Stocking Suggestions For a 100 Gallon Stock Tank

100 Gallon Tuff Stuff Stock Tank

White clouds if you want the to survive the winter.

Comet goldfish (feeders) work and they are very cheap.

Guppies are good while the temperature is above 60 degrees. Guppies are pretty easy to catch. This is especially true if you have been feeding them.

Platies can't take the heat or the cold well. They can work, but you need to keep them in a shaded area.

You don't want direct sun if you can avoid it.

I have kept Peppered Corydoras paleatus. and albino bristle nose outside in the summer.

Light colored fish are easy to see. Goldfish or the golden white clouds for example.  Regular white clouds just about disappear in the black stock tank. Peppered Corys will vanish and not be found again until you drain the tank.

All of the zebra danios I have in my aquariums were spawned in media mixing pans outdoors like the ones you would use for mixing mortar.

There is a theme here. Hardy fish are usually the cheap ones. I would like to try some native sailfin mollies and bluefin killies. These are native to our area and should do well.

Put wire fencing over the top of the tank high enough above the water level that birds can't perch on the wire and eat you fish. I had a red shouldered hawk clean out a tank once.

Raccoons and the neighborhood kids are a real threat.

Guppies and Homemade Feeding Ring

DIY Feeding Ring - Guppies - 110 Gallon Stock Tank

This is my DIY feeding ring its made from 3/4 inch pvc. Because That's what I had on hand. It works really well and except for needing to tie it down to keep it from move I have no complaints. Commercially available feeding rings are flimsy pieces of junk that,  break sink, let the food get out, and fall apart in direct sunlight. I have a few of these in my outside tanks and have nade them from 1/2 inch CPVC to use in the indoor tanks.

I like feeding rings because they keep the food in one location. The fish soon learn to come there for food.  You get to see them eat and it mkes the lots eaiser to catch.

I uploaded these videos of my stock tank to YouTube a few months ago and forgot to publish them after they were converted. Duh

A few years ago a started a guppy pond in my garden using a 110 gallon stock tank. Much to my surprise it changed the whole garden. All sorts of critters were attracted to the water. Some examples" I now have a population of frogs that spawn in the tank. The are always a large number of dragonflies in the garden and mosquitoes are almost non existent. In the warmer months the garden always has birds. I'm hoping to start a larger tank in the spring. Here are a few videos of the tank I made a few months ago.

Last year I threw out buckets of frogbit almost every week. No frog bit this year. First it got attacked by aphids and the something started eating it. I'm betting caterpillars though I never caught them in the act. Last year I picked hundreds of them off the plants but they didn't show become a problem until it was well established.

This is the best feeding ring I have ever had. It's made frpm 3/4 inch PVC.

Guppies In a 110 Gallon Tuff Stuff Stock Tank

I started raising guppies outside last year. It's incredibly easy to do. You really don't have to feed them but I like to so I get a good look at them. I started out wit a tarp over a compost pile that kept getting full of water and mosquitoes that I put some guppies in to eat the mosquitoes. They grew fast and when I found the 110 gallon stock tank for sale cheap at Tractor supply I just had to give this a try. There is no filtration. The stock tank gets full sun and its full of plants. The only maintenance is keeping it full of water from the hose. If the water gets to green for me I let the hose trickle into the tank until it clears. The green water does not harm the fish but you can't see them if it gets to bad. This only happens in the spring before the plants get going.

 

Accidental Harbor Freight tarp pond on top of a compost pile

I put this blue tarp on my compost pile, hoping to stop weeds from growing in it. It didn't leak, and the rain-filled it up. Then the rains came and filled the tarp with water. The Mosquitoes took over. To control the mosquitoes, I added a few guppies. I added some duckweed for shade and to take care of the ammonia. The guppies proliferated, and their colors popped. When summer came, the water was to shallow and got too hot for the guppies, and  I moved the guppies to a 110-gallon stock tank I got on sale from Tractor Supply. The stock tank pond changed the character of my back yard garden and produced some great guppies.