Member

Posts: 58
From:Northern California
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 01-04-2004 05:08 PM         

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i would like to start breeding my own gold fish instead of paying the ever increasing cost of right now anywhere between 10-20 cents per fish that are REALLY small (usually less then and inch) and usually die fast. any tips or secrets? ive read and been told to lower and raise the temp of the water (winter to spring) and have TONS of vegitation.

last time i bought gold fish for my pond i bought 60 of them and id say 15-20 have made it a year, the rest died and became snail food.

im also looking for really easy fish to breed my only issue is they need to be 1" to 3" long ( i was looking into mollys )

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Posts: 806
From:
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 01-04-2004 09:26 PM         

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Hi JsX, Since you are in California you're in a pretty good location to raise fish in a pond. Mollies and Guppies would breed very well in an outdoor pond. If you need the larger size you might look at the slightly more expensive but larger Sailfin Mollies. To keep them from getting too hot in the summer I would suggest putting a fountain type filter in the pond. The water spraying up and then splashing into the pond will help keep the water temperature down. Also put water lillies in the pond. The leaves covering the top of the water will help keep the water cool. For winter I would suggest using a submersible Titanium heater rated at 3 to 5 watts per gallon of pond water. You will need to provide some type of aeration, since you will need to cover the pond with clear polyethelyne to keep from having heat loss from the top of the water. With all this being said, you must also realize that this will only provide you with some feeder fish and some to enjoy in your pond. It is really not cost effective to raise feeder fish once you consider that you also have to feed the feeder fish. What you might end up with however is if you can raise enough nice looking mollies, you might be able to wholesale them to some of your local pet shops and pay for your feeders that way. Hope this helps.

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