So I was at my the Wal-Mart fish section just looking (I would never buy from there ) while my wife was shopping. An older gentlemen came up to me and told me about a hidden/secluded hotspring pool where tropical fish thrive. I was a bit skeptical as the weather here frequently gets 20 below (F) in the wintertime. But I took down the directions anyways.

Yesterday I decided to grab a buddy of mine and with nets and buckets in tow, we went in search of these fabled hot springs. With the help of some locals and after 2 hours of searching we found a huge pool in the middle of the sagebrush desert, hours away from any sort of city and.... we were astonished to find hundreds, if not thousands of african cichlids, guppies, koi, some south american cichlids, etc living in this pool! It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

The pool remains a constant 80 degrees or so and empties into a stream where the water quickly drops below 50 within a couple of yards, so all of the fish are self contained in this pool. Our methods for catching fish were terrible at best but we did manage to get one beautiful african cichlid and a fish I have never seen in my life. I will post it in a seperate thread in hopes that I can get an ID. Anyways, pictures are forthcoming, as I forgot my camera... but I will go there again soon. Has anyone else heard of places like this??

Here's a link to one of the fish we found there: http://www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical-Discussion/199045/http-www-fishforums-net-index-php-showtopic-199045/

This post has been edited by Chuka1212: Aug 22 2007, 03:36 AM

i dont know what to think
all those fish living together?
how big is this pool

It is true!! I will get pictures to show you, the water is relatively clear. I couldn't believe it either when i saw goldfish, koi, and various cichlids all in the same pool. The cichlids definately dominate the fish population, however. The pool is about 75 yards wide and 90 yards long (a rough estimate). The pool at its deepest is about 3.5 to 4 feet deep. There are the remains of an old log house partially submerged in the H20 where I saw many of the convict cichlids and smaller africans. The shore is where all the guppies are, as it is heavily planted and thats how they survive living with the others I suppose. It is quite amazing.

wow if this turns out 2 be legitimate then ity deffinately is an amazing find, and one from a strange old man like the on the movies.
i would love 2 see some pics

Sure, keep watching the post. I will get pictures when we go back in a week or two, you'll be amazed. I would go back tonight but it is about two hours away from where I live. Plus I need to come up with better ways to catch them. In three hours we only caught three fish. Lol, it is like the movies I suppose, with the old wal-mart man .

Where in the usa?

That is amazing...... although, as many others on here, i'm left a little skeptical..... hahahaha

you say africans, south americans, koi, and guppies? wow... are you suggesting that someone had bought them, brought them here to the hot springs, and let them free, then maybe they bred over time and created a substantial place to live....?

don't get me wrong here, i'm not trying to be mean, I am truly impressed! but it just seems too good to be true....

I would love to see some pics!

there was once something like this near me someone had released tropical fish into a pond that was fed from a paper works only reall bread and butter gouramis guppies and the like but still in the middle of england impressive

Sounds cool, cant wait for pics

I do believe that this is true, but wouldn't the Koi or Cichlids eaten the Guppies? I suppose if the pool is big enough, they wouldn't bother each other.

If an old man approached me while I was shopping and asked me to visit a secluded pool, I think it'd have to be a firm "No, thanks!". lol

hahahaha... especially fish information..... from WALMART!? I would have expected to have been robbed or something much worse......

Wouldn't the koi, being cold water, just swim past this cold "barrier"?


Maximus

How the hell can that be possible

Neat... maybe they lived because they got to eat the guppies and the guppies reproduced so darn fast

I doubt it, becasue i water changes so fast that the temp change would kill it. Also, i dont doubt theese hot springs, i just want to know where exactly it is located. The reason it is possible becasue of volcanic activity, which heats the ground, and obviously the water too.

This post has been edited by kribensis12: Jun 11 2007, 08:09 PM

Hmmmm, fast food

I want pics! I dont believe this is true for a few reasons. The water peramiters needed to support all these fish probably would not be possible in a pond. Africans and Koi are 2 completly dif fish. The water peramiter to support thses fish would have to be a pefect median, assuming that would even work! Not to mention that "Sombody" would have had to have spent alot of $$$ to stock that pond givin the size. And if your gona tell me that they all reproduced in their, it would be a 5-10 year period, even then most fish wont spawn inless they like the water. Or maybe I could be wrong?

well..... to tease you, and play the devils advocate.....

I have head of fish adapting to rediclious conditions, like that of polution or high/low ph levels or temperature.....

maybe this is possible..... after all, I live in Sydney Nova Scotia the home of the "Tar Ponds" (top 10 polluted sites in the world) and believe it or not.... there are some fish...

Wow!! So many unbelievers!! If only I could show you all right now, but if you will all wait patiently you doubters will be put in your place. I can believe the confusion and disbelief, however.

Ok, to answer some q's. About the koi and goldfish I saw, they were probably put their by someone who didn't want them anymore, I saw NO evidence of them reproducing. The cichlids however ARE reproducing. They would have to be because I saw many different sizes and some fish had cleared away little impressions in the dirt and were actively defending them. Near the shore I also saw many baby cichlids. My guess is that someone released a few cichlids or maybe a few people released various cichlids and they have been reproducing. And about the 5-10 year reproduction thing, there have been fish in that pond since 1964. I looked up a scientific paper about it on JSTOR.org saying that a scientist described guppies in the pond in '64. So it has been common knowledge that the pond can support tropical fish. But this is truely a miracle place. I can't wait to go back and get some pics and I hope all of you that have responded will stick around the thread to see them...

I am just glad that I listened to the creepy old man at wal-mart!! :