Question
About a week ago I found an article about tubing and I thought that it looked really interesting. Basically it said put the fish in a big barrel and they'll be fine. But I抦 going to assume it's a little more complicated than that.
i have been keeping aquariums for 5 years so I know how to take care of a fish. But I抦 sure that this is a little bit different than an aquarium. I would love if you could give me a walk through of what I need to do for this. Some specific questions that I have are:

What kind of fish? (I have heard live bearers)
How many fish?
What kind of plants?
Do I feed them the same?
What kind of filter should I do?
Do I need substrate?

And pretty much anything that is not COMPLETELY obvious. I think that this is a really interesting topic. It抯 really hard to find any information on it and I would appreciate any that you could give me.
Thank you.

-Rob


Answer
Hi Rob:  The barrel garden or sometimes the planter garden... such that it is is a very close relative to the aquarium.  State agencies for decades now have been planting mosquito fish in horse troughs and other still pools of water as a means of keeping mosquitos at bay.  Mosquito fish are basically a wild form of the guppie and through evolution they have become one of the hardiest fish around.  The barrel garden is a more controlled environment then the horse trough and less controlled then the aquarium.  So you basically fill up your container add your plants, and fish and walk away.  The difference here is that you will need something that breaks the water like a small fountain pump... the falling water is how oxygen is added to the water... the plants help also with this process. The barrel becomes a self sustaining ecosystem.  I think that the rules for aquarium apply here too for stocking fish.  People use goldfish or live bearers... One inch of fish per gallon of water.  I would use any of the pond plants such as Rubra, anachoris, etc.  Feed fish once per day... no filter is needed... the plants become the filter.  You can use substrate if you wanted to... most people prefer a bare bottom barrel.  hope this helps... dave