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For the summer of 2005, I decided to go a different route for my container ponds- or container water gardens as some publications are now calling them. I now have four twenty gallon container ponds. Each is a round, dark green container that sits nicely in a wooden whiskey half-barrel. I cut off and removed the rope handles from the containers, seeing no reason to keep them on. I placed the quartet on the west side of the home, which sees a good amount of afternoon sunlight, and the location is somewhat protected from the other elements and small, interested hands seeing what they can get into.

Over the last couple of years I have found and purchased some inexpensive water lilies of various species and colors. Never knowing what to expect out of our weather, I did not want to get too heavily involved with costly and fancy varieties. They are all listed as hardy, and I over-winter them indoors in a closed container that is kept damp and cool on my basement floor. I currently have five lilies, but hope to find one more dwarf style, as two dwarves fit nicely into one tub.

I purchased two groups of paradise fish: one blue with two males and four females; the other albino group had one male and four females. I kept them indoors until the temperature of the water stayed a constant minimum of 65 degrees, and then took them outdoors, evenly distributing them among the tubs. The albino male spent time in each of two tubs with his prospective consorts. Unfortunately, two of the albino females soon vanished as did one of the blue. I have heard that male paradise fish can be rough with each other! Apparently the same is true for the female’s aggression against the male, for I found one dead blue male who had been beaten and partially eaten.

A major concern, for those of you who have not kept paradise fish, is their jumping ability. Over the course of the summer I found three paradise corpses. The three that vanished may well have ended up in the landscaping rock surrounding my container pond area. Whether they jumped out to avoid confrontation, excess attention, or to catch a passing bug, I am not sure. After taking the surviving fry indoors in early September, on at least six occasions one would jump out of the tank when the lid was opened either to feed them or to perform maintenance. Yes, on two of the tries I even caught a jumper! I have seen coarse nets to keep leaves out of ponds, but I can’t see one helping to keep a good jumper from going through the mesh.

The blue survivors did indeed spawn for me, on several occasions. I did supplement their available natural diet with some flake. What could be better to condition prospective breeders than natural, live foods? I did not disturb the lilies in the containers except on rare occasions to remove a branch or some other debris. I never saw any of the bubble nests, the first indication of a spawn was seeing the very small fry. By then I had room to remove the parents from the fry, and give them their own tub in which to prosper and grow. At one point, I estimated to have had 150 fry! I decided to leave them outdoors to feed on natural sources, figuring it wiser to have perhaps four dozen healthy youngsters than 100 plus in an inside tank. I ended up with 29 fry that made it through the summer to be moved inside. I did feed finely crushed flake food to the fry, and it was taken when the fry were large enough to consume it. The albinos never spawned, or at least none of the fry survived to be seen.

Six of the young blue, Macropodus opercularis made it to the GVAC September auction, and earned a BAP for me for their endeavors. The rest, and their parents, have been passed on to others. I am already in search of new occupants for my container ponds for the summer of 2006. What will they be? I can already see more BAP points on the horizon for a new or different species that I have not yet kept, or have not yet spawned for me.

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