High Altitude Pond Breeding Ideas

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

What species would you all suggest in a cool water 30 ish gallon mini pond?

Noticed tonight that my red daphnia culture has adjusted to the theoretically permanent muck bucket pond I have going for them. Turns out the over winter didnt work for last years "russian red" culture for some reason. Maybe -22⁰ a few times and -10⁰ over a dozen times was a little too cold for the eggs to overwinter? Current happy daphnia starting to produce.

 

I moved one of my inkbird bluetooth temperature sensor to the pond last night to see the daily fluctuations. My assumption is that 46⁰-70⁰ could be my daily water temperature range depending on air temperature up here. The 10⁰-15⁰ temperature swing is typical for the ponds idlve done in the past up here ar 9,100'.  This set up has been great for daphnia, flag fish, and cherry shrimp in past years.

Temperature graph of water temps in the pond for the past 24 hours. 

 

The on hand groups of cooler (but maybe not that cold) water species in the fishroom are:

Highland Swordtail

Black Prince Goodeid 

Black Madaka Ricefish

Daisy's Ricefish

Clown Killies

Dwarf Orange Mexican Crayfish

Red Cherry Shrimp

Panda Loach

Scleromystax sp. (C112) Baianinho II

 

All suggestions welcome I have a solid 3 months of tubbing ahead if im lucky. 

[Fish Folk]

Are you open to considering some other species? Or are you inquiring which of those you've listed we'd like to see you work with?

Does your summer warm up this month ahead, or does this seem like it's normal temperature? 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Fish Folk open to all ideas. Those are just the current arguably cooler water species on the mountaintop. The currently pond is really more of a daphnia culture for the puffer fry and other small mouths. But since it dies off every winter im not totally set on it being just daphnia this year.

Up here 46-55  air temp lows are "summer" we get to 80 up here and it feels like 110. Mid 50s for a low is probably our hottest overnight occasionally low 60s but thsts rare

Edited June 4, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper

[Fish Folk]

I think you could have fun trying out Darters if you're willing to build a little Powerhead / PVC Spray-bar.

I just built this onto a 29 gal tank for Saffron Shiners.

I bought an ACO Powerhead, an ACO coarse sponge filter, some PVC pieces, elbows, caps, etc.

Here is the setup:

Here's a quick look at my green colored Banded Darters (Etheostoma zonale). They'd be happy with your cold water parameters...

You can study up on how they breed here, and here.

 

 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

@Fish Folk

Im sold on darters and the spraybar. Slight followup consult: 

Say a pufferkeeper you know decided to upgrade to a 47"x12" foldable dog pool pond for this project. If it holds up its a 70 to 90 gallon seasonal pond that folds back up for winter storage.

water temperatures 53⁰ to 62⁰ on this set up and will remain the pattern in the june chart through early September or so.

A little duckweed, driftwood for structure, bare ish bottom currently, plus aspen leaves and some pretty decent pollen and bug donations to the system. I am considering water lettuce etc for better cover, and a portion of daphnia to seed it a bit food and filtration wise. 

May even just do potted plants of some sort submerged in a plant holder and try the @Dean’s Fishroom salt method to curve pvc for the spraybar along half of top inner edge of the pond. If i do that id cap the end anf just drill holes after it firms back up to have a directional flow across the pond. 

Do you expect Etheostoma zonale would do better than E.caeruleum or other darters in that set up? 

[Fish Folk]

Awesome! E. caeruleum like small pea-gravrl substrate. E. zonale like loads of green java moss. Depends what you want to breed. If you want to talk to some better informed people, I’m happy to share contact info. I love your plan! I’ve read NANFA articles where some guys even make a river flow around the circular shape of a pool.

[Torrey]

I'm only 2,500 feet lower, but thanks to *waves hands* we already had record low humidty resulting in a record fire season, and now record highs. My endlersthat escaped my catching attempts last summer overwintered okay... and are now disliking the heat. 

My spouse likes the folding dog pool, said they would even allow me to get one... if our porch was bigger....

I look forward to following this!

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

On 6/14/2022 at 8:41 PM, Fish Folk said:

Awesome! E. caeruleum like small pea-gravrl substrate. E. zonale like loads of green java moss. Depends what you want to breed. If you want to talk to some better informed people, I’m happy to share contact info. I love your plan! I’ve read NANFA articles where some guys even make a river flow around the circular shape of a pool.

Interesting. More a java moss than a pea gravel guy for this application. Should be a fun project to document

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Update. Using the battery saver setting on the coop airpump running to a medium sponge filter for a little filtration and movement while prepping for the darters order in a few weeks. Hung off the "bear deterant fence" (keeps them from climbing the porch normally) 

Temporary residents are a pair of Highland swordtails to help get us seasoned up and functioning as a system ehile keeping any bug larvae down 

 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

Update to update 

COOP powerhead with an intake sponge,  output into a flexible hose then 3/4" pvc. I did the pvc bends over the stove using the salt method dean demonstrated for the indoor pond build. 4 exposed 1/4" outlet holes ; I  zip tied some of my fish bag liners to block the extra holes i did but I have the option to expose as many or as few as i need along the back edge of the pvc as i want. Centered on the PVC "U" is a coconut hut for a little more cover.   Next up darter purchase

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper