keeping a pond

[Sorrell]

Hi everyone, I just made a trip to K-Mart and they had pond kits for sale...in Wyoming Is there a way to keep a pond in a cold climate in the winter, or would you have to house the fish inside when it's cold?

P.S. We've been in a blizzard for three days, four days ago it was in the 70s

 

[ryan]

Heat the pond?

 

[Sorrell]

What kind of heater though, are there special ones for outdoor pond use? As you can tell I am 100% clueless on this. Also for those with outdoor ponds, what about cats? There are about 8 cats in our yard on any given day, could they catch a koi? I don't know if I could handle that.

 

[Sorrell]

One more thing I'll add, we have neighbors two doors down who got upset when we set up a swimming pool last summer because they thought that mosquitos would breed in it and spread west nile virus. If you have a pond with goldfish, would they eat mosquitos that tried to lay eggs in it?

 

[ryan]

Cats wouldn't cause any harm to large fast Koi, a unwell small fish may have a problem though, but that is solved with a pond cover of netting. You should be able to purchase a good powerful heater for use in ponds at most good lfs. Mosquitos will breed readily and the fish will eat large proportions of the young but as with in the wild some will undoubtly survive to adult form.