Goldfish in Cordoba?

[Bullfrog]

I will be returning to Cordoba again to retire once and for all. I touched on it briefly in another thread but it was buried in a lot of other subject matter so here goes. Mexico does not have the resources to get power lines back up after a major disruption such as an earthquake or a mudslide which is common in our area. There have been six earthquakes in the past year near us, one in 1985 was really strong. After a major earthquake I would anticipate it taking months to restore power to remote areas such as the one that I live in so Koi are out as they require constant filtering of the water. I have seen many posts about fish dying and the heartbreak this brings so I'm looking at goldfish as they are lower maintenance as far as their oxygen and filtration needs.

How long, given adequate plants in the pond, can they live without a pump, filter or falls? Do they need these things at all? We get a lot of rain and the temperatures are as shown below.

 

[DrCase]

I would bet with plenty of plants and not a lot of feeding . gold fish would live fine with out a pump.

 

[Faebinder]

Without filtration or fall.... I don't have experience with no falls or filter, but I image you're gonna need to increase the minimum size of the pond to keep koi and half the fish number. I don't know if anyone has kept koi like that here.

I can imagine goldfish will do fine with minimum numbers and minimum feeding. I kept 3 goldfish in a 450 gallon pond without feeding and without filters or aerators and they did fine. It was an established pond with lotsa algae.

 

[Meyer Jordan]

You can absolutely have a pond without circulating water....with fish! Fish are only members of a much larger and complex ecosystem.
Without going into a lot of detail. if you can establish a thriving Water Garden, you can maintain a fish population.
As to the inevitable question of fish overpopulation, Nature has its own methods of control.
You are not, however, likely to have crystal clear water, but that is really mostly cosmetic anyway.
Goldfish (and Koi to some extent) actually prefer a certain level of turbidity in the water.
In short, the answer to your question is.....Yes!

 

[Big Lou]

Since Córdoba is located in the center of the state of Veracruz I assume you have municipal water or am I totally incorrect and you have your own water well? Have you ever tested it? Hopefully it will be fine for goldfish.

You home is lovely. Very happy for you and yours.

 

[MitchM]

Bullfrog, check out the indoor pond experiment in my signature below.
I had a small aquarium running for a year with no circulation, a soil substrate and submerged plants.
I think your main concerns would be high water temperature and predation.

 

[Bullfrog]

Since Córdoba is located in the center of the state of Veracruz I assume you have municipal water or am I totally incorrect and you have your own water well? Have you ever tested it? Hopefully it will be fine for goldfish.

You home is lovely. Very happy for you and yours.

Thank you, we have a well and no, I have never had it tested but there is no treatment or additives.

 

[Bullfrog]

Bullfrog, check out the indoor pond experiment in my signature below.
I had a small aquarium running for a year with no circulation, a soil substrate and submerged plants.
I think your main concerns would be high water temperature and predation.

It stays relatively cool there and we have a 9 foot wall around our home, so the only predators would be herons. I can make the pond deep enough to make safe place for the goldfish.

I would install a filter and a waterfall but only run it at times during the day while we were there to enjoy it. I do not want the pond dependant on either as we do lose power frequently for short periods of time. With enough stones and plants the bacteria should have enough surface area to grow. We have thousands of frogs who somehow get over our wall and find the smallest amount of water. But as I said, a major quake would result in weeks if not months of no power.

I have a large, concrete lined, underground plastic cistern encased in concrete with a concrete top and a steel entry door. It stays very cool so I can store sealed dry goods in steel containers such as beans, rice and canned goods. We can haul water up from the well by hand as our neighbors do daily and have an emergency food and water supply but I am going to build the pond with the mindset of no electricity for months.