So, when you get it home, do some thinking about how to protect it from herons, and ....... raccoons. Yesterday morning, I walked out to death and destruction on the front porch. I had the 18" tall tote on the front porch, under cover, and up against the house wall. I had bird netting that I took off one side of the pond, doubled and draped over the top of the tote, dangling down the sides and onto the patio. My guess is the raccoon jumped up to the lip on the tote? At any rate, it seems the raccoon went into the water in the tote, two dead baby fish found outside the tote. One intact, one head removed. Body outside the tote, head inside the tote. Water everywhere.
Now I'm thinking that it must be a raccoon that is contributing to my missing pond fish. I'm seriously thinking about getting a Trail Camera, so I can set it up pointing towards the pond and see just what is going on. As well, I could use it out in my veggie garden to figure out what (now I'm thinking it's more than one what) is digging up my tomatoes and okra.
Tote is just inside the front door now. Hubby is real happy about that. I'll have to make sure he's not around to see me doing water changes or he will really flip. I'm not exactly smooth with a bucket of water.
I've been doing some reading on raccoon protection, Dr Case on here has one of probably the best methods, and that is making a floating PVC pipe frame with plastic netting zip tied to it. Float it in the pond, or the QT. It needs to go edge to edge, the raccoons apparently don't go under it. Shakaho (Sharon) uses the same technique. Another option is a fence that is rigid at the bottom , then has a floppy section at top, so they can't climb over it. And of course, a hot wire. I know Addy has said she doesn't want to use a hot wire, I found one article from the Humane society that recommends a low voltage hot wire as a humane solution. One article recommended planting a lot of sedum around the pond, as raccoons don't like the squishy footing.
Oh, and you asked about filtration and stuff.
My tote only holds about 15 gallons, maybe 18. My smallest pump is 100 GPH and it just creates too much water turbulence for baby fish (IMO). I did have it sitting in the tote on the porch, with the output stuck into a holey container stuffed full of scrunchies and clamped to the rim of the tub. I would turn the pump on for about an hour each morning, the idea being to help get gunk of the bottom of the tote. Otherwise, I run an air pump rated for a 20 gallon tank full time. And do daily 10% water changes.
I subscribe to school of thought that all retail fish have Ich. So, I treat all my retail fish with salt. For three weeks. Then a week of transitioning to pond water. I use
this article that Charles pointed me to for reference. Since I'm using .6% salt, I don't bother with a bio filter. And the only plant that lives through that is algae, which the baby fish actually love to have in the QT with them. They hide in it, munch on it, and it's probably beneficial for them. I do daily 10% water changes (2 gallons a day, so actually a bit over 10%). At least once a week 20% water changes. After the raccoon fiasco, I dumped all the water from the tote and restarted it.
I don't think fish you get from a trusted person need to be prophylacticly treated, that's just my opinion though. YMMV.
Oh, new fishies for TM! Can't wait to see the pictures!