love to get a couple of round tailed or spechti Paradise fish, but they are hard to find in Kent

Plants are mostly natives, so lots of Callitriche of a couple of varieties, water hawthorn, Potamogeton crispus, and a Rotala indica

 

[ourmanflint]

Pond is developing nicely, I have added a few more aquarium type plants so see which are hardy. The Rotala indica is looking particularly magnificent and is colouring up nicely, and the Heteranthera zosterifolia is growing really well too. I have added a dozen WCMM and six Macropodus spechti, though they seem quite shy, more so than regular Paradise fish

 

[killi69]

Great project! Will be following with interest to see how the plants and fish get on. Not sure of spechtii can handle our long cold winters, even if parts of the pond do not go below 5C because of the heater. They come from northern Vietnam as you probably know. WCC absolutely no problem! Heard spechtii are very shy. I have M occelatus outside all year round but seldom see them!

 

[ourmanflint]

Thanks. The spechti I always thought were hardier than opercularis but not as much as occelatus. Some interesting info on this page M.spechti

 

[killi69]

That page does looks interesting! It might work then, if that info is correct and they are not confusing it with another species. Our winters also tend to be a lot milder than the German winters referred to in the article. I hope you manageto breed them this summer. Good luck and I look forward to reading your future updates!

 

[AlecF]

Rice fish would be perfect.

 

[sparkyweasel]

I had White Clouds in a greenhouse for years. Just enough heat to keep the frost out, air temperature was 4ºC minimum, I don't know how cold the water got at night, but it was often 5 or 6º in the daytime. And often over 30º in summer.

 

[Carol]

We lived on the South Coast for years, Paradise Fish and White Clouds were happy ,tho we bought them in for winter ,in greater numbers than we put in 😃
The ponds varied in size and were unheated.