Gold fish info

[StirCrazy]

Ok so I got a Oak 1/2 barrel I am making a water fountian/pond out of. I was thinking of throwing a couple feeder in there but I need to know what kind of temp flux a gold fish can handle. it is about 25 gal of water in a wooden barrel above ground and it will have a old well pump spilling water back into it.

Steve

[kellehar]

i just gave rodsboy my goldfish and i kept them at 78F.
But according to the book they can be from 66F to 70F.
Like i said above i kept mine in a warm temp i figure as long as isnt above 80f and below 60 your ok.

hope this helps
Justin

[Ryan]

Dont buy feeders they are not bred to live long. They are so inbred they wont last 3 months. Well most. Go out and get yourself some sarahasa Goldfish. Little more expensive but worth every penny. Also when you buy remeber to choose the fish you like the most from viewing at the top b/c you will never see the side of the fsih

As for temp fluctuations keep the barrel in the sun for the morning and in the shade for the hot part of the day.

Also Goldfish dont like alot of light so some floating plants like water lily's will help your fish out alot. This was our experience with our pond. Otherwise the fish just stay at the bottom or in the shade.

[Beverly]

Steve,

I would be concerned about the wood deteriorating and causing water quality problems, and probably wouldn't put fish in the barrel. Perhaps run it this summer and see if water quality will be an issue. The wood might also cause low pH. If there aren't water quality and pH problems, I would put fish in it next year.

It probably gets cold enough in your location that you would have to overwinter your fish indoors, unless you can manage to heat just enough for there to be no ice forming. At such cool temps, you won't have to feed the fish all winter.

We had a 110g indoor gf pond a few years back. Had the pond running for over two years. It was stocked with four fish if I remember correctly - 1.5" shubunkin and at least one feeder gf. All grew like crazy while we had them and were over 3.5" long when we found new homes for them because of a house move.

[Tangman]

Ever been to King Ed's they keep there feeder gold fish out doors in a pond so they must handle the temp. flux

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Tangman

Ever been to King Ed's they keep there feeder gold fish out doors in a pond so they must handle the temp. flux

but in how big of a tank, a 25 gal will flux a lot more than a 200 gal if you know what I meen.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Steve,

I would be concerned about the wood deteriorating and causing water quality problems, and probably wouldn't put fish in the barrel. Perhaps run it this summer and see if water quality will be an issue. The wood might also cause low pH. If there aren't water quality and pH problems, I would put fish in it next year.

It probably gets cold enough in your location that you would have to overwinter your fish indoors, unless you can manage to heat just enough for there to be no ice forming. At such cool temps, you won't have to feed the fish all winter.

We had a 110g indoor gf pond a few years back. Had the pond running for over two years. It was stocked with four fish if I remember correctly - 1.5" shubunkin and at least one feeder gf. All grew like crazy while we had them and were over 3.5" long when we found new homes for them because of a house move.

Hey Bev, the average winter temp is 5 here but I plan on shutting down the system in the winter anyways. another thing I was wondering about is it is a coopered barrel, if anyone doesn't know what coopering is it is the process of charing the barrel's inside to seal the wood but that also means the barrel is chared on the inside so I am going to scrape it down a but, but I cannot remember if burnt wood releases anything.

There would be some tannins released into the water but I know this isn't a problem for most fish and as for other stuff, would we make wine in barrels that would release poisions? Good point about PH I will let water sit in it for a couple weeks and see what happens there but I am starting with a PH of about 6.5 anyways, maybe I could put a couple hunks of dead coral in the bottom to bolster the water hardness and PH a bit?

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Dont buy feeders they are not bred to live long. They are so inbred they wont last 3 months. Well most. Go out and get yourself some sarahasa Goldfish. Little more expensive but worth every penny. Also when you buy remeber to choose the fish you like the most from viewing at the top b/c you will never see the side of the fsih

As for temp fluctuations keep the barrel in the sun for the morning and in the shade for the hot part of the day.

Also Goldfish dont like alot of light so some floating plants like water lily's will help your fish out alot. This was our experience with our pond. Otherwise the fish just stay at the bottom or in the shade.

the only direct light it will get is going to be from about noon untill about 2 as it is in a corner of the front of the house.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

here are a couple pics to show how it will be. we are going to be doing a container flower bed in the area so there will be a bunch of flowpots and such on the graveled area, hence the reason fror the stepping stones to define a path. I also got to get my pump set up and plumbed to the old well hand pump. another question how will using a metal object for a fountian affect the set up?




Steve

[Beverly]

Steve,

GF are excellent swimmers. They like to swim from one end of a tank to the other, especially feeders and other flat bodied GF. For the psychological well being of the fish, I would not put any into a container of such small diameter. JME, though.

As for the burnt wood thing, all I can think of is carbon residue. But what that means for keeping fish, I don't know how that would affect them.

Tannins reduce pH. If you are already starting out with low pH water, then you will certainly have to compensate for these two factors somehow.

What kind of metal will you be using in the barrel? Anything that would oxidize, like iron, would be a bit dangerous. Even copper would oxidize and you'd have too much copper in the system. Don't really know the composition of brass, or how or if it would oxidize.

Anyway, all these points are moot given the fact that the barrel is still too small for GF, ime, over the long term.

Nice idea, though. You could still have a lovely water feature without fish, maybe even with water plants, without all the hassle of worrying about metals, tannins, etc. in that great looking barrel