I'm fairly new to DG forums. Could spend a lot of time here...LOL! And not get much else done... Anyway. This summer we moved back out to the country. I've had a small, shallow (about 2' deep) pond in the city for several years. I brought my 15 gold fish, some are 5 years old now, with me. The pond was to small to leave them in for the winter so I kept them in a deep tub with a filter running in my GH for the winter. They did great that way. We haven't quite got a new pond set up at our new place and don't have the GH set up either. I've managed to get most of the perennials I move into the ground and brought indoors all my sensative plants. But don't really have a place to bring the fish inside.
Years ago I remember my sister, one year, putting her gold fish into an above ground swimming pool for the winter. My Dad always put a pool cover over it. The fish came out huge in the spring! Don't know if this was a fluke or if it would work again. We have a 26' diameter above ground pool. We are planning on covering it quite soon. I've been debating on taking a chance on putting the fish in it for the winter. There are no chemicals in it now and we have well water. I can leave the leaves that have fallen in there for some organic matter. I'm a little worried about the fish not getting any light once the cover is on. The fish have been doing fine in a large tub on my deck this summer, but it's going to freeze solid come winter. Need to move them into something else soon. I bought a large black rubber stock tank in hopes that we'd get up a greenhouse before winter. At this point don't think that's going to happen until spring. Just trying to get cold frames up first. I'm afraid the stock tank will freeze in a cold frame, and don't really want to use a heater.
The pond we're setting up is another shallow black preformed type. It's going in a raised bed next to our deck. I still need to get top soil bermed around it. I could get it finished in time. But, am afraid to leave the fish in something that could freeze solid if it gets that cold here. I hear we get a lot of snow being only a mile off Lake Huron.
Would like to know what others have experienced or think?
Zone 5/6 How do you winter your shallow pond gold fish?
Why don't you want to use a heater? It is the most effective way to protect your fish. Other than that, you could put a medium size rubber ball in your tank to prevent the water from freezing solid over the surface of your tank. The ball moving about prevents the water from freezing in the area where the ball is floating. I use this method when I lose my electric power during winter storms. It works, and it's cheap. Fish can endure very cold temps. as long as the surface of their home doesn't freeze over solid.
Anne
JeaneTH. I just use a small pump, to keep the surface riled a bit. and as long as the water is moveing it won't all freeze over. Another trick some friends use is an aquarium air pump, and the bubles keep a hole open. Both ways are cheaper than a heater. All that is needed is that a hole stays open to let the gases out. 18"s is down to the bottom of the scale that I would try this with out some cover though. Neighbor lady had a realy small pond and kept it open with a small fountain pump, all her fish survived the winter just fine. My pond is considerably larger. Deeper as well which helps as it is about 3000gal. I do not run the water falls in the winter. Not that I couldn't but I like to maintain the lower level temp as much as possible. So just enough surface agitation to keep an open hole. I get ice cover 2" -3" except for the hole. I have had some of the same fish in the pond 7 years. Never had any freeze. I have, however lost some to early spring parasites and or bacteria. So it is more of a concerne to keep your pond clean and debris free, to help keep the fish healthy while they are in a dormant stage. Don't feed them, any fish food, till spring when the temp stays above 50. While they are dormant their entire system has slowed down to the point , even their digestive systen has all but shut down. Too much protine and you get food rotting in their stomach, and ulcers.
Thank you. The rubber ball sounds like an interesting idea. We moved 3 months ago and have already had one overnight power outage. Makes us wonder what we have in store for the winter. So, I didn't really want to relie on electricity. The tank I think is too exposed, I guess I should concentrate on getting the topsoil arround the new pond so I can use it. Have just always though for some reason it was too shallow for them to stay out in, and never met anyone who'd tried it. My filter has a fountain on it, so as long as I can keep it going, it should help. And, I'll throw a rubber ball in for good measure. I would have thought that in zone 4 you would get more than 2 or 3 inches of ice. So I guess I shouldn't worry so much about it freezing.
Thank you both, you've made me feel much better about leaving my friends outside in the cold.
Jean, I reposition my pump to skim the surface of the water (instead of a waterfall or fountain effect) to keep an opening longer. If I remember, 2 foot depth is needed for the fish to stay in the pond (that is what I have at the deepest part of my pond).
I have no experience with a heater but I have heard some say that lost fish because heaters prematurely tricked their fish into thinking it was spring and they came out of hibernation.
Of two ponds here, 2000 gal/ 4ft and 400 gal/2ft we run deicers in both. The shallow small pond has held fish reliably for 7 years with two deicers. We use two because, although we havn't had power failures, we have had deicers fail. The goldfish have done just fine. No losses at all. The larger koi pond uses three deicers, one of which is 1500 watts. Hard on the electric bill. However the water temp does not drop below 47 and this seems to keep the koi pretty happy. We have had trouble in the spring with fungus in this pond. This coming spring I plan on leaving the $$$ deicer in the pond a little longer even after I start up the pump and waterfall to see If the water temp stays more stable. I think the bouncing around of the temp through the ups and downs of spring was harder on them than anything. Some deicers are better than others. The Thermo-Pond Submersible was a total waste of money. Very little heating ability even in a very shallow part of the pond. Oddly enough it's cousin the Thermo-Pond Floating deicer gets high marks for both effectiveness and economy. There are a lot of deicers out there. I would advise not sticking to one or just one type. See what works best for your particular situation and use a backup.
I have had fish ponds for twenty years and I use stock heaters and hang them over the side over a long rod to keep them from touching the side. I cover my ponds with a tarp xcept for one small opening until all leaves are down and then take it off. The fish do fine in 18 inches and my oxegenating parrots feather and water lilies all live. I only feed my fish from April to Oct. Good luck to all and I hope to someday get some pics on. Bev
Thanks Bev, would love to see pics of your pond. We still haven't finished berming around our new pond. It's overflowing from all the rain we've had. We are consentrating on trying to get a greenhouse up. But it's good to know that your fish do fine in 18". The local TSC is still waiting for their shipment of deicers. And it looks like snow this afternoon! Finally got a cold frame done. It's supposed to go back into the 50s on Mon. & Tues. so maybe I'll have a chance to get some more work done on it. Got side tracked this week going to greenhouse grower seminars. With our new place we're torn about wich project needs to get done the most first. But are steadily gaining on the long list. Thanks for everyone's input!
Jeane
Jeane, All the leaves are down so I will go out and take the tarps off. One year the wind blew the plug out of the ele socket and my one pond froze over about four inches deep before I saw it. I made a hole in the ice and the fish were alright, They say that fish can frizzle and come back. Believe it or not LOL Nice talking to you Bev P. S. If you want to we can exchange email and keep in touch this winter. It is going to be a long one. Let me know by Dmail if you want.
One of the ladies at our church had a small pond, no pump or anything hooked up to it. She would put straws or hollow reeds in it during the winter, the water would freeze on top (not sure how deep the ice went) but the fish servived for years that way... She would put the fish food down thru a couple of the straws and it also provide air for them... She never lost one of her fish at all thru the winters here...
Hope that is of some help :o)
Connie
Connie, what a great idea!