Brought the fish indoors for the Winter (Seriously)

[Jhn]

Will the orfes eat pellets when thrown in there with the dried shrimp. I have orfes in my pond they are pigs zipping around and eating just about anything I throw in there. They are surface feeding fish so they prefer to eat floating foods/insects.

Never had to ween my orfes onto pellets. Usually mixing in prepared food with their preferred food will get them to eat it, especially when they get worked into a feeding frenzy. Can always try adding garlic to the pellets as well as the shrimp that can be an attractant.

Also, agree with Mitch can feed them bloodworms frozen or otherwise. Most fish can’t resist them. As also was mentioned a little variety doesn’t hurt.

Sometimes it can take a bit to get fish weened off of a preferred food. I’ve has to do it with baby cardinal fish, as well as baby turtles.

 

[BarbO]

I have a 2271L/600g aquarium in my kitchen. I know what you mean.
I love it. (it is freshwater tropical)

Can you post a pic of this, in another thread, please!

 

[MitchM]

Can you post a pic of this, in another thread, please!

I will put something together, Barb.

 

[mondotomhead]

I did this too but with goldfish babies. Two 50 gallon tanks in my bedroom. I just can't bear to find the dead babies in the skimmer!

 

[MitchM]

Can you post a pic of this, in another thread, please!

I have not forgotten about this, @BarbO , I'm dealing with a very large photo library that somehow became corrupted.

 

[IanS]

Just wanted to come back and give you guys an update (and to ask a little more advice if I may)

You might remember (top of this thread) I've got 5 small orfe that I brought in for the winter because the old pond wasnt deep enough to overwinter.

Old 800 litre concrete pond is now gone and in its place is a pre-formed fiberglass pond 3650 liters. (I'l post picture later)

The new pond has been in place for around 2 weeks and I put 3 small (2 - 3") goldfish in there to kick start the cycle and to be sure there's no toxins coming off the liner. Fiberglass resin etc.

My question would be should I leave the orfe indoors for a while longer to give the new pond time to cycle? I'm not sure a couple of small goldfish are going to generate enough waste to properly cycle the pond any time soon.

I was thinking of dumping all the water from the orfe's indoor tank into the pond along with all the sand and grit from the bottom of the indoor tank. Also to connect up the filter from the indoor tank so the pond water flows through both filters.

By using the grit and the indorr filter in the new system am I going to be able to add the orfe to the new pond sooner rather than later? I mean it can't be any worse than the small indoor tank they're in now.

actually, there's zero ammonia or Nitrite in the indoor tank even though it's pretty small - but Nitrate does show halfway up on the test strip so frequent changes are necessary.

I'm just kind of thinking they'd be better off in the new pond even though it's new - if you see what I mean.

Thanks
Ian