Sturgeon Pond

[knightnsd]

So I have finished most of my new pond up in the mountains after leaving San Diego and thought others might be looking for pond fish or just interested in adding dinosaurs to a pond. Sturgeon like cooler waters for anyone considering them but I added 4 small sturgeon this week to my pond (35' by 25' by 6.5' deep) and will try and post pics of them and updates as they adjust and grow. I chose a smaller variety called diamondback sturgeon and they absolutely look like dinosaurs and feel more like a plated lizard or dinosaur than scaled fish. They swim more like a shark as well with their tails that heavily sway from left to right, cool addition that were very hard to find. Here is a link to what they look like.

https://undergroundaquaticz.com/pro...r-gueldenstaedtii?_pos=1&_sid=c70d5b90a&_ss=r

Ill get the pics up, fingers crossed, of their release. I got them from Chris https://undergroundaquaticz.com/

 

[FreshSaltH2o]

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[oceanslide]

Wow that’s amazing! Those things look straight up ancient.
What kind of filtration are you running on the pond?


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[LotsaFishies]

Dude nice going Ed!! That's incredibly cool. Eager to see pics of the pond!

 

[knightnsd]

Wow that’s amazing! Those things look straight up ancient.
What kind of filtration are you running on the pond?


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So far just a regular pond pump/filterbox, (prescreen as it enters the box), then matting that the water filters through before the waterfall dumps it out. I added a new deck and just ran the power underneath it and posted power by the sump box to add a UV sterilizer as the ducks wintered in it and turned it green for 5 months. Ill try and get more pics up in the next week.

 

[knightnsd]

Dude nice going Ed!! That's incredibly cool. Eager to see pics of the pond!

Ill get a few pics up, we have ducks seasonally, deer, and a massive lion walked through a few months ago, turkeys, ducks, and then the stupid trash pandas ate my clams from the pond. I like raccoons but wanted to get the clam population going before they ate them. There have been a lot of bears in the area but till I get my game cams up I dont have pics yet

 

[FreshSaltH2o]

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[marty92128]

Very impressive


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[knightnsd]

Thank you, built most all of it myself after ordering a kit during covid...I started digging and kept digging, ran the return line under the liner to the waterfall, then it was rock time. I used old carpet as a pre-liner, then old freeway post board signs, one of them the was for a marijuana store, the other coors light (luckily or I might be digging it up), then the felt liner, then the EPDM liner 45 mil, they make a 60mil I think too but they GET HEAVY and I could barely get the liner to the pond edge then pushed it in like a toilet paper roll unfolding down the bank. Rolling it up the other side was not much fun along with trying to stretch it across all of the edges, think my neighbors thought I was nuts but as it took shape they were amazed, then the ducks and a million canyon tree frogs moved in and my neighbor last night asked what happened to the sounds of the Amazon when he opened his window each night. I told him the frogs had mated and the tadpoles were turning into frogs already so they don't call each other much till next year but who would have thought Id have hundreds of tree frogs here? Interesting frogs as they seem to have multiple calls, some sound like a fax machine, chicken or Scarface shooting a machine gun that a beer and a chair on my deck leave me laughing during. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34sysHn_ovY cool frogs for sure that Ill get a picture of up.

 

[knightnsd]

Update...so far no sturgeon sightings since their release but none of them have floated up or been found in the prefilter. Since the pond is 6.5 feet deep, I have to assume they are just skimming the bottom of the pond for the sinking pellets. I have to mention to anyone that gets them... these feed year-round as they have adapted to cold water, or they will lose weight and eventually die if left without food long enough. I released some Sacramento black fish and small rainbow trout in the pond about 4 months ago and didn't see them for a couple months. I figure the sturgeon are not much different and being bottom dwelling fish with whiskers that resemble catfish and not really an apex predator fish they likely will be on the bottom most all of the time but once they grow out they will be visible at 3 feet long.

 

[Kaifish]

Very interested in a pond update

 

[Kris]

When I was young I wanted a sturgeon and a pond (Koi) but I never considered putting them both together. So many much smarter people than me in the world, (dDuh.) Anyway, has the snow melted yet and I second the request for an update. Trusting all is well there.