Winter is definately here and he is cranky! We have had really low temps and high winds the last week or so. Sunday the actual temp was one whole degree with extremely high constant wind. Did not bother to learn what the wind chill was because honestly did not want to know. I did brave the trek up the hill and to the pond to see how it was doing. The heater is still working. YAAY! Everything in the garden was frozen solid except for the koi pond. There was just a slight ridge of ice around the edge but the rest was clear and the fish seemed to be doing very well. I am grateful that the water was unfrozen both for them and for the local wildlife. In this kind of weather I would guess that this is probably the only dependable water source around. I have feral cats that I feed and watch over. They are well fed and have a lot of options for shelter but water is something that would be a challenge without the pond.
How are you all doing??
Frigid temps - how are you all doing?
Brrrrrrr, I guess I'm okay . . . Now back into my warm bed . . .
-3 yesterday, 18 today. We had howling 50+mph winds that sent outdoor Christmas decorations flying and numerous power outages. The 1500 Watt deicer has a hole open in the pond about 6' across. The water temp at the bottom is 38.9. I have'nt made it all the way out to the pond yet since the ice storm. It's really treacherous walking. I will today. The last time I actually saw the koi they looked good.
This message was edited Dec 23, 2008 6:09 PM
How cold can the koi take it?
Various authorities differ. The lowest I've read is 35. I read somewhere that keeping the water in the winter at 35 was beneficial because the koi were fine and parasites were less likely to reproduce. The worst range was 50-55. The koi's immune system isn't functioning at those temps but parasites are lovin it. That's why spring start up can be a treacherous event. That's also why I keep harping about having a clean filter and pond going into the winter. That way you don't give the bad bugs a head start.
We're getting freezing rain again. Sigh.....
Happy Holidays to ya'll.
Believe it or not, it's been at least five degrees colder than normal averages for nearly a year here. Summer averages 95-96 every day, but last summer was only in the high eighties.
I'd commit suicide if I were to be forced to live where you do, I really would. I grew up in Northern Virginia. Hang on, Spring is just a few months away!
I thought Koi could survive being frozen in ice.
Mm
While I struggle to get over my envy of your warmth, Mm, I can say that a frozen fish is a dead fish. Koi included.
This message was edited Dec 25, 2008 11:08 PM
Snapple-Your such a smart aleck. . . I love it though! LOL!
A few days ago it was so darn cold here that the winds put our overall temperature at -4. The pond heater couldn't keep up and froze over for about 24 hours. I wondered just how cold the bottom of the pond got at that point.
I just got done having a large family Christmas Party, and then finished with the gifts and put them under the tree and filled the stockings (Santa still is alive and well in this household-probably for the last year . . .. I am pooped out. I hope the kids are as tired from their cousins being here so that they sleep in a little . . .
Brr, you all's weather sounds like ours. It's been so windy and colder than normal. Last week we had a record low and a record low-high, low of -8 and high of 4 I think it was. The house heater can barely keep up, I can't imagine how cold the fishies are. Today it's supposed to be in the 40s which is a treat!
Somehow my tarp covering the pond is still intact through the wind and I'm keeping a pretty good sized hole in the ice with an air pump and bubbler. Hope the water is warm enough though.
Merry Christmas to you all. :)
Art
Can you post a picture of your pond/tarp? I would like to see that.
Thanks!
Linda
So would I. It's said to be a very effective way of making winter a lot more hospitable to koi and reduce the cost of running a deicer non stop. I've tried to think of a way to put one up here. Wind is an issue. Even though the pond is in a somewhat sheltered spot we had 35+ gusts yesterday.
How are the temps looking for you all now? I cannot believe it here. Less than a week ago it was below zero and now it is nearly 70. Do not remember it EVER being this warm in December. Not going to complain though. Walking around outside without the risk of frostbite is a good thing.
Belated Merry Christmas!!! We hit 80 again yesterday. Impossible to dress for the day. Starts out cool and goes straight to hot here.
We're a toasty 59. Heavy thunderstorms and high winds are predicted beginning late afternoon, but the weather radar says maybe sooner. For crying out loud. This winter doesn't know what it wants to be. As soon as DH gets the Sunday paper read we plan on taking down the most vulnerable outdoor Christmas decorations. No point in having them blow down the street. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Wow, you are all having warmer weather than we are here! We can't seem to get out of the mid 50's, although it is bright and sunny. We really need rain here though, much as I like the sun.
We hit 60 degrees here in the Chicago area. Problem is that all this snow is melting combined with heavy rains and thunderstorms and people will flood. Too much water at once with no where to go. I have 3 of my 4 pond pumps running outside in my yard just to keep the water away from my foundation and garage. I don't want to flood. Since we built the pond and patio we have had so many problems with flooding. That construction changed the way the water runs off my property and we need to fix it as soon as the weather improves. Until then, we use our pond utility pumps!
sunnyg - I'll take your 50's over our ice storms any day. Are you a native Californian?
Sorry to hear your having drainage problems MM. Will it be a big fix or a little fix?
Wow, yall are having some crazy weather! Ours has been up and down all fall, but we're pretty steadily under 35 now. High of about 27 today I think, but clear and beautiful for our out of town guests luckily.
