What temp for new fish?

[Lardeelion]

Morning, folks.

I'm in Northern WV. We are having days around 55-60F and nights around 35. The water in my wee little pond (50g) is about 50F. I did the cleanout in that one but the 3 fish are still pretty sluggish. They spend most of their day in a flower pot. There are no cold snaps predicted, but there are no warm snaps predicted either. (Dang winter.)

The new pond is ready to be filled. It's 300g. I'm not sure what temperature the water needs to be to add new fish. The water at the store isn't going to be this cold; I assume it will shut them down? Stress them out? At the same time, we have no bacteria yet. Does this make it a better time to increase the bioload?

When I do add new fish to the new pond I'll leave the old guys where they are until the quarantine period is over. I've kept tropical fish for over a decade but cold water species are foreign to me, so I feel pretty unsure about this timeline.

Thanks.

EDIT: I'm talking about shubbies and comets. Not koi.

 

[Dave 54]

Fill your pond then wait a day for any chlorine to gas out of the water you'll find that the temperature of the plant pot and pnd should be the same or near as damn it .
Buy some plastic bags putting one inside the other the other, then part fill the bag with water enough to cover your fish and add air from a compressor twist the top of the inner bag and bend it over itself then wrap an elstic band around it to hold it shut .
Do the same again with the top bag, you can then float your bag in the new ponds water for about 30 mins , your bags and the ponds water should then be at the same temperture all you need do then is to release them into the water.
50 F is a tad cold at the moment, so I'd allow a few weeks for the temperature to rise a degree or two before doing this.

Dave

 

[Lardeelion]

Thanks, Dave. I've got Prime on hand for my tanks inside. And when the time comes, a heck of a lot of healthy bacteria in my filters.

So, 50F is too cold for new guys. I've since checked the weather and there is actually a warm snap predicted after all. Maybe that'll give the water temp the boost it needs.

 

[Dave 54]

50F is cut out for feeding and the start and end of winter temperatures if your new guys are already outside then by all means as soon as you get your pond matured put them in as I described but if they are indoors getting them down would take a while longer for them to acclimatise .
At the moment here in the UK its about 11-12c outside air temperature but because our pond is covered with polycarbonate sheeting we have 14.9c as such we can feed and could add new koi if they had been QT'd first which I take it these guys have ?

Dave

 

[shakaho]

I wouldn't recommend putting new fish in a pond until the water temperature is up to 60F. Fish need time (like all of Autumn) to adapt to cold temperatures.