So how did everyone fair coming out of winter

[Mmathis]

Winter? We never had a winter. Strangest season ever. I lost one Shubie, but otherwise all fish seem fine. Not sure when they spawned, but I've found about 1/2 dozen decent sized tadpoles, one of which was starting to sprout back legs. One lily never lost its pads, and the others are starting to put out.

It's still too chilly for the turtles to come out so I just have to wait and see.

 

[mrsclem]

Lost one fry in the one pond. Think he got caught between lily pots. Looks like still 90+ others. Have a problem koi in the other pond with a cauliflower looking growth. I know my oldest koi has a similar problem where she had body damage from last year. Looking like its going to be another tough year. Tested water and everything is great and lilies are growing.

 

[morewater]

The only thing growing in my water lily pots is string algae!

Stick a fertilizer spike in each of your pots. That'll learn 'em gooder.

 

[CometKeith]

I lost one 1.5 inch fish and who knows when it died because I found it at the bottom. The other 40 or 50 goldfish are all fine and look great. .....and unfortunately my one frog died. I never lost a frog in the winter before I have had my my waterfall running for about two weeks now but no filters of an kind yet.

 

[Faebinder]

I think I lost two fish to predators.
2 fish got sick and died in the winter tank after i brought them in. Made a rookie mistake of sending one back out when it recovered. Should have just kept her in.
1 fish got sick+injured but recovered and survived (it was from the same salesperson that I got the two fish that died from, which tells me may be they were not in good health going into the winter).

All rest accounted for. All my ranchus did great! I am surprised that my little lionhead started to have its tail bent like it should. My older lionhead and my sarasa actually grew slightly over the winter.

My dojo loaches are there but I can never count them cause they never come out together and they all look the same.

Bought new hyacinth and they died in my none heated winter tank. Duh! Bought some new ones now.

 

[mrtrumpet]

Pond and waterfalls were pretty much totally rebuilt in late October. Took the builder 3 tries to fix the massive leaks in original construction. Pond was losing about 100 gallons/hr. at that point. Now it's perfect! Only loss is from evaporation at this point I think! (I hope I didn't just jinx myself....:-(

I kept the falls running all winter and all 6 Koi are fine. Daily temps are now in the low 60's, sometimes 70s and they have started to get active every now and then. Rain especially gets them going. I guess particles of something are falling into the pond. Water clarity is good, but I'm going to have to do some cleaning when it warms up in a few weeks. The net didn't catch all the leaves, unfortunately.

Quick question: Water temp hasn't reached consistent low 60's yet, but fish are eating natural stuff. Should I start feeding them now?

Dave

 

[addy1]

My pond is just now getting to a sort of stable mid 50's, reached 58f today, and the suckers started chasing!

The tendency is to not feed under 55, a bit of food won't harm them, a lot use wheat germ type food right now.

 

[Faebinder]

Pond and waterfalls were pretty much totally rebuilt in late October. Took the builder 3 tries to fix the massive leaks in original construction. Pond was losing about 100 gallons/hr. at that point. Now it's perfect! Only loss is from evaporation at this point I think! (I hope I didn't just jinx myself....:-(

I kept the falls running all winter and all 6 Koi are fine. Daily temps are now in the low 60's, sometimes 70s and they have started to get active every now and then. Rain especially gets them going. I guess particles of something are falling into the pond. Water clarity is good, but I'm going to have to do some cleaning when it warms up in a few weeks. The net didn't catch all the leaves, unfortunately.

Quick question: Water temp hasn't reached consistent low 60's yet, but fish are eating natural stuff. Should I start feeding them now?

Dave

Yes start the feasts!

 

[RobAmy]

Pond and waterfalls were pretty much totally rebuilt in late October. Took the builder 3 tries to fix the massive leaks in original construction. Pond was losing about 100 gallons/hr. at that point. Now it's perfect! Only loss is from evaporation at this point I think! (I hope I didn't just jinx myself....:-(

I kept the falls running all winter and all 6 Koi are fine. Daily temps are now in the low 60's, sometimes 70s and they have started to get active every now and then. Rain especially gets them going. I guess particles of something are falling into the pond. Water clarity is good, but I'm going to have to do some cleaning when it warms up in a few weeks. The net didn't catch all the leaves, unfortunately.

Quick question: Water temp hasn't reached consistent low 60's yet, but fish are eating natural stuff. Should I start feeding them now?

Dave

@mrtrumpet
Any picture of the new rebuild?

 

[teeemkay]

So far everything has been OK. The two big koi are fine. It looks like two koi fry survived the winter out of the 6 or so that were still in the pond in the fall. I pulled 3 dead ones out last month. There could be a couple more as some of the fry were nearly 100% black and very hard to see in the water, but I haven't spotted any of those yet, even with the waterfalls unplugged to calm the water for a couple minutes to take a look. The fish have popped up to the surface a few times, but it is far too early to feed them.

I did about an hour's worth of spring clean-up last weekend and got the last of the fall leaves out of the water. I had run out of time to finish yard clean-up before we got snow in November, so some of the remaining leaves made it into the pond on windy days over the winter.

The iris plants have already sprouted and the leaves are almost 10" tall, but I haven't seen much growth from the corkscrew rush plants yet.

 

[mrtrumpet]

RobAmy, I'll try to get a pic tomorrow of the new build that shows the difference for an A/B comparison. They are basically the same, but the falls configuration changed, as did the depth of the stream. There were leaks everywhere. Pond liner had fallen and stream bed, despite it's heavy liner was also leaking from below. Builder thought it might be soil quality, mostly mountain forest detritus.

Fish are happy being fed, though!

 

[huwge23]

I did pretty well with this mild winter. Just cleaned up my bog last weekend and started that and the waterfall. Still picking at leaves and other waste in the pond but it is crystal clear.

String algae seems plentiful but I am hoping it stays in check with my bog running now. Other than that no fish loss and my frogs are ok as well.

 

[keyplayer]

This winter was quite a bit less severe than last (2014-15) and my tiny pond iced over only a couple of times. The (way too many!) goldies and koi however have all survived (zero mortality) and are swimming around looking hungry on sunny days. Can't feed them just yet though. I attribute theb pnnd's winter health to a very active venturi and allowing my rainwater collection system to slowly add clean water each time it rains. A three-stage bio fliter does the job the rest of the year. Scary thing is that they'll start spawning soon and I have no room to expand my pond.

 

[rebelangel_3733]

Oh how sad. All that work....



Me too. And all the fish made it and seem in good health. How long has anyone been able to keep goldfish? I have a goldfish and shubunkin that will be 11 years old in June. I always worry those guys might not make it through the winter.

I have a shubunkin and a gold fish who will be 16 and 4 comets who are around 9 or 10. I had gotten these fish from a family member of a friend who tore their pond apart going on 6 years now.

 

[rebelangel_3733]

Pretty mild winter here this year. Only had ice on the pond a few times where it was covered then it would warm up and melt. Fish kids are active as even and string moss is starting up (which I've been at it attacking it with the toilet brush) and the few days where it went back down into the 40's in the day and low 30's in the night the kids know it as I find them down to midway in the pond. My iris and other flowers are starting to sprout in the bog too. Mother nature has been totally off her rocker this year/spring. I did start up the waterfall once again (after cleaning all the gravel we took out with the hose good...wow the fish poo!) a couple weeks ago and the water is crystal clear just the way I like it. The creeping jenny is growing and I see my water lillies are putting up small leaves so I gotta get out this weekend when it's in the low 80's sunday and get those split up and stick fertilizer tabs in their containers! Here's a pic of my grandson looking for eggs this easter by the pond.