Hello everybody, from the deep south!

[Jeremy]

I actually don't have a pond yet at this time, it's still in the planning stages right now.
I'm thinking maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 gallons, although I may have to make it bigger, depending on fish space requirements.

Well, here's a tenative list of fish I would like to eventually include in the pond.
About 3 or 4 each Shubunkin and/or Comet goldfish.
Probably 10 or 15 Rosy Red minnows
3 males and 7 females of the Latipinna species of Sailfin Molly,
which is native to my area.
A Golden weather loach.
2 pairs of orangespotted sunfish or longear sunfish after the others have grown too big to be eaten
(This site has pics of the male and female of both species)
http://www.zimmermansfish.com/Price.html

....

I should probably post some of this stuff in another section.
:/

 

[addy1]

Welcome, glad you joined us. 1000 gallons is a good size, but like most will tell you make it as big as you can, you won't regret it. Most want bigger when done.

 

[taherrmann4]

Welcome, if you can make it bigger do it. Otherwise next year you will be on here telling us that you are planning on expanding it. :razz:

 

[fishin4cars]

Welcome aboard, 1000 gallons is going to be extra small when it comes to keeping any of the sunfish species. They get very territorial and will rip apart the goldfish. Sunfish need a area about 4' square per fish in order not to become overly aggresive with each other and they alos need a hiding/cover spot for each fish in the pond. Sail fins and rosey reds should be great additions as they are faster and can escape plus they are prolific breeders and will help supply the sunfish with addtional live food which the sunfish will require. Instead of the Goldfish Can I make a couple of suggestions that will go great with what your planning. How about trying a few dwarf sunfish and a marble madtom catfish. (DO NOT TRY TO PAIR THESE UP!) If you are going to try and keep a pair of these small catfish keep them in a seperate pond during the spring as they will eat any live fish they can catch when getting ready for spawning. If they aren't trying to fatten up for spawning they are relatively peaceful catfish and look cool when in a pond. Both of these should be in your area or should be found closer to florida. Another cool fish that would also show up nice is the orange tail killie. Don't know if you have them there but here in south La. they grow right along with the sailfin mollies.

 

[DrCase]

Welcome to the forum

 

[whiskey]

welcome from the far far west [over the sea ] now your in england.uk
Make it as big as you dare dream, because if you dont, you"ll send your time making it even bigger or dreaming of what could of been, if only i ....... :lavalamp:
Good luck on your build from whiskey

 

[j.w]

Jeremy
Neat that you get to choose such pretty fish to add to your pond and when you get ready to build put up pix as you go. Bigger is better :yellowbounce:

 

[Jeremy]

Thank you for the welcome everybody.
I think I will follow everyone's suggestions and make the pond as big as I possibly can.
I'll have to do some revisions to my plans before I can be sure of the size, but maybe 10'x15' and 3000-5000 gallons

 

[sissy]

Welcome and I agree bigger is better my pond is 8feet by 14 feet and a little over 4 feet deep and deeper is better in hotter climates to keep the fish cooler .I may build the side of my pond up and go a little deeper this spring ,I have enough liner on each side left over .

 

[Becky]

Hello and welcome to the forums! :wave: