bubbaba

allcladrad, just read all of that good info. Thanks.

My pond will be 1.5 meter deep after I back fill with .5 meter dirt. I could make the pond deeper if I wanted. Is .5 meter of dirt enough to get plants to grow well? I also plan to plant some type of surface plant like water lettuce, kang-kong. I am still researching that. Planting in/on water is also new to me. I am an old dirt farmer. Something green on the surface would make the pond look good, but not so much as to block out the sun and the fish could eat it to. Any ideas on that?

Water comes from two sources. All rain water, except for one downspout, goes to the pond. We also have a well with plenty of water about 35 meters deep. When I look in I can see the water about 10 meters down. I need to buy a pump soon. Again any ideas are welcome.

If I never plan to empty the pond of all fish and water, will I be ok to pump from the bottom of the pond and add fresh water to the top from time to time. I already know the stuff from the bottom of the pond is great for the garden. Since our pond is also to help beautify the back yard my wife wants a fountain. You know water shooting up every where. Boy o boy - more evaporation, cost elec LOL. It will or should help aireate the pond.

How much feed would you use to supplement their algee diet to keep from having strong tasting fish. Maybe only 20 percent of daily recommended feed.

How deep is your pond? What is a pacu fish? Good eating? What type of pump should I buy to pump out the goodies from the bottom of the pond?

I assume you live in Thailand, north, east, south middle? I live near Korat.

Thanks man.

Chownah, Thanks man. I googled "fertilize pond manure". Great information there. I have been reading and copying for over two hours now. Brain dead again. Thank you.

I live far out in the middle of casava fields, mushroom houses, and farm houses. So to me looks was not that important. I did, however come out with a nice looking fence. I wanted a fence to keep some of the stray dogs out and mine in. I also did not want to spend a lot on a fence. I had my worker use small rebar and cement and make a small beam between the old barb-wire cement post that were there. Then lay up cement blocks using rebar and at the top another beam. I only went 6 blocks high from ground level. He rendered it all off. Finshed off at about 5 foot with the post a few inches higher. Not expensive, looks great.

Thanks for the information allcladrad. I really like the catfish plan the lady was using. My mother in law might like that idea, get rich, then go away too! LOL did I really say that? She is not really that bad, just needs a new farm income. At present she is one of many who burn old rubber tires for fuel in order to steam her mushroom houses. BAD. They will not change unless we can show them another, better way to make money.

I have no plans for commercial unless my helping others, hobby, fishing for myself, etc. turns out good and I then see that maybe I could make a profit. Too break even would suit me. I live in a poor village and on this street where I live is many relatives and lifetime friends of my wife. The plan is to raise fish for FUN and have plenty FREE FOOD for family and friends and of course I love to fish. Even if this costs me some, small bhat, it is ok.

My biggest problem is lack of knowledge on how to build a pond, maintain a pond, raise fish, etc. That's the reason I have read every thing on this forum and am still looking for information.

I see you don't have to buy expensive feed for pla nin and pla tap tim. Simply raise enough algae, pyto and zooplankton. How much is enough? How much is too much? How do you tell? Once you have started the growth how do you maintain that growth--is the fish poo enought to keep it going or do I need to add more manure at different times? What about ammonia build up and or solid waste? Does one have to drain and clean the pond on a regular bases or can it be balanced so as to be sort of self sufficient?

The cement pond, (maybe another type of liner) will be 2 meters deep. 1.5 meter after backfilling with .5 meter soil plus manure. Per square meter of pond surface - how much manure should I add to get growth started?

How often do you add fresh water or change waterin the pond other then to bring up the level?

How do you balance all of this? How can I start the pond and then let it care for itself? I just want to sit there with a fishing rod in my hand.

Bubba: have you seen anyone use crank type telephone or other forms of electrial fishing devices? They are quite common here in villages and are used to supplement the income, not table fare, I dont begudge a cane pole to catch supper, but they can and will clean out a unattended pond, as Gary has mentioned, overnight

I live on one rai. My bedroom is on the back side of the house as is the pond. The pond being less than 200 feet from my back door. The fish tanks would/will be even closer to the house. I have a nice dog with a bad attitude towards people at night. I too, have a bad attitude to people roaming around in the dark at night on my property. I do plan to put a nice looking pole light (2 of them) in the back of the house. I have one in the front. The lights really make your yard/garden look great at night. The light also helps to keep unwanted people away. The light also makes the target easier to see. I also have a cement wall, only 5 ft high, around my yard and house. I live in my yard/garden as much as in my house. I don't think the pond will ever be unattended.

Bubba, your one rai must be quite large. A Thai rai is about 131 feet by 131 feet or 40 by 40 meters.

Hi GaryA - You are correct. I didn't know the exact measurments before so I did a measure today. I came up with this. Front on street side 24.61 meter. Back side of property 26.46 meter. From front to back the left side of the property is 72.92 meters and the right side is 79.07 meters. I came up with approximately l900 square meters. I am not the greatest at math so correct me if I am off. I also measured from the pool to the back side of my house, my bedroom window. 111 feet. If I remove a small clump of bamboo and enlarge the pond as my wife and I are thinking about, the pond will only be 90 feet from the window. I make the dog stay out side at night. So she sleeps as close to us as she can--right under that window.

Yes, I have thought of using a linner, but, I worry abut it leaking, not lasting long and so forth. I know less about using a liner then I do cement. Can you or anyone provide more informaation? Reliable contractor who could do the job, estimated costs, etc. Step by step procedures for D-I-yourself. Any contact's in or around Korat?

All of my family and their friends have cement on the brain. They just shake their heads and laugh when I say anything other then cement. They just dont like and know about pond liners so, I really need help from outside the family circle.

I am digging now, slowly, but I still am in the planning, thinking stage and I really know nothing about this subject of ponds, at least from this angle. I can hold my own standing on the bank with a rod in my hand, but that's the other side of the coin. I appreciate any and all information. Thank you.

Bullfrogs - does anyone have any information of raising bullfrogs? A friend of mind just came back from Cambodia and said some farmers there were raising them and making good profits. On his next trip to Cambodia I plan to have him get the details.

Thanks for the info Chownah.

Sorry I did not make myself clear about "feeding well". I meant using regular catfish food that would be cleaned up in ten mins or so and no more.

You are right about the possibility of disease. I too worry about that one. Maybe there is a water test that can be taken before transferring the water. I am still researching so I don't know yet.

With or without the waste water, can talapia be raised only by adding manures too get enough feed for the talapia, or would I still need to feed the talapia some?

I am aware of the problems with fish pouchers(however you spell it) in Thailand. Muddy the pond. use an electric charge, bright light submerged, chumminmg the water, etc. Been there, done that. I like fishing for trout with gold fish best. For sure you can catch some big ones. Note: Don't get caught in the US doing it that way. 5555. I may eat these words some day, but, I don't think they can get to my pond. Too many eye's and lights are watching. My wife's poor cousin w/family work for me and watch my property. I really live on about 40 rai but I can only put my stuff on this one rai. Mother in law lives next door, 3 meters away and my wife's three poor brother's do bite. I am really surrounded by family and life time friends of the family who all know about the pond and that they are welcome to eat from it for free. I really feel that an outsider would suffer much if he was that stupid. But, as I said, some day I may eat those words because I have an empty pond with no fish. LOL.

Thanks man. Any more advice from you or anyone is welcome. I love it. I still am dumb and need to learn more before I stock the fish.

Bubba: have you seen anyone use crank type telephone or other forms of electrial fishing devices? They are quite common here in villages and are used to supplement the income, not table fare, I dont begudge a cane pole to catch supper, but they can and will clean out a unattended pond, as Gary has mentioned, overnight

I live on one rai. My bedroom is on the back side of the house as is the pond. The pond being less than 200 feet from my back door. The fish tanks would/will be even closer to the house. I have a nice dog with a bad attitude towards people at night. I too, have a bad attitude to people roaming around in the dark at night on my property. I do plan to put a nice looking pole light (2 of them) in the back of the house. I have one in the front. The lights really make your yard/garden look great at night. The light also helps to keep unwanted people away. The light also makes the target easier to see. I also have a cement wall, only 5 ft high, around my yard and house. I live in my yard/garden as much as in my house. I don't think the pond will ever be unattended.

I have never raised sheep so I have nothing to add on that subject, except, I have eaten it and love it and you should follow the advice Bina gives. She does know what she is talking about.

Goats I have raised and love. Unless you are planning to breed them you do not, DO NOT, want a billly (male). They are a real pain to pen up and love to pee on themselves to attract females.

Female goats are easy to care for. Kids make for great pets and food. If you have a young child in the family and the kid becomes their pet - it is not longer available for food.

Most people eat kids and some times mature female goats. Billies make good dog food when too old to breed.

Filippinos cook, IMHO, the best goat. A stew called Kambing caldarettea (I know that is not spelled right). They also make a stew using sweet potatoes and pineapple with the goat. Both ways are great. If there is a Filippino on here maybe they will be so kind as to correct my spelling and give us the complete instructions for cooking goat.

