pond fish and freezing winter

[DrCase]

Here in NE Arkansas i run my pumps all winter long..
We will get some freezing temps but it is usually just for a few days at a time.
When it gets too cold i turn them off and open my drains until it warms back up again.
I have had ice on top as long as 2 weeks with out a problem..
The normal is usually a few days at most

 

[stroppy]

i have a feeling that might have been aimed at me drdave ...ok i will just read threads from now on and keep quiet

 

[DrDave]

Stroppy
No harm,no foul.

It was not directed at anyone in particular. It was a general statement. Often we all want to help, and that is a good thing. When it comes to life and death decisions for our pond pets, people speaking from experience are the best responders.

You wouldn't want a person off the street to give you CPR with no training when there was a qualified person standing there watching.

Ponds freezing over is a serious thing if not addressed properly. That is one of the reasons I have remained mostly silent on this subject. I am not qualified to make judgments there.

While most of you folks are shoveling snow, we are still wearing shorts and tee shirts.

 

[stroppy]

ok drdave i understand what your saying ... guess the british weather doesnt get that bad too .... how cold does it get on your side of the pond ...just out of interest ?

 

[newday3000]

A local fish forum in Ottawa (get's very gold -30c) has many people that over winter Koi and goldfish outdoors. See this post with people that have over wintered fish in a very cold climate for many years with no issues. A few different methods used http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=39666.0

This is where I got the idea for my de-icer.

 

[oldmarine]

Stroppy,

Here in the Northwest about thirty miles south of Seattle, Washington, the temps in the winter are quite moderate. Typically about forty degrees F most of the time. It's usually a couple degrees warmer when the wind is from the southwest and raining. If the weather clears some and the wind comes from the north out of Canada, we can expect a freeze or at least colder than normal temps.

On the east side of the Cascade mountains her in Washington state is usually much colder and more severe winters.

 

[stroppy]

they say we are going to have the warmest winter on record this year !!! BBQs for christmas they say :biggrin: but knowing how wrong our weather forcasters normaly are i expect we will be knee deep in snow !!

 

[oldmarine]

Stroppy,

That sure sounds familiar. We seem to have the same weather prodictions.

I don't mean to get to far off of the topic, but I am just curious about something. My father was in the Cavalry during WWII. His unit fought through Franch, Germany, and ende up in England before he came home from the war. I don't recall where in England, but he said where he was at was real noisy at night with frogs. It left quite an inpreasion on him. Do you have a lot of native frogs where you live?

 

[stroppy]

i do have frogs in the garden .. but they tend to keep away from the pond ..i dont know what type they are but i live in quite a built up area ... my dad was in the second world war too ...he was in the 8th (dessert rat ) army serving in africa and italy ...so sorry rdk for messing up your post

 

[oldmarine]

Stroppy, I'm sure different frogs may be from here to there. Typically the tree frog is smaller and will be found away from water and in the trees or shrubs. The pond frogs around here stay quite close to or stay in the water, and are about 3" to 4" long.

Sorry rdk, I messed up your post. I also will be putting my bog plants in the garage near a window for the winter.

 

[rdk]

Don't think anything about it.. My father wanted to sign up to be a tail gunner on a B-17, but my mother talked him out of it. I don't look forward to seeing or hearing and frogs in my pond.

 

[stroppy]

me neither rdk they scare me especially when there hopping around inside my house ...i have one cat that always brings them home to mummy !!!

 

[Dragonfly]

I've had fish survive through a winter hitting the minus 30s (C or F!) with 18 inches of ice above their head several times, goldfish and koi. Of course my pond is a lot deeper then yours at 5 feet.
We've turned the pump off when the ice became to thick on the waterfall, we've had it jam up one year and had a foot deep air space below the ice as the water poured on top... so we do not use the pump anymore at all in the winter. Instead we had good luck with an aerator pump designed to be frozen in the ice to keep gases exchanging, which i think is all you have to worry about. A small pond heater is another option, I've even used an aquarium heater in a small pond with good luck.

I'm interested in natural methods of aerating, using cat tails and plants...

@migsly: I don't think you have to worry, a thin skim of ice for a day or two wouldn't hurt goldfish, I've heard many tales of goldfish surviving a whole winter with NO CARE in a nearly frozen-to-the-bottom pond. I don't have the heart to try it though...

 

[Dragonfly]

opps, didn't see all the pages! Definitely a newbie to this forum thing!

 

[oldmarine]

I know I have posted this several times before here & there, about twenty years ago I had a above ground cinder block fish pond about the size of a oversize bath tub. It had no filter at all, and I only kept feeder gold fish in it. I didn't know much about fish pond care at the time. Every winter it would freeze over on the surface, sides, and bottom. The gold fish would be incapsulated in the center of the ice in a small unfrozen water pocket about the size of two cubic feet, and in the shape of a jelly bean. They would remain practically motionless until the ice was almost melted. I never lost one goldfish due to a winter freeze.