Balcony Pond 🌿🐟 Medaka Rice Fish & Guppies in a Traditional Fishbowl

Welcome back guys. I wanted to use this traditional asian fish bowl to create a lotus bowl. The kind you often see in asia with a tradition going back hundreds of years. A simple bowl of water with a lotus plant. But my lotus never really grew and slowly this bowl became something else. A small balcony pond surrounded by plants, shaped by the weather and full of life. But let's go back to the beginning. I started this inside under artificial lights and gave the lotus the best start I could. For the substrate I mixed pond soil with clay. This makes it heavy, nutrient rich and perfect for lotus roots. Lotus are strong feeders. They pull everything from their roots. With this mix the soil stays in place and gives them the strength to send their leaves above the water. After filling the bowl to the point where the tips of the lotus could just barely touch the surface, I added a few other plants. They made the bowl look a little more natural and a bit more beautiful. About a month later the first lotus leaves had broken the surface, the water had cleared up and all the plants had grown in nicely. For the first time the bowl really started to feel alive. About six weeks later it was finally time to bring the bowl outside onto the balcony. The days had gotten warmer, the sun was out more often and it felt like the right moment to let the pond have some fresh air and real light. To get the pond outside I first had to drain some of the water, then I placed the bowl onto a little trolley to move it to the balcony door. Of course Mokka was there to help me, curious as always. After the pond found its place on the balcony I filled it back up and Shrimpy was the first to inspect it. She wanted to check if everything was done right. To make the pond feel at home we added more plants around it, a few flowers to give it good company and right next to it another small mini pond found its place, turning the balcony into a little corner of water and greenery. In the summer sun the underwater plants grew fast and soon filled the bowl, so it was time for a good trim. But the lotus was struggling. It lost leaves and stopped growing. I'd heard lotus needs steady warmth, so maybe the cooler nights here weren't making it too happy. Because my aquarium was overflowing with antler guppy babies, I decided to bring some of them outside to fill the bowl with life. Guppies are also great algae eaters, so they help to keep the water clear. Antler guppies can handle cooler temperatures, so I knew they would do fine out here during the summer. A fish that is even more suitable for this kind of setup is the Madaka, the Japanese rice fish. They've been kept in boats like this for hundreds of years and I knew they had to be part of this project. I reached out to my friend Timo and he sent me the most wonderful fish I could have wished for. They glow in the rain and shimmer in the sunshine. Madakas come in many different colors and they are bred to look especially beautiful from above. In a way they stole the show from the guppies. Even the male guppies seemed a little plain next to the shiny Madakas. I got them in a silvery white, orange, spotted and deep black. Each one is adding its own character to the pond. And while the lotus was slowly coming to an end, more and more flowers around the pond began to thrive. I decided to replace the lotus with a water lily, which should do much better in our climate. Maybe the summers here in northern Germany are simply not warm enough for lotus to grow properly. But who knows, I might give it another try next year. Now that we are moving into fall, it's time to get the balcony ready for winter. I will bring the fish inside and set them up in another indoor pond, which I can't wait to show you more of soon. I hope you enjoyed this little journey and found some inspiration for your own projects. Maybe you will even try something like this yourself. And if you do, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. Take care of your health, your sanity and your loved ones. See you next time. Peace.