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Fish for patio pond

Conort2

Conort2

Member
Joined
16 Feb 2018
Messages
1,552
Location
London
Hi,

Hope you’re all good?

I recently slung a patio pond together, dimensions are 100cmL x 90cmW and approximately 30cm deep. Are there any tropical fish you’d recommend that would do well in this set up. I know a few of you have had summer tubs, what did you keep in them and what done well?

I was thinking along the lines of cyprinids such as danio, minnows etc. I know a lot of stuff from Myanmar can be kept a bit cooler. Medaka seem like a good option but they’re hard to get hold of and quite expensive for what they are.

The raised pond is well planted so should have lots of cover once grown in.

Let me know what you think? If I can keep them outside all year long that would be a massive bonus.

Cheers
 
Depends where you are, but 30cm depth could completely freeze.

Neocaridina, spawned all summer for me, and lived all year outside for a few years, until some frogs got in.
Obviously, goldfish. I don't believe any fish looks as good as a goldfish in a pond 🙂
Rice fish, arguably best.
White cloud minnows work well, wont' survive through winter though.
 
Medaka it is by the looks of it then. Anyone recommend a good source? I’ve noticed ruinemans has some white ones in stock so my lfs should be able to order in. I’m more a fan of the reds and red and whites if I’m honest though and would prefer them if I can find some.

I was tempted to go for a couple of top view ranchu but got a feeling they’d be no good for a uk winter. It’s in a sheltered spot and it doesn’t get that cold here in the south east but might be pushing my luck.
 
I've kept my medaka outside since May last year, in round tubs 55cm diameter, 36cm high. They're in west facing balcony and the water did not freeze at any point but it has been a mild winter in London. The babies survived winter outside too but have not grown much over that period. The most frequent types of medakas I've seem in the shops are the oranges and silvers. On Band, Kew Aquatic has red white ones listed for £8.90 each.

I also kept blue star endlers outside from May to September last year. They did well, producing lots of babies. The downside is that they are dark on top, so were difficult to see in the tub.
 
I have something like a patio pond and keep goldfish in it... Also had some White clouds for a while which I adopted from somebody leaving the country.
When it comes to the outdoor what you need to be cautious of is the Dragonfly nymph, they start out very tiny and you will not notice them. They live a few years submerged and are ambush predators that steadily grow to a few inches in size, then if you keep rather small fish smaller than a few inches it might be you start missing a few, and the fish population decline one after the other.

They grow up to 3 inches in size before being ready to hatch into a dragonfly... Once it's in the pond it can live up to 5 years submerged before uou'll find them like this.
img_20210720_102635155-jpg.172072


One of these monsters ate 5 of my White cloud minnows and about 4 baby goldfish of 3cm in size in one season. I didn't know it was in there till I started missing fish. Then I went on the lookout, fortunately, it was in an outdoor glass tank so I finally spotted the culprit, caught it and took it out. The one that did it was barely larger than the fish itself and still had a few years to go... In a pond setup only viewable from the top you will never ever see them... :nailbiting:

Now you know what you can expect after being in awe over such a stunning beautiful dragonfly hoovering over your pond visit...

It's not a matter of if but when, but you'll get one finally in your McDonald's fly-in restaurant.


Another thing you always should be ready for as already mentioned is sudden cold winters, 30cm water column can turn into a block of ice over 2 nights.
You need to be prepared and ready for this with a better solution or a temporary indoor shelter for the fish. Also, best to drain the pond entirely during such periods and rescue the hibernating frogs in it. They are fairly hardy but will not survive -12°C for days in 30cm water on a patio. And you don't want to have dead frogs in it after the thaw. Frogs hibernate submerged at the bottom of ditches in nature, ditches in nature are in the ground and only freeze from the top down. A patio pond freezes from all directions turning into 1 block of ice. The frog doesn't know this and assumes it is safe and in a ditch. But it isn't it will die, it doesn't have sufficient natural antifreeze for this situation.
 
