I literally just started doing this today and decided to see if anyone else had done this already. Id love to know how the pond is holding up without a filter and how often you have to add water during droughts. ❤
I just buried my kiddie pool and bought some Walmart .87cent grey bricks to encase arround it with a mini walkway with 2 large flat sq bricks. Mine Looks kinda good. Nothing in it yet. We have Rattlesnakes and I'm feeling a bit guilty as to wether to put water in it. Might atract them, but I do have onions planted arround which repells them
Hey! Tryna get into fish keeping here and I recently caught a lot of mosquito fish! I want to make this because I think it’s better for them and right now I think they are too stressed to eat because they won’t eat anything I give! I also hope they will naturally reproduce because one of them is already pregnant and I hope the rest will reproduce if I put them in this pond! My questions are will it hurt them and will the water and plants be too dirty? After that, will mosquitos lay their eggs in their or will I have to keep feeding them? Lastly, how should I protect them from birds and other predators?
Hey I love long comments! No worries. Yes mosquito fish are awesome! I'll break my reply into a few paragraphs: Surprisingly the water is pretty clean. We employ a very active selection of microfauna and beneficial bacteria in these projects. Worms, snails etc that break down organic material. Fallen leaves, algae, and debris. This material is then taken up by the plants kinda like an Ecosphere. Eventually we may have to clean out the pools but after a year or more things are still going strong. You can of course include a pump, it will help things flourish but it's not strictly necessary. They will start breeding pretty quickly once introduced into a similar pool/pond. BUT mine never spit fry when kept in an aquarium. Only in the ponds. With mosquito fish, especially wild caught adults, they will ignore fish food flakes. They won't take em. They are probably looking for live foods. Try a little scoop of mosquito larva and see if you get a response from them. Subsequent generations will happily eat more traditional fish foods like flakes/pellets. They grow up with these foods and accept them more readily than their parents. As for bird/predator protection, I suggest adding plenty of cover. Plants are a great option. Gambusia are pretty wary of any predators. They will run and hide from most things. Opossums, skunks, cats, frogs etc haven't done much to harm our mosquito fish. The only birds we have had are more interested in bathing and ripping out of plants for some reason 😅 I'm always happy to help! Especially for another Gambusia keeper.
Oh and to answer your question about the mosquito larva. Yes they will try to breed in the pond 24/7. As will dragon flies and other insects. That's just free fish food! They will even eat green hydra and other aquatic creatures. I do occasionally add a scoop of mosquito larva from other projects to keep them fed. After your first or second breeding generation you shouldn't have to add any more live foods. After a while you can treat them pretty much like outdoor guppies
@@BucketPonds thanks! Also, I’m having issues with ammonia building up (they are not in proper tanks as it’s broken rn 😭) and the pregnant one I had died and a baby tilapia died as well and the pregnant ones gills were bleeding and it said that was a sign of ammonia but the baby tilapia looked like it had seen a ghost and it’s gills were wide open and so was it’s mouth! I have snails and they laid a lot of eggs and I’m questioning if that’s what is causing the bad smell and cloudy water? I don’t know if the eggs are fertile or not! The main question I have is will the ammonia still need to be maintained in the pond? And what causes it?(There are side questions too lol) 😅 EDIT: they are bladder snails! Also will they eat their fry?
Nope no air pumps or water pumps. No electricity in this project. But we do have a basic rain system in place using some water hoses attached to/hidden in a tree that hangs over the pond.
I literally just started doing this today and decided to see if anyone else had done this already. Id love to know how the pond is holding up without a filter and how often you have to add water during droughts. ❤
Great job
Thank you
Are you making the pond looks, or raising fish for food?
what happens during winter snow ?
Winters here are pretty mild. The Bucket Ponds will ice-over occasionally but the pools are unaffected
❤
Excelente, gracias 👌
Love this vid I’m hoping to do this soon
Hey thanks! Yes definitely try it out, you'll have a great low cost pond
How is it holding up?
Better than ever surprisingly. I'll have a channel update up soon. Revealing the current state of pool pond #1 and #2
I just buried my kiddie pool and bought some Walmart .87cent grey bricks to encase arround it with a mini walkway with 2 large flat sq bricks. Mine Looks kinda good. Nothing in it yet. We have Rattlesnakes and I'm feeling a bit guilty as to wether to put water in it. Might atract them, but I do have onions planted arround which repells them
Hey! Tryna get into fish keeping here and I recently caught a lot of mosquito fish! I want to make this because I think it’s better for them and right now I think they are too stressed to eat because they won’t eat anything I give! I also hope they will naturally reproduce because one of them is already pregnant and I hope the rest will reproduce if I put them in this pond! My questions are will it hurt them and will the water and plants be too dirty? After that, will mosquitos lay their eggs in their or will I have to keep feeding them? Lastly, how should I protect them from birds and other predators?
Sorry if it’s a lot!
Just looking for advice as you have the exact same kind of fish!
Hey I love long comments! No worries. Yes mosquito fish are awesome! I'll break my reply into a few paragraphs:
Surprisingly the water is pretty clean. We employ a very active selection of microfauna and beneficial bacteria in these projects. Worms, snails etc that break down organic material. Fallen leaves, algae, and debris.
This material is then taken up by the plants kinda like an Ecosphere. Eventually we may have to clean out the pools but after a year or more things are still going strong.
You can of course include a pump, it will help things flourish but it's not strictly necessary. They will start breeding pretty quickly once introduced into a similar pool/pond. BUT mine never spit fry when kept in an aquarium. Only in the ponds.
With mosquito fish, especially wild caught adults, they will ignore fish food flakes. They won't take em. They are probably looking for live foods. Try a little scoop of mosquito larva and see if you get a response from them.
Subsequent generations will happily eat more traditional fish foods like flakes/pellets. They grow up with these foods and accept them more readily than their parents.
As for bird/predator protection, I suggest adding plenty of cover. Plants are a great option. Gambusia are pretty wary of any predators. They will run and hide from most things.
Opossums, skunks, cats, frogs etc haven't done much to harm our mosquito fish. The only birds we have had are more interested in bathing and ripping out of plants for some reason 😅
I'm always happy to help! Especially for another Gambusia keeper.
Oh and to answer your question about the mosquito larva. Yes they will try to breed in the pond 24/7. As will dragon flies and other insects. That's just free fish food!
They will even eat green hydra and other aquatic creatures. I do occasionally add a scoop of mosquito larva from other projects to keep them fed.
After your first or second breeding generation you shouldn't have to add any more live foods. After a while you can treat them pretty much like outdoor guppies
@@BucketPonds thanks! Also, I’m having issues with ammonia building up (they are not in proper tanks as it’s broken rn 😭) and the pregnant one I had died and a baby tilapia died as well and the pregnant ones gills were bleeding and it said that was a sign of ammonia but the baby tilapia looked like it had seen a ghost and it’s gills were wide open and so was it’s mouth! I have snails and they laid a lot of eggs and I’m questioning if that’s what is causing the bad smell and cloudy water? I don’t know if the eggs are fertile or not!
The main question I have is will the ammonia still need to be maintained in the pond? And what causes it?(There are side questions too lol) 😅
EDIT: they are bladder snails! Also will they eat their fry?
where do you live?
Is their any electric in there like filter air pump
Nope no air pumps or water pumps. No electricity in this project. But we do have a basic rain system in place using some water hoses attached to/hidden in a tree that hangs over the pond.
i think you should use a filter because the waters really dirty and may be bad for fish
A filter/pump would help but it's not strictly necessary. Our fish have been breeding up a storm in here for a while now