Hello again. I don't know where to put this for sure so I am just doing a new topic. I just re-read every post/article on Ponds and Fish Farming on The Farming Forum, 19 pages, and now I am brain dead - there is a lot of information there.

I read with great interest about the experiment in which waste water from catfish tanks was used for nile talapia with no other food being added. For sure the way to go on feed cost if there is not other associated problems. (I am still trying to download the reference given. My computer is sorry). I think this was from a post by Tim207 @ 2006-10-27.

I also read where I think Somtham, same date, said that all of his fish ponds drained to a single settling pond. We don't feed the fish in the settling pond and they only get waste water from the other ponds. Again sounds good to me.

I have been thinking about this and I wonder if the following would work.

Pump water from the well to the Catfish tank and feed them well, then pump the catfish water to the talapia tank as the only food for them and finally pumping the talapia water to my main pond and stocking a small amount of mixed fish and again providing no food for them, only waste water.

If I only had to add supplemental feed as necessary it seems fish could be raised without a large feed bill. I don't know. I am new to this type of farming and trying to learn fast because soon I will be building the tanks, pond/s etc.

I plan to build fish tanks like chris.B @ 2006posted with pictures in his topic: "Our Fish Farming Experiment - small scale intensive fish farming." Only difference is I do not plan to do intensive fish farming. I want to learn first, provide food for the family and if possible at least break even. Maybe I can get rich later. LOL

I plan to start with pla duk, pla nin, and tap tin.

This is approximately 16 months since the above posts. What worked great, failed,etc.? Has anyone had any disease problems using the waste water? Does anyone have any comments, information, whatever, good/bad? I need to know and thank you very much.

Bubbaba, I don't know anything about ponds, but if you put in concrete at a thickness of 10 cm, which I don't think you would need it to be that thick, then you would need about 31.7 cubic metres of concrete and at 2,500 baht a cubic metre that is 79,250. Throw in a steel mesh mat, labour, and some inflation on the last time I bought ready-mix (2 years ago) and you should be able to do it for about 150,000 baht. This is Issan prices. Issangeorge

Issangeorge. Thank you for the information. That's about what I figured. But not what contractors want to figure.

We've got 30 cows at the moment, I bought approx 20 last year to keep the grass down on 50 rai of Lamyai and Teak. I have had ten Calves this year for free. The land is fenced and the Cows do not seem to make too much damage to the trees, offcourse they eat some of the friut and leaves but the fruits are worth very little anyway. They seem to get enough grass and (fruit) most of the year, were now taking advantage of the free Rice straw and will have to put them in the rice paddy for the worst of the dry season, but all in all very little work. I give them mineral blocks occasionally and all in all they appear very healthy, much much better than the other cows I see around the village. They have saved me a great deal of Labour and fuel this year and therefore it works for me. You've only got to look around you if you live in the countryside to realise there's very little money to be made in Farming in Thailand. Any money that is made is by the middleman. But If you have the Land then you have to do something with it ;-)

You are so correct. In America, in the past, a man could have 40 to 80 acres and run a family farm with crops, livestock, the works. He and his family could have a decent lifestyle even if not rich. However, that was 50 to 100 years ago. Today, as you said, look around you, only the big corp. farms make money. The small man can only make some money if he works for them. If you love farming as I do, then do it for yourself. Doing it for yourself is "big profit", Recreation, fresh, high quality food, exercise, great hobby, wonderful for the development of children, on and on.

I need a little help. I am building a cement fish pond apprximately 20 meters by 12 meters. The pond will be in some places 1.5 meter deep and in other parts 2 plus meters. Around about one-third of the ponds edge I will have a shelf about 50 cm deep runing 3 to 4 meters from the edge of the deep parts. I am building on soil that will not hold water.

For a cement collar/beam around the circumfrence of the pond, what specs should I use. How wide? How thick? Size and amount of rebar, iron, or welded wire, etc? I know and want the beam, but, I have no idea abut how much reinforcement I should use or the size of the beam. In addition to the support the collar/beam provides to the edge around the pond, I want to be able to work claydirt around to the edge so that grass will grown right up to the wates edge and no cement showing.

The pond will be used by the family for food and recreation. Mostly catfish and talapia. No commercial.

I would appreciate all the help/advise you can provide. Thank you.

For the sake of many I would hate to see the baht fall to 20 to 25 to the dollar. But if you own your own home and control your spending, you could live on much less then you think. IMO I think staying would be better then moving.

Also, if married, remember that imigration considers your wife's pay plus yours. Easy to show 45,000 bhat per month and be allowed to stay.

