PlanetCatfish.com

Hello!

I am moving to Kauai, that means warmth...24/7. It normally only gets down to 60*f at night and reaches high 90's a couple days each year. I was planning on getting a 400-600g rubber maid pond, cutting a hole in the side, put a sponge over the "drain" and drain the tank and fill it up once a week. Thus I could have lots of fish and no real need for a filter.

I want to have two ponds, one for breeding honeycombs and the other for some kind of corydoras. I don't know if I need a filter, but maybe I could get a sunsun on each to provide some current. This is going to be for money and just learning.

I am going to read up more,but I just want your opinions, thoughts and suggestions. I am dreaming a lot about what I am going to do there in Hawaii, but I seriously hope I can breed catfish there and grow lots of emersed plants.


Thank you,
Caton

This could be a fantastic project or a pea-soup disaster.

My advice would be to read up how to build a koi pond and take note of the filtration. Site the pond in the shade for a good part of the day. Find out what your water supply consists of and how you might need to make it fish-friendly.

Algae likes the chemicals often found in a water supply and together with strong sunlight very quickly takes over.

If the pond is set into the ground (rather than on top of), the ground will help stabilize the temperature, which will reduce the need to keep the pond heated.

I agree with Wrasse's suggestion to look at filtration.

Also, if you are breeding smaller fish, keeping a number of different small tanks will give you much more freedom to keep many different species.

--
Mats

I have a few (11) ponds in my garden, facing south - without any shadow over them.

In early spring, I fill them with the water left over from waterchanges. A few people will think 'why using the worst - that is the water richtest with nitrates, phosphates and so on you can find?' Actually, precisely because it is so rich

This water will turn into a green soup, but than Daphina will be introduced by birds (it has happened each year the last 5 years) which will eat the algea forming this soup. After a while the water will turn red instead of green, and after netting the Daphina (to feed my fishes, obviously) the water will stay clear - and be ready to introduce the fishes

If I use water not so rich, the time untill it gets green will take too lang - and I'll be in the middle of summer, with fishes in the pond eating the required Daphina before these can turn the soup into water again

Actually, last sunday I filled 2 pond with water for maturing

You might be helped with this

I heard of someone using a "marsh" area for filtration, where they grow emersed plants (HC, staurogyne, MM) and have the water run through there. Thus the plants take up all the extra nutrients, I have daphina to help with green water, and floating plants (most likely red root floater, I like that plant so much) to help shade the water. Maybe a few 150g tubs that are set into the ground. Still reading up, I love cories and Honeycomb catfish are one of my favorites. I have -think- only bred one species of fish, that is my Lamprologus ocellatus 'isanga' (shell dwelling cichlid). Right now they are burying shells, bringing food to the shell and generally giving all the signs. But thanks for all your help, I am going to go to a koi forum now and research there, learn from somebody who has 60 aquariums (most 100g+) and is a pond consultant.

Caton wrote:I am going to go to a koi forum now and research there, learn from somebody who has 60 aquariums (most 100g+) and is a pond consultant.

That's all a good idea.
The big issue is the strength of the sun at Kauai. Koi ponds are usually formal design and some have a pergola over them to help create shade. The best have sparkling clear water so you can see the fish.
Some plants might struggle with salty air, there's another experiment. With gardens its a good idea to see what the neighbours are growing...

Aloha,

If the water on Kauai is like the water on Oahu, you'll love it. Soft and low ph. Hawaii Discus is in Kapaa. My indoor tanks stay at about 80F year round.

There is not much of a selection of fresh water fish in Hawaii. That means you'll need to have them shipped in. Not cheap. Plus the State requires an Import Permit to bring fish into the State. Again, not cheap. There is not a big market in Hawaii for fresh water fish. So to sell any fish you'll probably have to ship them to at least the mainland $$$. And of course the State requires an Export Permit.

Hope I didn't disillusion you. If I can be of any help, let me know.

Welcome to Hawaii.

Erik

Depends on how much $$$ but the knee jerk reaction is ouch. May be a good thing we chose FL over HI for our prospective public aquarium.

And I should mention that all of the above applies to plants as well. Import Permits are $ 20 to $ 100.

I wish I heard from you sooner (no fault implied whatsoever )...http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... it=+hawaii
...but very good to know now too. Thanks much, Erik.

Ouch again as our venture would be Aquarium+Botanical and aqua gardens.

Victor,

If you still have any questions, let me know.