Advice on good fish for a pond

[ral]

Pond is about 10 feet x 1.5 feet x 4. Can put a whole bunch of water plants but can't do on filtration or anything. Pond is out doors so it will be exposed to the elements (I am located in South East Asia.... 22-36C ambients).

Prerrably a few fish only that can breed naturally. I was thinking a couple of Blue Guorami's maybe?

Have not made up my mind or anything. Any fish you can think would be good.

 

[fufanu360]

umm i think you would have to go coldwater with that, like koi or goldfish

 

[sylvia]

or white cloud mountain minnows or mosquito fish. You might be able to do guppies and those would deffinately breed like crazy.

 

[modernhamlet]

ral lives in the Philippines, fufanu. I'd think tropicals would be the way to go, unless the temps get below 70F regularly.

Gourami would be great, though I'm personally a fan of pearls. In a well planted pond that size, I would go with a small group (1M:3F) of two or three different species.

 

[ral]

That sounds interesting, mixing two or three different kinds of Gourami's. I better start with putting in a lot of plants first

 

[sylvia]

If the temperatures are tropical gouramies would be great

I'll second pearls (my favourite fish) but also consider colisa labiosa (thick-lipped) and colisa fasciata (indian/striped/banded) - you can mix all these together as well.

 

[astroboy]

Red tail Cat
Tiger shovelnose
Gars
snakeheads
rays
any tankbuster will do well in that size pond!

 

[sylvia]

But won't breed.

 

[FrAnK3333]

Get clown loaches, my favorite fish, if you can keep the temp above 70F.

 

[ral]

Ambient temps should be above 70F even at night. Interesting looking fish.

While water changes will be made, rather than a filter providing for the removal of harmful ammonia, it will have to be a "natural" ecosystem of plants. I am planning to have a very well planted pond. So I was looking for hardy fish. Water changes will be made too by using pond water to water the plants around the pond and putting in some conditioned fresh water but we are probably talking about 10%-20% per week. Having experiance with Betta's I was thinking Guorami might be good. I must admit though something more interesting looking like Koi or Guppy's would be nice if the system can manage it.

I don't want a pond of dead fish, and the only fish I have experiance with are Betta's (2 month old fishkeeper) so I am looking for something simple.

 

[ral]

I was thinking of maybe getting a Paradise fish, Blue Gourami's and one other kind of Gourami. 1 male 2-3 females per variety. I figure the males will fiind their own territorys and things will be peaceful.

Will put plenty of plants and a few large rocks to create different territorites I guess.

Any more opinions and advice would be appreviated.

Saw some Koi. Really like em but I am not sure if I can handle them.