This Summer's pond experiment

So I picked up a 150 gallon pond this past Summer and I set it up and threw in some of my Cichlid grow outs. The idea behind it was to see the difference nature, the Sun, insects, algae would have on the growth, color and overall appearance of the fish.

The fish went in around the end of the beginning of August, and were just pulled today. The stock and sizes were:

Umbee 4" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Umbee 1.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Robertsoni 3"
Breidohri 1.5"
Breidohri 3" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
2 x Grammode 3"
Pearsi 3.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Bocourtti 3.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Microthalmus 1.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Microthalmus 1"
Ornatum 2"
2 x Ornatum 1.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)
Godmanni 1.5" (have a comparable sized one that I left inside)

Now I will list each fish and explain the difference between them before and after, and also compare them to the same fish for those that I have a comparable fish that was left indoors.

Umbee 4" Went into the pond with amazing blues at such a small size. I pulled him at 6", still displaying those amazing colors. This fish was caught out of the lake just a couple months before coming to me, which explains its growth and color. (positive results)

Umbee 1.5" This one was one of my Umbee's fry. It grew from 1.5" to about 3", maybe a bit less. It looked exactly coming out as it did going in. No real change, its brothers and sisters grew at the same rate inside. (Id have to say negative results)

Robertsoni 3" Went in not displaying much color, but came out 2" larger at 5" and displaying some nice blues in the body. (positive results)

Breidohri 1.5" This specie is one that I was really interested in seeing the results. This one was 3" when pulled. (positive results)

Breidohri 3" Like I said above, I was very interested, reason being, I purchased 3 of these at 1" over a year ago, and in that time they grew a whopping 2". When I pulled this one it was 5", while its counterparts were still around that 3.5" mark. (positive results)

2 x Grammode 2.5" The Grammodes, like the Brehidohri grow very slow. These two looked great when pulled from the pond. The reds and blues were amazing and they also increased in size to 4.5" (very [positive results)

Pearsi 3.5" This fish I was very UN-impressed with its results. It was pulled at 4" and its colors were no comparison to the 2 that were left inside. In fact 1 of the 2 left inside is about 6" the other close to 5", and the colors looked much better. ( negative results)

Bocourtti 3.5" Like the Pearsi I wasnt impressed. Though its colors did look better after, it grew much slower than the 3 that were left inside. This guy was pulled at 4", while the others range from 5.5" to 7". ( no results)

Microthalmus 1.5" Increased to 3.5" and the colors were amazing. The blue spangling was absolutely awesome. (positive results)

Microthalmus 1" Also increased in size well to 2.5" and awesome colors. (positive results)

Ornatum 2" This one showed no change in size or color. In fact it was very skinny and had frayed fins. Its counterparts inside showed more growth and considerably more color. (negative results)

2 x Ornatum 1.5" See above

Godmanni 1.5" This one increased in size to almost 4". Though it grew very well, its colors were nothing spectacular compared to the one left inside. This one did out grow its counterpart that was left inside.

A mix of results on these guys. But overall, I was impressed in the results. This year I built a sump to run the 150, and had about 1000gph flowing through it. Next year if I can get that 900 gal pond, I believe I will start sooner, hopefully beginning of July and push about 2500gph through it. And with 900gal of water, I think that I will stick out there several species. Singles and pairs.

Next year I will start a blog, and show everything from scratch. The building of the sump, placement of the pond. I may even take before and after photos of each fish. All in all it was a fun experiment, and I cant wait till next year.

Having seen the all the fish in person, cant say there was a huge impact on growth or color. I picked up the 5" tank raised Pearsei and it looked very nice, while the outdoor fish had very lame results. The Breidohri that was raised outdoors did show a lot of improvement.

Interesting experiment. Were the fish that didn't show good results outside as aggressive in their feeding habits as the others? You know how some fish are at the surface with their mouths wide open as opposed to others that stay down lower?

Some no. The Ornatums are less aggressive at feeding time. But the Pearsi are known as being pigs at feeding time, not to mention that they are more of a veggie/algae diet. Which with all the algae that had grown, the Pearsi and bocourti showed no growth.

I really hope that I can acquire the 900 gal pond/ponds for next Summer. I will definitely try something different.

The Pearsei really did surprise me, with how much better the two tank raised fish did in comparison. My new guy is eating me out of house and home already. With all the natural sunlight and algae I was expecting the outdoor one to be bigger and more colorful, but no real improvement.

what kind of water changes did the pond get?

I think because it was outside, the evaporation was considerably higher, so I was adding a good 10 gal every 2 days. The first couple weeks there were no water changes cause I wanted the algae growth to start up quickly. Which it did. Then it was just every 5 days. We didnt have 1 day with rain in the time they were out there. I really wanted to see what effect rain water would have also.