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POND Has our sturgeon outgrown his pond?
A few years ago, we bought two young sturgeon for our pond—a diamond and a golden sturgeon. They live quite happily with our five koi in a 3.6x1.8x1.5m deep pond, which has a volume of around 9,500 litres.
The golden sturgeon is now around 60cm in length, but Sammy, the diamond, has more than doubled his size from 50cm when we bought him to 114cm in length.
While he seems happy enough, I’m wondering if he’s now getting too big for the pond. Please could you advise?
DAVE DAWSON
JEREMY SAYS: While 114cm is a wonderful size for your sturgeon to achieve, he can grow larger than this, and in his current pond he can only swim three times his body length before having to stop and turn around—something that’s very different to the large rivers they inhabit in nature.
The 1.5m depth is fine, but if you have the space and the budget you would really need to consider a much larger pond in the region of 5.5x3.6m—and ideally one with wide, rounded corners, so that Sammy can swim around and around.
This would treble the volume at just over 30,000 litres and depending on the size of your existing filtration system you might need to upgrade that too.
If a larger pond and filter is not feasible then ask around koi keepers with very large ponds, of those dimensions or larger. Any such ponds will need to be free of plants and blanketweed. This would be the best long-term home for such an impressive fish.
TROPICAL How do I set up a Tanganyikan community?
I'm a huge fan of African cichlids. I know Tanganyikans are less aggressive than most Malawis and I wondered about setting up a Tanganyikan community-type tank. If it’s do-able, which 'peaceful' fish would you recommend for a 120x45x45cm set-up?
I presume I don't need to overcrowd them or add them all at once as is often recommended for Malawis, but do I need to introduce these cichlids in any particular order?
I'd welcome any advice please, as despite having kept cichlids for nearly five years, I do find the African species a bit of a minefield.
ROB FLETCHER
JEREMY SAYS: I love cichlids from Lake Tanganyika, and the way that the whole lake behaves like a freshwater sea, the cichlids evol
