I'm insane, I fully realize that going into this. No need to comment on my mental problems.

The guys at the Lowes by me are getting rid of all the discontinued pond stuff from last year. One of them called me a few days ago and put some stuff aside they thought I could use. There were two 18x22 pond liners, 2 Pondmaster 750 pumps, three canister filters a few bags of fancy "pool" concrete/mortar and a few other things.

I got all this stuff home, and was contemplating what to do with it, now that about 80% of the rescue fish end of things is pretty much done. (Long story short: the Petsmart where I did most of my rescues and adoptions out from got a new manager who's a complete douchenozzle.)

So I've been thinking about it for a few days now and not coming up with anything. Today, I went up to the fish farm to get feeders, and they had just gotten their new wholesale list in from one of their tropical fish distributors. I got a copy of it to go through the plant section to pick stuff out for the goldfish/aro tank.

Anyway, I was browsing through their fish section as well, and found that they had wee tiny arowana on the list cheap ($8 - 3 inch, no egg sac). That's when it hit me.

I'm going to build a low big indoor pond out of one of those pond liners and breed 'em.

I left them a message to order me 4 (and some plants too)

The pond dimensions I came up with won't let me house more than 4 adults (I'm not including the one that's missing an eye, in this, he's going to live in his own tank), so I'm really hoping with 4 I get one pair and then I can find homes for the other two.

I'm going to start them in a 75 and once it gets just a bit warmer out here, I'll be off to get all the wood to frame out the pond. I like to use pressure treated for anything that may come in contact with water and I prefer cutting that stuff outside since it's kinda funky.

I'm excited, I'm know the orders go out wednesday, but I don't think they'll be here until next week. Once I get them though I'll be sure to take some pictures. At three inches I'm sure they'll be quite cute.

(edit 8 + ) makes a smiley, not the number)

Good luck! Keep us updated.

WYite

Sounds like an awesome project! But seriously you do need help, good thing cause you are in the right place! But seriously keep us posted and make sure to keep up you promise on the pics!!!

You know it. I actually want to document their growth as much as I can before they go into the pond. I won't be able to get good shots once they're in there.

I haven't told the middle kid yet either, but he's going to crap himself with excitement when they get here.

Ok first we need a bow down smiley.

I cant wait to see the pics of everything! I herd that breeding aros was hard, how do you plan on breeding them.

From what I've been reading, breeding them is easy. Keeping them happy and not beating on each other is what's the challenge. That's the reason I planned out the pond I did and why I'm limited to 4.

If they do start trying to beat the hell out of each other, I have plastic waffle er. stuff. I'm not sure what the specific name is, but it's used to cover lights in drop ceilings. (Think chicken wire only thicker and plastic) Depending on how bad it gets, I'll be able to divide out the pond into 4 6x5 sections. Total pond size will be 10x12 by like 30" deep.

I'm already planning on building a lid. More than likely screened, but if I can find a pile of cheap plexi before then I'll use that instead. I'm thinking just on the weight of the screen that I'll have to have one center support and for that I'll use capped pvc so the water doesn't get in.

I am torn about how I'm going to heat it though. I've been very happy with how the waterbed heater has been working in the smaller pond, but they'll be sort of screwed if it fails. The canister filters have a spot to add a uv sterilizer and it would be cake to modify that to fit in a big heater instead, but I don't know if that would be enough. I remember a few options from big big salt water tanks that had a unit outside the tank or getting a cheap hot tub heater with a thermostat. I'm going to talk to the guys at the pool/hot tub store next time I go food shopping (they're next door) and see what they think would be the best way to heat that much water. I was also gonna check with the crazy tank building guy at Nemo's and the guys at the fish farm too. I'm leaning towards the hot tub heater in an external box, since that would be the easiest to replace if it fails, but there's a lot of options out there.

Heck, any of you guys have a good heating system idea too I'd be all for it. I just want to make sure whatever I do is reliable.

Sounds like an awesome new project. I can't wait to see this pond up and in action.

The pond won't be up until it's just a bit warmer. It snowed/sleeted here again today. Gotta be at least 50 or so for me to be outside cutting wood.

The wee ones coming in are only 3" too. Expected growth rate is about an inch a month under ideal conditions. So it shouldn't be a problem to hold off until end of march to get that up. Gives me some time to figure out the heating situation too.

Best of luck saint_felony!

They are some fast growers then. But yeah you will have some time to work on that pond. Be sure to put some progress pics up though once you get started with the build.

Shouldn't be a problem. Maybe I can make it a pond building diy for everyone. Though with my one friend, the two of us should be able to get the whole thing built in day.

Mind you it's going to take another whole day to fill the thing.

Good luck

Good news and not so good news.

The shipment actually showed up today.

The bad news is that two of them didn't make it.

The good news though is this particular distributor is apparently full of awesome and is sending out two more in next weeks shipment. They think it was just a little too cold for em.

I'll try and get some pictures of the two good ones later on this evening.

Glad to hear they will be replacing the ones that died in shipment.