BIG outdoor cherry shrimp pond?

[Gingerbro98]

I’m in the process of saving up for supplies to build a large above ground outdoor pond. I’m thinking of dimensions in the ball park of 6ft x 3ft x 4.5ft -this comes out to a little over 600 gallons worth of volume. About 1.5ft of depth would be below ground, the remaining 3ft would be above ground. I’ve looked at several different styles and designs and my favorite is this one:

I especially like the viewing window and I think it opens the door to being able to enjoy some fish that are nonconventional pond specimens. I’m a huge fan of Cherry Shrimp and I know Cory has had luck overwintering them. I am located just a little south of Baltimore MD in agricultural zone 7B. Do you think I would be able to get a huge colony of Neocaridina established in a setup like this and keep them outside all year? I would probably keep the stocking to just the shrimp and LOTS of pond plants. 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 6/25/2024 at 7:12 PM, Gingerbro98 said:

I’m in the process of saving up for supplies to build a large above ground outdoor pond. I’m thinking of dimensions in the ball park of 6ft x 3ft x 4.5ft -this comes out to a little over 600 gallons worth of volume. About 1.5ft of depth would be below ground, the remaining 3ft would be above ground. I’ve looked at several different styles and designs and my favorite is this one:

I especially like the viewing window and I think it opens the door to being able to enjoy some fish that are nonconventional pond specimens. I’m a huge fan of Cherry Shrimp and I know Cory has had luck overwintering them. I am located just a little south of Baltimore MD in agricultural zone 7B. Do you think I would be able to get a huge colony of Neocaridina established in a setup like this and keep them outside all year? I would probably keep the stocking to just the shrimp and LOTS of pond plants. 

I've only had cherry shrimp indoors (and not a full year yet, so now yet overwinter) but I've heard of folks keeping them outdoors and finding colonies still humming along even after the surface had frozen over. I'd think that your pond would be deep enough in Maryland that they would be okay over the winter, though their breeding and general metabolism would obviously slow down quite a lot.

I wonder if you could hook up a heater to a solar panel, even just to keep the water above, say 40°F or 50°F. I've never tried; maybe that's not reasonable.

The only other suggestion I have is to put some kind of window screen or something over the top to keep dragonfly and damselfly larvae out of there. Without fish, if some of those larvae got into your pond it might just become a shrimp buffet. Plus keeping mosquito larvae out would be good for you (and your neighbors!), though to be fair I think those could be prevented with just adequate surface agitation.

Either way, I think the whole project sounds cool, and I don't have the space for anything like that, so if you don't mind, I'd love to follow a journal thread and see the whole thing in action.

[Maximus]

This is really cool, would you build it yourself?

[Gingerbro98]

On 6/26/2024 at 9:05 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

I've only had cherry shrimp indoors (and not a full year yet, so now yet overwinter) but I've heard of folks keeping them outdoors and finding colonies still humming along even after the surface had frozen over. I'd think that your pond would be deep enough in Maryland that they would be okay over the winter, though their breeding and general metabolism would obviously slow down quite a lot.

I wonder if you could hook up a heater to a solar panel, even just to keep the water above, say 40°F or 50°F. I've never tried; maybe that's not reasonable.

The only other suggestion I have is to put some kind of window screen or something over the top to keep dragonfly and damselfly larvae out of there. Without fish, if some of those larvae got into your pond it might just become a shrimp buffet. Plus keeping mosquito larvae out would be good for you (and your neighbors!), though to be fair I think those could be prevented with just adequate surface agitation.

Either way, I think the whole project sounds cool, and I don't have the space for anything like that, so if you don't mind, I'd love to follow a journal thread and see the whole thing in action.

Sounds good! I like your idea, I’ll definitely start up a journal thread on here when I get around to building it! 

On 6/26/2024 at 12:39 PM, Maximus said:

This is really cool, would you build it yourself?

I will certainly give it my best shot. I’ve never built anything quite like it before but there was an excellent thread of videos on YouTube that showed the entire building process for the pond in the picture.

[lefty o]

just spitballing as i have no actual experience doing it. cherry shrimp can handle cold fairly well, but in winter i think you will probably want to heat it to some degree to keep it from freezing. id wager they would do well if you could keep it  at say a steady 40 degree's. 

[Maximus]

On 6/26/2024 at 1:19 PM, Gingerbro98 said:

I will certainly give it my best shot. I’ve never built anything quite like it before but there was an excellent thread of videos on YouTube that showed the entire building process for the pond in the picture.

Do you mind sharing those video links @Gingerbro98?

[EricksonAquatics]

This sounds like the most epic idea ever. A BILLION cherry shrimp in a 600 gallon pond?? Heck yeah!

Then you’ll probably have a million shrimps to give to your local store by the end of the season, too! Win win!

I feel like every livestream I listen to Cory always talks about how his shrimp literally live in 2 inches of frozen water so I think you’ll be fine. But I agree with whats been said that it would be ideal if you could jimmy rig some sort of heater for the winter.

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 7/1/2024 at 7:31 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

But I agree with whats been said that it would be ideal if you could jimmy rig some sort of heater for the winter.

Aren't there solar covers for pools? I wonder if you could do something like that for the winter time. Then again, you wouldn't want it to get too warm, either... clearly I have no idea how those things work.

[EricksonAquatics]

You and me both… hence the term “jimmy rig”😂😂

But the pool cover is actually a genius idea!

[Gingerbro98]

On 6/27/2024 at 11:26 AM, Maximus said:

Do you mind sharing those video links @Gingerbro98?

Sorry! It’s been quite I while since I was back on here and missed this! 
 

I believe this is the first video in a pretty long series that documents the entire build. Definitely worth a watch whenever you have time and are bored.