I found my fish.....in the mud next to the pond, looking like he'd been dead since the minute he went missing several days ago. There wasn't much left, but it wasn't a predator---I could still see the orange on his head to identify him. I think he was suicidal. Why do fish do this?
When I was a kid I had a tropical fish tank and I remember a few fish jumping out repeatedly.
Why??
Awww... that's too bad! Like
@j.w said, sometimes they jump to get something and misjudge their landing. Fish will jump if water quality is poor, but if all the other fish seem fine, then I would guess it was just a mistake on his part.
We've kept our waterfall running every year after the first year. Our first spring, we realized that all of our marginal plants died because they were exposed to the cold all winter. Because of the way our pond is set up, turning the waterfall off makes the pond level drop by about 6 inches. We decided the second year to leave it running and see what happens - and proceeded to have one of the coldest winters on record here in Chicago. It was nerve wracking to say the least! But come spring all the fish were fine, the plants all came back and we've never looked back! Like you mentioned - the ice formations on the waterfall are so fun to watch.
A word of caution - not every pond is built to run all winter. You need to make sure you won't form ice dams on your falls that will redirect the water out of the pond. My waterfall is wide and deep, so the ice doesn't cause any issues.
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