Fish fatalities

[Dave 54]

Judging from the number of people talking about fish dying this winter and the most common denominator amongst these ponds is there was no maintenance of the pond prior to the winter .
You really must remember that maintenance is a must of both pond and if your running a filter the filter too.
Remove detritus dead leaves etc from the pond the best idea would be to net the pond prior to Autumn or Fall as its called in the US a pond vac can be either made if your into DIY or bought relatively inexpensively take time out to clean your filter if you run it through the winter like we do but also if you start up a filter in the spring that is dirty then you could find yourslf having problems.
We do water changes tthroughout but if you dont please remember to do your water perameters on a weekly basis .
You simply cant just go about ignorig the fact you have a pond in winter.
If you dont cover the pond leave a opening in the ice so that the pond can de-gass you can use a pond heater to do this or even a ball
If your readings are wrong you must do a water change , you can do this by trickling water at a very slow pace allowing the ambient temperature of the pond to warm the water .
Spring isnt a time to sit back either, this is when your fish are at their most vunerable care must be taken in inspecting them for parasites and damage that may need treating there are water changes to be done , the filter to be switched back on (prime it with helpful bacteria first), remember to check your UV-C is it in date , if no change it .
All in all look after the maintenance and your fish will look after themselves , hope this helps

Dave

 

[DrCase]

We got back into the low 60s this weekend after the low of 6 last monday
so I was netting a few leaves out of my ponds
I thought my 1 year old Showa pond was fine but i had a lot of muck in the net in when it came up, i was surprised
Luckly i bought myself a pond a pond vac 4 just before christmas
sorry Dave i wont mess up again

 

[HARO]

Good advice, Dave, but hard to follow when the pond is under 4" of ice!
John

 

[adavisus]

Something which catches out winter ponds, a layer of snow over an ice plate blots out light long enough for all the submerged aquatic plants to die from lack of photosynthesis

When you peek though the ice the water is black with the particles of dead algae, disintegrated plants...

Sweeping snow off the pond every couple of days to let light through the ice makes a diff...

Regards, andy
http://swglist.wordpress.com/
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/

 

[fishin4cars]

Not much you can really do with a solid 4" of ice on top. But then again I think Dave is really posting this to be prepared before a pond gets a solid ice sheet on it. I was out at the ponds today and everything looks great, everybody looks healthy, water is crystal clear, only a few leaves here or there. Decide to check parameters just to make sure all was fine. big pond ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate below 10ppm temp 55 GH 80ppm KH 120 ph 8.2 phosphates 15ppm. Lily and butterfly koi pond, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate below 10ppm temp 55Gh 80 ppm KH 20 ppm PH 6.4 phosphates 30ppm. That is not what I expected to see! I am border lining a PH crash. Thankfully I checked just for the heck of it. This could have been a disaster if another heavy rain had come in, or if I didn't catch when the pond started warming up and biological all started kicking back in. Folks take this word of advice, when you can, check those water parameters. I added 2# of baking soda and will check again in the morning, probably will need to add a couple more 1# doses over the next couple of days. I'm just glad I caught this before it was to late!

 

[Dave 54]

You are indeed correct Larkin yes the thickness of ice does pose a problem cant help you with that but this site has some most inventive people on it that I kmow next to ny good old Uncle George who made a fortune with the innvention of a gas connector for gas cookers here in the UK and according to his Eulegy on his death also had a small part to pay in the Gemini Space program, it was to do with the space suit seals I believe.
So I feel sure they could come up with a solution for this problem.
Would it stop your ice completely I dont know , would it lessen the ice underneath it "who know's".
However a bit of news on our own pond in freezing temperatures -3c has only lost .5c dropping from 10.5c with no ice over the last two days.
So as you can see there is some merit in covering a pond in Polycarbonate roofiing and lots of insulation.
I do know that the system we use keeps our koi toasty hilst the temperature of friends ponds is now 2.c and dropping .
Planning and insulation for future pond builds may be a must from the more Northally of US ponds ?
One thing we all forget is that koi have a short sharp winter in Japan and our long hard cold winters arent suited for them.
Our winter's are all set to get longer and harder as climate change bites so being as prepared as we can for it seems the sensibly option .
Sad as these instances can be they can be turned around so we can all learn from this.

Dave

 

[adavisus]

Using cold frame techniques to moderate harsh winters was introduced to pond keepers a few years ago with usually dramatically improved conditions for wintering koi.

Not difficult or overly expensive to do... Compared to replacing fish casualties, or the cost of expensive power options...

Regards, andy
http://swglist.wordpress.com/
http://www.pinterest.com/adavisus/pondering/

 

[Dave 54]

Totally agree with you Andy went down to -3c last night air temperature wise with the pond dropping to 10c however coming back from shopping this fternoon it had shot back up to 10.6c again , its nice to know exacly whats happening day and night .


Dave

 

[adavisus]

10c is a very safe pond temperature for Winter fish, spot on. No ice for sure...

 

[Dave 54]

Thanx andy we put alot of thought into our move outdoors , the pond is back up to 10.6c today so weve gained everything back again in temperature lost during this icy snap that weve been having of late.

Dave