Brackish water pond idea

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I've recently finished renovating my long abandoned 700 gallon koi pond and decided I would like to try brackish. However the only problem I have is that I live in Canada and it gets pretty cold ( although wouldn't the salt make the water warmer?) and I'm not extremely familiar with temperate species although for sure I would like to get a fish that would be easily seen in the water and be tame enough to take food from my hand. So in summary would this be able to work or would it fail miserably?
 

HARO

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Salt does not make water warmer, it only makes it freeze at a lower temperature. What kind of fish were you thinking of? Anadromous fish such as salmon require lots of room, and I doubt that your 700 gallons would be enough for even one fish. Smelts, perhaps?
John
 
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I wass thinking mosquitofish, hogchokers, alewife, oyster toadfish, tomcods,clams and for plants i was thinking various macroalgae( the ponds water will be about 15-17%seawater) would any of these work?
 
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That's a very difficult setup.....not to say those fish won't survive, its just that they can be quite difficult to keep alive especially in our climate. I think your much better off just making a regular fresh water pond. If we lived in a more tropical country, I would say go for it. Your also going to have a heck of a time keeping the salinity level within the acceptable range especially when it rains....this just seems like a recipe for disaster to be honest with you. Besides none of those fish are quite showy and you won't even be able to see them. That would be both a waste and a shame.

Good luck
 
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I think Mosquitofish will live in any type of water. Here they live in fresh and salt water (not just brackish - full on sea water and they thrive in it). I don't know how they winter.

I saw some adorable puffer fish that are brackish at my pet store here. They were so cute, but again not sure about wintering.

Clams! What a neat idea! It would be worth it just to say you grow clams in the back yard!
 
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I think Mosquitofish will live in any type of water. Here they live in fresh and salt water (not just brackish - full on sea water and they thrive in it). I don't know how they winter.

I saw some adorable puffer fish that are brackish at my pet store here. They were so cute, but again not sure about wintering.

Clams! What a neat idea! It would be worth it just to say you grow clams in the back yard!

Your talking about pea puffers I believe, they are adorable but would not survive our temps. the mosquito fish are super hardy and could probably survive anything lol. I just personally speaking think its a waste because he won't even be able to see the fish in there.
 
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Clams! Clams! That's the coolest thing ever!

I have a grey tilapia in my pond, he's not showy, but he's eating from my hand which is crazy cool! I rescued him from a fish farm, so he lives with my other fish now. Everyone (not me!) wants to eat him, he's so big and fat! Lol!
 
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Clams! Clams! That's the coolest thing ever!

I have a grey tilapia in my pond, he's not showy, but he's eating from my hand which is crazy cool! I rescued him from a fish farm, so he lives with my other fish now. Everyone (not me!) wants to eat him, he's so big and fat! Lol!

Ha, gotta admit the clams would be a really cool idea....in the end it is the OP's choice, I am only trying to point out some negatives.
 
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Thanks for the responses everyone. I still think I'm going to try brackish though possibly having blue crabs or trout.
 
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Sorry for late update but I've been busy with school. Any way I've started curing some sand for the substrate( regular silica) and picked up a couple of starter fish il be adding some time this week. Il try to be more frequent with the updates next time.
 
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Maybe I missed it but how do you plan on keeping the sg correct? I have been thinking about doing the same only going full salt, 35ppt. My biggest concern is swings in sg during rain. Living in FL I have some really cool ideas for a large sw pond surrounded with mangroves and macro algae. Small school of blue green chromis and so on. I have a 150 gallon sw reef and the water from the water changes would be perfect to add nutrients to the pond.
 
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The pond itself isn't in direct sunlight and stays relatively cool during the day. Also your idea seems pretty cool. As for the rain you could easily solve that with a tarp. You should try norther puffer and pinfish which would be able to co exist with your cromis and handle salinity changes.
 
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