Another Pond Question

[mematrix]

Hi All. I live in Dallas Tx. we have pretty warm or should I say hot summers here. I was wondering if I could use outdoor ponds as grow outs for my apistos? Itryied with a few German rams and they seemed to do ok they were sure better colored up than those I raised inside. Would they grow faster with the sunlight and since there would be live food avail blood worms mosqitoe larve and other types ?

I would be using either the wal mart wading pools ot the square outdoor pond containers.

Sincerely Curtis

 

[Greg PL]

hi mematrix. the weather gives you nice possibilities there
I know of people keeping various fish in the ponds in Poland, but not dwarfs. velifera molly, guppys, platys, swordtails, "hockey" characins, ancistrus were kept from may to september in a ~5000L pond. they grew and bred happily feeding on insects larvae, crustaceans and algae.
in September, when water temperature dropped to below 20 C they were easily caught from the surface.
in smaller containers there may be a problem with hight temperatures. 300L "ponds" tend to overheat to over 40 C if in direct sunlight - too much for the fish. In Tx it could go further.
If you manage to solve this issue there should be no other obstacles. as you noticed they should grow faster and more colorful due to huge space and varied diet.

 

[cageman]

I think it would be okay, although I would be sure there is no chance of escape into the wild.
I think you understand why.