Can I turn a water fountain into a small pond?

[falcon]

Hello,

So I'm new to pond care/management. My experience has only been in aquariums, but I love animals and I am always looking for ways to have them around me! Any-hew, my parents have this water fountain in their backyard that has a (I'm guessing) 20-ish gallon basin that the water goes into. It has a filter that sucks up the water up to a face that pours the water back down. The basin is half-moon shaped with straight walls that give some depth to it. My question is this: is there a way to make this into a livable space for fish and if so, what kind of fish can live in there? I've done some research and know most goldfish and koi are out of the question, by far! I live in California so it stays pretty warm most of the year. During winter it gets a little cold and rainy. Any ideas would be very helpful.

p.s. I've asked my parents if they wanted me to build them a large pond, but they aren't too keen on it :regular_waving_emot

cheers

 

[koikeepr]

Truly, honestly, really, this is way too small for a "pond."

It will be a nightmare to make it liveable, keep clean and have fish survive in it. The water will get too warm, the claening along will have to be constant. And how the heck would you filter it?

A fountain is meant to be a fountain. And that's what this is.

 

[jason081180]

agreed Koikeepr

 

[falcon]

Yeah, kind of figured that was going to be the case, just wanted to hear from people who know what they're talking about. thanks guys!

 

[oldmarine]

Hi Falcon, I lived in the east Bay area for twelve years and loved the weather. It was the people that were a bit too liberal for me. Yes, I'm a right wing, jarhead, redneck, and not the hill billy type either.

Would it be possible for you to replace the fountain basin with a plastic molded pond like the ones that Lowes and/or Home Depot sell? If so, by replacing your fountain basin with a molded pond you could easily support at least some gold fish, floating aquatic plants, and a water lily.

When we lived in Cupertino, CA we had a small cement pond with a water fall at one end that came with the house. The pond was approx 100 gallon. Not big enough for koi, but I had about dozen feeder gold fish in the pond. The whole thing was landscaped with ferns, and in under the covered patio. We didn't have to do anything special for the fish, and we left them out all year.

Happy ponding,

 

[stroppy]

maybe you should show them some pictures of some of the ponds on this site falcon ... that might get them interested :0)

 

[falcon]

Oldmarine, how big did the feeder fish get? I always hear different opinions on sizes for goldfish species.

 

[Sunshine]

My first fish was a feeder fish that my son threw in cause it was too big for his Oscar to eat. I still have it. It is about 7 inches long. After that, I just bought feeder fish, they are cheap. About 29 cents here. They have all grown to that size.

 

[JJman32]

Falcon and Koikeeper

I disagree I have a small fountain that i converted into a "Fish Pond". You just need an aquarium filter that will fit in it and some accessories like the little pirate ships or something that they can go into for shade. I reccomend only 2 or 3 small gold fish and mabey a plotauchtomus (algae eater). I have a Whisper 10-20 filter. Put some plants or flowers around it too. So if you have the right things for it you can make it work.

 

[DrDave]

Keep it to those small fish and be vigilant, you may be OK.

 

[hewhoisatpeace]

If you could run an aquarium filter and keep the fountain inside, you could keep a beta in it, happily, and they get along well with aquatic frogs. Just have to engineer a light to see them, you'd be in business.

 

[MCLong]

I have a 50 gallon fountain in my front yard that pumps water through a lions mouth into a small pool and then waterfalls into a bigger pool below. I put 5 $.13 gold feeder fish into this fountain 5 years ago and now they are huge, healthy & loving life. They're practically turning into koi. I've never changed the water although the water level sometimes gets depleted from humidity so I add new water. I have no filtration accept for the water pump and my fish are thriving. So yes, you can definatley turn a fountain into a goldfish bowl.

 

[dieselplower]

Falcon and Koikeeper

I disagree I have a small fountain that i converted into a "Fish Pond". You just need an aquarium filter that will fit in it and some accessories like the little pirate ships or something that they can go into for shade. I reccomend only 2 or 3 small gold fish and mabey a plotauchtomus (algae eater). I have a Whisper 10-20 filter. Put some plants or flowers around it too. So if you have the right things for it you can make it work.

2 or 3 small goldfish could become 50 large goldfish in a couple years. And a pleco also gets very large unless you get a bristlenose. A 20 gallon fountain stocked to this level is about the worst idea I've ever heard. "no offense"