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Conort2 said:
I really like the paradise fish, sourcing them may prove to be an issue though.
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I asked about them at Wildwoods, they said they don't have them but they could order them in, but also that they were £18-20 each. It seems like a lot of easy-to-keep outdoors fish are really expensive.
 
shangman said:
I asked about them at Wildwoods, they said they don't have them but they could order them in, but also that they were £18-20 each. It seems like a lot of easy-to-keep outdoors fish are really expensive.
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Not the cheapest of fish then! They seem like the perfect fit for a patio pond though. I’ll put my feelers out for them.

Think a small group of paradise fish with medaka will be good.

Anyone had any luck with medaka eggs bought online? Seem like they should be easy to hatch and raise providing they’re viable.
 
zozo said:
What about the Red Shiner? Notropis lutrensis... 🙂 You might find them in pond shops...
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I really liked the look of rainbow shiners but wasn’t sure if it would be too small for them? They seem like a pretty active fish.
 
I don't know much about ricefish but are the red and whites oryzias woworae? I remember looking into those years ago and thought they need much warmer temperatures.

I guess the benefit of ricefish is you can probably make them pay for themselves.
 
mort said:
I don't know much about ricefish but are the red and whites oryzias woworae? I remember looking into those years ago and thought they need much warmer temperatures.

I guess the benefit of ricefish is you can probably make them pay for themselves.
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They’re blue with red fins, think they’re from Sulawesi and need warm water. They’re also surprisingly a lot cheaper than the Japanese rice fish.

I’ve purchased some yellow tiger medaka eggs online, good reviews so hopefully all goes well. I didn’t realise how small their adult size is so will definitely look at another species to be alongside them still.
 
What a interesting and usual thread, i've just refurbed my old approx 70 cm x 40 cm preformed pond, plants are rooted and growing strongly but still needs another month or so to settle in a bit.
I shall definetly be getting something, so far Rice fish seem to be the better bet and slightly more widespread in the UK, Paradise fish can be bought off ebay but only in groups of 10 and a few shops online seem to stock them but at varying prices ranging from £5 to £20.

Would love to try some of the Aphanius mentho but no source for them any where in the Uk, not even eggs.
 
Conort2 said:
They’re blue with red fins, think they’re from Sulawesi and need warm water. They’re also surprisingly a lot cheaper than the Japanese rice fish.

I’ve purchased some yellow tiger medaka eggs online, good reviews so hopefully all goes well. I didn’t realise how small their adult size is so will definitely look at another species to be alongside them still.
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V intrigued to see how your raising the eggs goes, there's a few ricefish colours which are quite reasonable online that I'd like to try, but not done it before. My ricefish have started having a lot of eggs so hopefully I see fry naturally soon!

I was thinking if I kept the paradisefish then I'd keep medaka with them and hope they were ok lol. Even if not, it's easy to set up a small pond bowl outside for the ricefish instead.

mort said:
I don't know much about ricefish but are the red and whites oryzias woworae? I remember looking into those years ago and thought they need much warmer temperatures.

I guess the benefit of ricefish is you can probably make them pay for themselves.
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No that's a different species, the ricefish we're talking about here are Oryzias Latipes which are fully hardy. They come in all sorts of colours in Japan, aany other than white/cream/platinum are really hard to find here, have to be ordered in and can cost a fortune. I really want some proper orange ones like goldfish but haven't seen any yet.
 
shangman said:
intrigued to see how your raising the eggs goes,
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By all accounts it’s pretty easy so even if half of them make it I’d have saved a fair amount as I’m sure these colour forms would probably be around 15quid a fish as an adult.
shangman said:
really want some proper orange ones like goldfish but haven't seen any yet.
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Same, solid reds/oranges seem hard to come by.
 
I prefer the daisy ricefish tbh, the others look cool but still have that nice guppy vibe (nothing wrong with guppies but not a massive fan of the guppyfication of fish, much prefer wilder types). I think the platinums look the nicest as a single classy colour and would look great in a pond.

The only other thing I know about ricefish is they were the first vertebrate to breed in space and apparently they breed easier up there. Maybe Elon can flood the market and make them cheaper.
 
I would have said endlers, el Tigre are a beautiful wild strain but they won’t survive the winter outside.

H Formosa used to be a common fish to put in patio ponds with the fish club crowd but they’re very timid.

The fish shop I used to go to as a mite used to have a stone cow trough full of wild sword tails. Don’t know much about how suitable that was long term but we used to have snow.
 
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