Lost my first Koi today

[sissy]

Could be just like a water shock in the summer when water is hot and you add to much cold water to the mix .It has been a really cold winter with that polar vortex

 

[pecan]

I was concerned when the cold snap hit. Normally the pond gradually freezes over around the first of January and thaws completely by the end of February. Not this year. It went from open water to thick ice over night. I was also concerned about my plants as they don't get a good chance to harden off for the winter when that happens. I may have lost some roses.

 

[sissy]

I am worried about my fruit trees and some of my roses also .

 

[bettasngoldfish]

We continue with our filtrtion throughout the winter neacause weve insulated everything and then covered the pond with Polycabonate roofing sheets the same as the filter housing .

Dave, Do you have pictures of the roofing sheets once you have them on the pond? Just curious how you have them covering the pond. How is it secured down? How much space between the pond water and the roofing?

 

[Tula]

Sorry you lost another one. We're to warm up next week, so I imagine I'll get a closer look at my pond and I'm kind of afraid to look: I only have 5 fish, all koi.

I'm having a pond guy come next week to take a look at my sinking skimmer....heaven knows how much it will cost to fix it! Kim

 

[pecan]

I spent the day out there today cleaning my 100 gallon skippy out. I built a sort of pvc table to put in the skippy that provides a more secure area for the florescent light grating where I put plants.

While out there the fish were moving quite a bit. All that are left look well (9 koi and several goldfish). Water tests are all zero's and a ph around 9. I am going to build a fence tomorrow and maybe Sunday clean the other skippy (70 gallon) and clean the pond up. I need to skim it, muck it out and fix rocks that shifted around the edges over winter. We are going to cool back down into the 40's next week and probably stay there for a while, at least until March I suspect. Once we get up into the 50's regularly I will hook the pumps back up and get her running for the year.

I have decided to put in a proper koi pond with proper koi filtration, bottom drains etc. That will be in 2-4 years though. In the meantime I have decided to slowly get rid of the comets and not add anymore koi. I'd like to have few fish to find a temporary home for when we redig.

I can't imagine the problem could be over population since the pond is roughly 5000 gallons. I only had 11 koi and less than 20 goldfish. But maybe it will help as I get rid of more goldfish. Who knows.

 

[Dave 54]

your Ph is far to high at the moment at 9.1 you'll need to get it down some

Dave

 

[Tula]

I rehomed 45 shubunkin and comets this past fall. I'm hoping less fish will make pond maintenance less work. I am hoping I can enjoy some plants this year, I don't like how the koi destroy them! I used to want a "proper" koi pond, but am happy with what I've got ....looking forward to getting it make up and running. I'd love to have a butterfly koi. I have 5 and my pond is only 1670 gallons, so unless I rehome one, not sure I should add another.

 

[pecan]

your Ph is far to high at the moment at 9.1 you'll need to get it down some

Dave

Dave my ph has stayed steady at 8.5 - 9 since I built the pond in 2011. The first year I added a bunch of vinegar every other day for months (lowered it to 8) and then did some researching and found for our area it is very normal. High deserts have high ph due to the low rainfall. Soil is the same way. So after talking to some local pond pro's I figured out it is better to leave as is then even try to mess with it and avoid ph swings.

 

[Mmathis]

So, so sorry to hear! But hopefully there will be something in this that we can all learn from.