Fish swimming -40 degrees

[Mmathis]

I took it to be a space with a missing space between the hyphen and the 4. I'm in zone 8, and my water temps. are in the 40's & 50's. So seems it would make sense that someone who is one zone up would be in the 40's. Assuming that's water temp?

 

[Jayne]

Sorry for the misunderstanding. Air temperature is 40 degrees. It was supposed to be "space dash space"

I'd have koi cubes!!

 

[addy1]

lol for sure! Mine swim around even with 33-34 degree water, just not a lot. If it is real sunny day they seem to do more cruising around. Most just hang in a group with minor movement.

 

[Mmathis]

Just went out to check on mine (goldfish, only). Water temp is averaging mid-40's right now, and there were over 1/2 dozen fish swimming around, top-side, though not showing an interest in me (as food-bearer). Funny, but of the ones out, most of them were the fan-tailed guys. Saw a few comets, but they were deeper and making no effort to "check me out."

 

[j.w]

Oh look that -40 temp is contagious TM, as you have it up there in your post too..............lol I know it's supposed to be a hyphen, just had to poke some fun :razz:
We had some ice on our pond this morning and still some left and I see fish swimming near the top. Was gonna go see what the temp was but turned around and went back in when I felt the cold, maybe later.

 

[davepratt]

i know emperor penguins can survive those temps highly doubt kois would though

 

[Dave 54]

Welcome! This is my first winter with a pond. Our air temps bounce around like crazy this time of year, and I've just started monitoring the water temps. Doing this mainly out of curiosity to see how the water temps change along with the air temps. Right now, my bottom is upper 50's [4' deep] and surface is upper 40's. I've noticed there are days [the colder ones] when the fish literally disappear. Today, they are swimming around, but not too active. I'm noting the presence or absence of the fish in my notes. Stopped feeding mine, but there is pleanty of algae for them to nibble on. They seem happy & healthy.

We like to hear about everyone's ponds, and we love pics. Tell us a little about your pond!

Maggie also monitor your air temperatures, as well its something weve been doing every year since moving outside we have a weather station with outside monitor for this.
You'll find there is a colloration between the two .

Jayne make sure that you quit feeding at 10c if your getting temperatures that low (-40c) and you start getting ice melt it dont smash it.
Be aware that there is a thing called sleeping sickness in koi here, they appear dead on the bottom of your pond.
If you see this you must raise the temperature rapidly in the pond if your going to save them, by a degree or two daily .
I've only ever seen this the once "many koi keepers will never see it ever" but if your unlucky enough to get it at least we know what to do.
Incidentally today I noticed my breath for the first time today meaning if I can see it then its starting to get colder however its a brilliant blue sky morning this morning with the sun at the moment coming in through the living room window , it will gradually work its way around the back of the house.

 

[pecan]

Dave you described how my fish look every winter when they hang out at the bottom. How does this desease look deifferent from just normal fish cold water hibernation?

Be aware that there is a thing called sleeping sickness in koi here, they appear dead on the bottom of your pond.

 

[Dave 54]

They all lay on their sides from what I've seen of it they recomend you bring the water temperature up as fast as you can if this happens.
I have a friend in St Johns Canada who was suffering the same expet her koi always died in the spring .
We worked out a system between us where the fish were moved into two vats indoors, with filters taken from the pond prior to the fish going into the vats.
The system works well with no more losses incedentally she had -25c with -54c windchil.
Ince=identally we go through winter with the pond covered in Policarbonate sheeting and heat our filter housing with an oil heated radiator .
Even without the heating we would not have taken our filters off line, we also made sure in the buildig of our pond that all pipes, were lagged and the filter housing insulated with 22mm polystyrene this includes the pond which also has a layer of silversided bubble wrap and the pond then wrapped in recycled plastic loft insulation giving us a temperature of 10-15c the coldest we had last year was -10c here in our part of the UK.


rgrds

Dave

 

[crsublette]

Dave you described how my fish look every winter when they hang out at the bottom. How does this desease look deifferent from just normal fish cold water hibernation?

From what I could find, the fish act like normal during their torpor state except the fish would suddenly stop swimming, as appearing they fell asleep, then temporarily lose buoyancy, then the fish quickly begin to swim like normal again, and the process repeats itself until the fish simply remains sleeping, losing bouyancy, and do not recover.


I would be careful about jumping to conclusions. There are many illnesses out there that are remedied by adding heat to increase water temperature, but this correlation absolutely does not indicate the causation of the illness was cold water temperature.


From my research, KSD (koi sleeping disease) is a very rare disease and is actually a virus, that also infects fish when the water is not terribly cold (although just cold enough), most commonly infects groups of fish rather than individual fish, most commonly infects fry and younger fish that is 2 years old or younger, and also infects fish that have not built up an immune system to combat the virus. The thinking as to why it does not infect older fish is due to the older fish have actually encountered the virus, survived it, and now has a stronger immune system to combat against it. If the fish actually does die from this sleeping virus, then the virus is still present and can be found in the fish when sent off to a laboratory for testing.

I bet cold water can possibly cause this illness as cold water can cause other illnesses due to stress created on the fish, but, from what I could find, cold water absolutely is not the instigating trigger, which indicates to me that cold water is not the primary cause and is why we do not hear about this disease being more common by folk that actually do keep their fish outdoors during hash winters.


Quarantining. One primary reason, called "old pond" syndrome, to quarantining new fish with a companion fish, which the companion fish is from the "old" pond, is to improve the new fish's immune system to pathogens that have accumulated in the pond due to the fact the pond has aged, as indicated by an accumulation of various organisms and pathogens in its water. So, when new fish have never encountered these ailments, then they are more likely to get sick and the new fish are easier to treat when in a quarantine tank.