Iowa goldfish pond

[brokensword]

Take it from j.w; she worked the Puget Sound once upon a time as a commercial fishermanwoman and knows her stuff! Bet she knows her starboard from her port (wine anyone?)

 

[CometKeith]

We have to run water lines 4’.

Hi Kuli and welcome! Good luck with your fish. I’m in Chicago. My pond is 42 inches deep. A few years ago the temps dropped to 26 below. You could hear the ground cracking at night it was so cold! My 50 or 60 fish all did fine with no issues. I keep running all winter a pond breather, a small air pump, and an internal water pump with a pipe dumping water back into the pond. . Even last year when we had two feet of snow on the ground for a few weeks all my fish were fine. Personally I think it’s a lot easier to leave them where they are than bringing them in if you make the pond deep enough and add something like a pond breather and at least one other element to make the water move even if it’s under the ice.

 

[WaterGardener]

If you can't catch the fish, you can put a greenhouse or hoophouse type frame over the pond and cover that with a couple of layers of heavy plastic or a solar pool cover, or both.

I would also use the heater in your situation, and the cover will help to hold that heat in.

But I hope you can catch them and bring them back inside. I'm sure that would be much less worrisome for you.

 

[j.w]

Yep that's right @WaterGardener I forgot how @callingcolleen1 leaves her little guppy pond fish out there all winter and she's is in very cold Medicine Hat up in Canada. She covers her small pond w/plastic and also has a few aquarium heaters in there. Her fish do fine out there. Look up guppy pond in the search bar and post by @callingcolleen1 @Kuli48 and you will see her thread about it all.

 

[WaterGardener]

It's the way we deal with our pond as well, minus the heater. It's not nearly as cold here, but just covering the pond without any additional heat keeps it from freezing at all, even when temps get a little below zero once in a while.