max temp for ponds?

I would really like to put a pond in at my house but I live in florida and water temps here get to 89 degrees. What could I stock it with that can deal with that? It would probally be around 500 gal looking for 3 or 4 fish. probally koi.

 

actually, I would go with standard goldfish. comets or shubunkins. They are hardier than koi, some of them are pretty darn pretty...(especially the shubunkins). I'm in Arizona, and my pond (about 180 gallons) gets about 85 - 90 degrees farenheit in the summer. I have several goldfish and a shubunkin. I also have two chinese algae eaters and one pleco to help get rid of the algae. I have several pond lillies that provide shade for the fishies so they don't get sunburn. I also have a couple dozen mosquito fish - I love to watch them eat the dried tubifex worms I supplement feed them with. They act just like minI pirahna - tearing apart the little cubes!

 

The deeper the pond the more stable the temperatures in the depths. If you do an in ground pond that is just a hole lined with butyl rubber and can do it 3 feet deep you should have no trouble with the temperature remaining fine for goldfish or koi.

 

I'm also from Arizona and have had a few ponds (although I now live in an apt in NYC and that's out of the question). Don't underestimate the power of shade either from an external structure or from some water hyacinth (which grows out of control, in my experience) or lilies.

 

Water lettus is also an excellent source of shading for ponds.

 

so a 3 foot pond with lots of cover from both plants and where the pond is actually positioned and I should be good to go with out higher water temps. Correct?

 

Yes. 3 ft deep. (Just making sure that was clarified just in case. ) The deeper the hole the more in the ground it is the closer to natural ground temperature it will be.) Natural ground temperature around the Southeast Region of The United States of America (Including florida) is 56 degrees farenheit after 18 inches deep. So you can see how that will be a natural cooler in the summer and natural warmer if the air temp is much lower than that.

 

I would love to have water lettuce or water hyacinth in my pond, but it is illegal in arizona due to the fact that it grows so out of control here - especially in the warmer summer months. That's why I use lillies. also, my pond is on the east side of the house so the house shades it all afternoon.

 

I would love to have water lettuce or water hyacinth in my pond, but it is illegal in arizona due to the fact that it grows so out of control here - especially in the warmer summer months......

Heh. When did that happen, I wonder? I've been living in NY for 5 years now. I do remember all too well filling up an entire public dumpster (at a supermarket, in the middle of the night) multiple times each summer. I can see why they'd legislate against the stuff.

 

Yes - I actually had one water lettuce plant in my pond (I got it from someone who brought it from his pond in Utah). I filled 5 full size garbage cans over the course of 3 months. Then I found out you aren't supposed to have it here, so I got rid of all of it. It was great for my mulch pit though.....

 

lol more illegal plants hooray for the government

 

Not the government's fault. They are trying to protect the ecosystem. If it were to get into large bodies of water where it grew so feverishly it could out-compete native plants, which would kill them off, throwing off tons of other details. The government is doing what it can to protect the balance of nature, for once, with those types of rules.

 

I was just kidding chief.

 

I agree with chief - the way water lettuce grows in phoenix, if it were to get in the canals, it would clog up the system something awful....just think of the expense to us taxpayers to clean up the mess...If there were some way to guarantee that it wouldn't go from private ponds to public canals...oh well. That's why mine all ended up in the mulch pit! now it can nourish my garden.