Hello!

Hi everyone, just signed up on the recommendation of another member. I've been reading through some of the posts and am delighted to be a part of what looks to be a nice community of fish keepers. The only fish I keep are goldfish in an outdoor pond, I'd love to keep some tropical fish but I have five indoor cats and I don't think the two would mix too well.

My pond is a cattle water trough, holding almost 900 litres of water and ten goldfish, three of which are shubunkins, one canary yellow and six orange. It stands on a patio and currently is not surrounded by anything but I hope to build a wall around it and fill with soil and plant some nice grasses which will be great for shade in the summer as well as looking good.

This trough pond is new, I managed to pick it up cheaply in June but before that I had a much smaller pond which I had sunken into the ground, it became the local watering hole for the neighbours cats and because it had no pump going it was also midgie breeding ground. I put two goldfish in there to control the midgie issue and liked the look of them so much that I wanted to recreate it on a larger scale.

Anyway, it's a work in progress but I'm very happy with results so far and I think the fish are too as they've been spawning like crazy lately.

Welcome Bayta,
Thats a good use of a cattle trough. and I just got to say PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE .....

THEY ARE MAD FOR PHOTOGRAPHS HERE

Hi and welcome to the form it’s great to see more pond keepers and your knowledge i have got some great ideas from your video and it has inspired me with my next project. Like you i had a problem with the pond being used as a swimming pool for animals. Its work in progress but hopefully soon i will be moving my cold water fish into a 800L patio tank. If you do ever change your mind i can sell you a fish tank and 4 puppy’s lol

Welcome aboard

welcome enjoy and participate, and as crusty said photos they love em here

Welcome along!

The trough sounds interesting, can't watch the video right now as my connection is too slow but i'll save it for later.

Good starts with posting videos straight away by the way

Andreas

Thanks for all the welcome wishes. I haven't really taken many pictures yet but here's a few to give you guys an idea of what the pond is like.

This is the view from upstairs looking over the jungle... garden, I mean.









This was taken a couple of weeks after setup.



Fish enjoying their new home, as was the algae!



One of the fish enjoying the view! I am usually dead against these bowls but this seems to be a really good use as they're not confined to it.


The fish observatory was an idea I picked up from youtube, a lot of Koi keepers using similar domes that cost a fortune, this just cost me the price of a goldfish bowl and a neighbour sacrificed an old plastic garden chair.

Is it just me or did the pics not post? Don't want to repost in case there's a delay loading.

No photo but u can press preview before posting and you know if they posted

Welcome aboard and trust me I give you about a week of reading posts before you buy a tank for the house

Give in now you cant fight it...

Chris

Preview shows the coding but when I submit I'm getting a 404 error. Weird.

Welcome aboard:-)

I fear you may be right Chris, I've deliberately kept myself ignorant regarding aquariums so as not to get one. I was reared with aquariums and my brothers have them and I really really would love one, however, I do love the moggies too and I can just imagine the battles. Oh I'm weak though, I'm already sitting here thinking that a small tank with a few neon tetras would be nice, I've the spot in the living room picked out and all. Lol!

Welcome aboard

You sound like you have the bug and the only cure is to get that tank, you wont have a minutes peace until you do. Once you have the tank
you will feel a whole lot better.

The cattle trough pond is a great idea, and to build a wall around it and fill it with soil is a better one as this will provide good insulation in the winter, especially if we get a severe one. Looks good too

get rid of the cats! get catfish! problem solved!

LemonJelly wrote:

get rid of the cats! get catfish! problem solved!

Lol the catfish even have whiskers

christyg wrote:

Welcome aboard

You sound like you have the bug and the only cure is to get that tank, you wont have a minutes peace until you do. Once you have the tank
you will feel a whole lot better.

The cattle trough pond is a great idea, and to build a wall around it and fill it with soil is a better one as this will provide good insulation in the winter, especially if we get a severe one. Looks good too

Oh you guys are good at this convincing business
Yeah, the wall idea is mainly for insulation as I don't know how well the bare trough will hold up if we get a bad freeze. I also want to pretty it up, as it is now it's a big ugly lump of black plastic. I was initially toying with the idea of building a wooden frame and securing decking boards to it but feel the wall will be much better and less expensive. I'll plaster it with a hypertufa and etch some block work design into it too.

irish-zx10r wrote:

LemonJelly wrote:

get rid of the cats! get catfish! problem solved!

Lol the catfish even have whiskers

Lol! But "crazy catfish lady" doesn't quite sound right.

I really like this, it's such a contrast with the road in the background and then your green garden and pond.

It all comes together very well, the pond fits the garden and vice versa.

Andreas

That is the best use of a goldfish bowl I have seen. Well done.
Explane how you did it pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Get some monster fish to eat the cats

Melander wrote:

I really like this, it's such a contrast with the road in the background and then your green garden and pond.

It all comes together very well, the pond fits the garden and vice versa.

Andreas

Thanks Andreas, It's my little bit of paradise. If I could just get rid of the noise from the motorway I'd be a happy camper.

Welcome to the forum nice pond and a nice garden too

CrustyCrab wrote:

That is the best use of a goldfish bowl I have seen. Well done.
Explane how you did it pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

It's actually quite easy. I got an old plastic garden chair and cut the back, arms and part of the centre seat out with a jigsaw, it's important to sand the edges well when this is done so the fish don't get injured while swimming about. Best way to ensure it's smooth enough is to take a nylon stocking and rub it off each of the sanded edges, if it catches, it's not sanded enough. Then place it in the water, mine is on blocks to raise it high enough so that as much of the bowl is out of the water as possible. Next, take your goldfish bowl and completely submerge it in the pond and while fully under water (and full) turn it over so that the top of the bowl (the opening) is under the water and slide it across the seat of the chair so that the opening sits across the hole made in the chair. It's important that the water level remains at least an inch or two above the opening of the bowl and you keep an eye on water level in the pond at all times or else the water will gush out of the bowl, not nice if a fish happens to be enjoying the view at that time!

There's no need to worry about water stagnating in the bowl as the fish displace water as they swim in and out of it.

Unfortunately I smashed my bowl today while cleaning it so hopefully tomorrow I can get to the shop to buy another one and I'll film that being set up and pop it on here for you to see.

I hope to make a better stand for the bowl soon as the garden chair is ugly, I'm just waiting for the inspiration to come along.

Ski wrote:

Get some monster fish to eat the cats

Lol!