Don't ever think that the grass has gotten greener back home. From what I hear it would be hard to exist in the USA on my income as compared to what it was 15 years ago.

I would like to have installed on my home near Korat a TV satellite Dish. I have heard that once installed you may pick up as many as 200 plus stations from surrounding countries including Japan and China. Does anyone have a recommendation as to type of dish or a company they could recommend? I have not had any luck trying to goggle up a company. Thank you.

I quit a year and a half now. I still crave them. Yes due to additives in cigs they are harder to give up then most hard drugs. I used the Gum you buy over the counter at 7-11's and drug stores in Bangkok. It helps reduce your desire for nicotine while you get use to not having a cig in your hand. Determination is a must. I smoked 2 to 4 packs a day. I smoked for over 50 years. It is important to remember - don't even take one drag of a cig, ever. The moment you do you are almost 100 percent sure to continue smoking. I think giving up the smokes was the smartest thing I ever did in my life.

Coffee in a.m. At least three cups. Sometimes many more during the day.

Pepsi Max or Diet Coke

All fruit juices.

Lassie

Callamonsi/Lime juice and water. No sugar. Sometimes I use equal.

Water.

I like all of the above about equally.

Beer and hard drinks - never.

I like a very wide selection of music. I like Piano or Guitar solos the most. I listen daily to Richard Clayderman on Piano and at least weekly to a mix of guitar music. Spanish/Mexican sounds best on guitar.

I have been reading this forum for a year or two and will retire to Thailand in about 3 years. It amazes me the negative comments that have relatively no basis. Why do people live here if they hate it so much? Some of you need to get a life, the U.S. and several other sountries have much worse crime and in my opinion if you mind your own business and do what is right then you won't have a problem...anywhere!

I do appreciate the good info that is posted but all the negativity is ridiculous, as stated above get a life, turn your computer off and enjoy Thailand.....or go somewhere else.

My first post and I expect a rash of ignorance to follow.

ACMIKE

Hello ACMIKE. Welcome to the forum. I have lived in Thailand for three years now and I am married to a Thai. I agree with your comments 100%. Thailand is a great place to live.

If you are planning to have fish in the pond, then you shoul use some of the soil to build a dam around the pond, around 0.5-1m high, specially if you want cat-fish.

Tilapia.

Why do you put a dam around the pond?

I recently had a large hold dug on our property so that we could use the dirt to back fill our yard where we are building a new home. Due to some heavy run off because of the recent heavy downpours I have many washed out areas around my pond/hole.

We want to turn it into a fish pond. For sure stocked with some cats. I know that I will need to use cement. Not sure of the process. I have been reading lately about ferro-cement. Is that worth considering. At best I can tell I am about 30 feet above the water table in this area. I have some water in the pond now because it storms a lot lately. Drought time comes I am sure it will be very dry with out cement or something.

What suggestions, instructions, advice can you offer. I welcome all. I live 13 kilometers south of Khorat.

I'm also just growing for home, I like pasta and it's difficult to get ripe tomatoes over here, the Roma ones are great.

I am planting my first garden ever in Thailand now so I don't know how the old tricks that I know work. Anyway, back home in Florida I would pick my tomatoes when they first started turning red. Then I put them upside down on a sunny window ledge until fully ripe. You get an added benefit--you get the tomato before the bugs do.

Yes we have one, two in fact, on the pole on the corner about 40 meters from our bedroom. Very loud with no volume switch, but the music is nice. Saves money - you don't need to buy an alarm clock or a morning newspaper. You can also practice your Thai listening skills. Love it he he he he he he he

TNT anyone?

I noticed in some other place on this forum that there was instructions for making a concret pool/pond that would be adquate for keeping koi and the like. The construction of a pond such as this is much more, I think, then what would be needed for a simple fish pond, lagoon type thing.

Is there anywhere on this forum, instructions for making a simple fish pond with cement, plastic, etc? A simple step by step procedure.

I live in an area where almost everyone has mushroom houses including my MIL. To control humity here and/or to raise the humity level, and to sterilize things in mushroom houses my MIL and all of my neighbors burn used truck tires to fire up there steaming producing machine - a large brown, rusty, piece of junk with wheels that can send a cloud of black smoke high in the sky. Approximately everyother day for about 6 hours this black cloud is going up.

Since I know nothing about the subject of mushroom houses I thought I would seek assistance here.

I want to know all other methods of producing steam for mushroom houses. Information on companies that sell equipment, etc. Goggle has nothing that I could find. What ever you can provide will be fine.

Thank you