Now it's coming Winter

[Cat]

Couple of questions,

Who on here carries on feeding their fish through the winter??

Do you leave your pump running even when the pond is froze?

 

[ryan]

No need to feed as often if the water isn't heated as the fishes metabolic rate will slow down and feeding them alot will cause problems and even death, in a good sized pond with natural live foods there is no need to feed. Otherwise feed a food like Wheatgerm or frozen foods like Bloodworms twice a week. Leave pumps and filters running to keep the water moving, stopping ponds from freezing for long periods.

 

[Cat]

Thanx ryan some one told dad you had to turn the pump of in winter.

 

[guppler]

Boy, I wish those winter questions were relevant to me. I think if I had an outdoor pond the neighbor cats would eat the fish and if they left any the egrets and herons would find them eventually, not to mention, the fish would boil in the summer. It might qet a thin skin of ice once or twice in January or Fubruary. I guess I'm just bitter because it's still getting up around 100 F aroun here.

 

[Cat]

Oi you'd complain if you lived in the uk with our crap weather.

 

[ryan]

We have good weather, if only the summer was longer and it snowed more though.

 

[Cat]

ok ryan,
summer months..

February till November

winter months..


December and January

 

[bribones]

Leave pumps and filters running to keep the water moving

as ive mentioned in a previous post a friend of a friend left his running and the surface still froze allowing the water to pump out and overflow leaving below the ice waterless
i think for small pumps you have to be carefull
as a rule of thumb i move all features below the water surface and disconnect the filter if we do get a really cold spell the water will freeze regardless of wether the waters moving or not and itl be at a time when your in bed
best to be safe than sorry i always say

as for feeding, once a week and only in small amounts wheatgerm as ryan says or prestock the pond with livebaits and let the fish decide

 

[ryan]

I'd agree on general small pumps but I think Cats pond is quite deep and should have a powerful pump on it to keeps things moving. I have found that an oxygen pump can be very useful, it seems to agitate the water surface and even in the snow last year the pond only stayed iced or snowed for an hour at most.

 

[bribones]

id leave the pump running but below the surface,cat has a waterfall and these have a tendency to freeze up gradualy causing a blockage ,looking at the pic of her pond theres very little surface movement,ive seen it so cold up here that the surf at the beach has been freezing while fishing so theres very little chance of a pond not freezing,your pond is quite large scale ryan

last year the pond only stayed iced or snowed for an hour at most.

you can lose a lot of water in an hour

its a personal choice i suppose but in the north east we have proper winters

 

[Paul_MTS]

We'ved always left our pumps and filters running in the winter with no problems.

We have also always put smallish balls in the pond so if it does freeze you just left the ball out and hey pristo and breathing hole!!.

We never fed in the winter before, I think i'ved persuaded my mum to get some wheatgerm though.....the nishikoi stuff comes with a free thermomter at the moment

 

[guppler]

ok ryan,
summer months..

February till November

winter months..


December and January

That sounds almost like sacramento weather, except we have summer from april to november and spring from december to march.
( haven't been to the UK, but my dad's from Norway, and I might like to experience their kind of weather, but you might need a heater to keep goldfish there.)

 

[Opcn]

Dont let your pump freez solid or pump all of the water out of the pond. Beyond that go ahead and leave it in However water flow will remove some of the heat from your pond and your fish will all freeze to death if the water gets below 40 degrees F for long. I suggest that you disconect the waterfall aswell because either it will freez up and overwork your pump or it will suck all of the heat right out of your water.

HTH

And get on MSN more often Cat