400 gallon pond stocking.

[dantheman]

I've never had a pond before but I am an experienced fish keeper.

the pond will be 400 gallons with decent filtration im thinking of having.

5 common goldfish

3 shubskin goldfish

3 hoplo goldfish (don't care what type)

will it be overstocked?
can I add more?

also what substrate would be the best?

 

[dantheman]

i meant hoplo catfish

 

[addy1]

Welcome to our forum!

I know nothing about catfish. If it were mine I would put in just Shubunkins and the cat fish. When you start up your pond, put in very few fish until it cycles. I have just fan tails in my 300 gallon ex hot tub pond. Around 9

 

[WaterGardener]

You probably don't need the catfish. Goldfish are bottom feeders so they would do the same job.

Also, I recently read an account of a goldfish that tried to eat a small corydoras catfish and it got stuck in the fish's mouth and had to be cut out. I have no idea why the goldfish decided to try to eat it, but it didn't end well. It took several weeks of tube feeding for the fish's mouth to heal enough for it to eat on its own. I don't know what happened to the catfish. Maybe if the catfish were larger it wouldn't be a problem.

For a pond, it's generally recommended to have 50 gallons per goldfish. For an aquarium it seems to be 20 gallons. Not sure why the discrepancy there. It's also a good idea to have many times the recommended filtration, as much as 10 times, since goldfish are hefty and messy fish. Those common goldfish with good care will get to be 12" or more and the shubunkins 18". So that number will be right at the maximum or a bit over with the catfish.

Those 8 goldfish will soon turn into hundreds, so be aware of that.

Having no substrate is much easier to keep clean. Algae will soon cover the liner so it won't be visible anyway.

 

[j.w]

@dantheman

 

[dantheman]

You probably don't need the catfish. Goldfish are bottom feeders so they would do the same job.

Also, I recently read an account of a goldfish that tried to eat a small corydoras catfish and it got stuck in the fish's mouth and had to be cut out. I have no idea why the goldfish decided to try to eat it, but it didn't end well. It took several weeks of tube feeding for the fish's mouth to heal enough for it to eat on its own. I don't know what happened to the catfish. Maybe if the catfish were larger it wouldn't be a problem.

For a pond, it's generally recommended to have 50 gallons per goldfish. For an aquarium it seems to be 20 gallons. Not sure why the discrepancy there. It's also a good idea to have many times the recommended filtration, as much as 10 times, since goldfish are hefty and messy fish. Those common goldfish with good care will get to be 12" or more and the shubunkins 18". So that number will be right at the maximum or a bit over with the catfish.

Those 8 goldfish will soon turn into hundreds, so be aware of that.

Having no substrate is much easier to keep clean. Algae will soon cover the liner so it won't be visible anyway.

hoplo catfish are 15cm lol I doubt a goldfish will eat it.
I probably won't get the catfish tho.

I think it's 50 gallons for a pond since most ponds have straight tail goldfish.
but thank so much!

 

[WaterGardener]

Actually, the recommendation of 20 gallons per fish in an aquarium is the same for single tails and fancies. I think that's too little since those single tailed fish grow so large. I think they are better suited to ponds, but a lot of people keep them in aquariums even smaller than the recommendation.

I realize those catfish can get large, but they don't start out that way. I think I stated that if the catfish we're larger than that corydoras, there shouldn't be a problem.

 

[WaterGardener]

Sorry. That should be were, not we're. Auto correct working overtime once again!