Here's a picture of my pond today. I laid 2x4s across the pond and then wood glued boards in between them for more support. One of the boards is propped up on the deck so that the gas exchange is never completely blocked, although the boards raise it up about 2-3" from the surface. I taped together some heavy mm (11?) painter's plastic with packing tape in the general shape of the pond. I put bricks along the planks to hold the plastic down as well as around the perimeter.
A really strong wind storm (50+ sustained) we had about two months ago ripped the whole thing apart, which is when I started putting the bricks on top of the plastic- and I also retaped it much stronger. It has held up in more recent equivalent wind storms since I made these changes. I think the bricks on top make all the difference.
Snapple, I bet it could work for you even with a bigger pond, so long as you can find or rig 2x4s to span the length.
Thanks Art_n_garden. I'm still tryng to think of trying to make something work like that. I worry about snow or rainfall collecting on top of the plastic sheeting. It would have to be tented to get precipation to roll off rather than collect on the surface. One of these days I'll figure something out. What you're doing is really good for your fish.
I think 3 years ago we went to Orlando and the temps here at home were warmer than where we were. It was 70 ish for like a week or so. Very odd weather for MO. That whole winter was very mild. So much for global warming though, the following year we had a record ice storm. very bad year.
Goldfish can freeze solid, thaw and be fine. Did this before. When I was in high school I had some goldfish in a stock tank. Forgot about them at the end of the year and went out one day to water the cows which we had just moved back to that field, and what do you know. Frozen solid. I chipped them out, put them in a bucket and moved them to the basement. They thawed and lived several years after that.
My pond will not freeze over as long as the water is moving through the filter system. But it occurred to me that the point of making the pond nearly 3 1/2 feet deep is so that the water is warmer there. So pulling that warmer water out and putting it up through the filter, then dumping back in at the top, was actually making the water colder. Trust me, it is freezing already. So, I pulled the plug on my filter system and the top froze over. But I am sure the water at the deepest part is warmer for my fish. I go out everyday and bust the top out with a hammer. So far doing great. I did feed just a few flakes today, because the weather was so warm the past couple days and they were at the top begging. All accounted for. I don't have koi, just goldfish, as my pond is only about 400 gals. But I have one that is solid white, an orange one with a black 'top' named Mohawk, and a white one with a bright red spot on its head, and others as well....We did get about 4 inches of rain TODAY. wow.
Lilly, don't break the ice with a hammer you will lose fish that way it does indeed give them percussion shocks.
That's a new one on me FrillyLily. All my reference books say that freezing solid kills both goldfish and koi.
Well I don't bust the whole top out LOL, just a corner.
They didn't seem to mind at all.
Came to the top within moments to see what I was doing...
that was just 2 days before it turned 70 and they were begging for a snack...
Glad I made the pond fairly deep. One area of it is a good 3 1/2 feet.
We also had a science teacher in junior high that froze a goldfish as an experiment and thawed it out. It lived as well. Of course I don't know how long it lived afterward, I think he fed it to some other fish he had that ate feeders.
I tried to find something about freezing goldfish on Wikipedia or somewhere similar but couldn't come up with anything. Probably wouldn't allow posts about stuff like that, would be considered cruelty. Which of course it is.
One thing I did find that I thought was particularly nasty, some people 'drink' live goldfish as a ritual or rite of passage type thing. Is that gross or what?! bluck!
That swallowing goldfishes thing was a college stunt 70-100 years ago. A rite of passage.
That and squeezing 100 people into a telephone booth.(Now I'm just waiting for someone to say what is that) LOL!!!! Or a VW.
Yes I know that swallowing a goldfish has been a 'thing' to do in the past.
I guess what got me was that they 'serve' them in a drink, and do it that way.
The site I looked at said they used to serve them in root beer and 'drink' that.
!
Many countries I noticed have outlawed goldfish bowls! yay!
It also said that swallowing goldfish is not so popular today. That's good. very good.
Molamola-I'm old but not that old. I was born after electricity was invented and before cell phones. . .
BTW: My kids don't know what phone booths are. I had to explain that to them a few months ago and they then asked me why I would need to go into a box to use my cell phone . . .geesh!
I knew I was old when my daughter was 16 and asked what was the Vietnam War? Who were the Beach Boys?
As part of my job I see a lot of names on paperwork. One of the recent ones was Felix Unger. I was trying to joke with the guy that was working with this client and told them this guy was not even real. Anyone remember the odd couple t.v. show? Oscar and Felix? Nobody at work got it. Finally had to google it and they were still confused. Hee Hee
I always had a thing for Oscar. I even liked him when he was a Medical Examiner. Is he still alive? Jack Klugman.
No I think he died. What was the other guys name? Odd Couple was the name of the show.
Tony Randall
LOL!!! I knew that!!!! Senior moment!!!!
You know you're officially old when you know where the phrase " broken record " comes from.
My kids saw my husbands album collection and asked what it was. I told them we used to listen to music on those albums and they wanted to know how we got it into the ipod. That felt weird to me, to hear that . . . We don't have a turntable to show them how it works.