Advice needed on protection of fish during pond renewal

[waterleysimp]

Our pond is partly supported by sleepers which separate it from a raised border behind it. Both pond (which seems to have a slight leak) and border need work doing to replace the sleepers with brick walls (and also to redesign in part). Total work is estimated at 3 weeks. How long would it be safe for the fish to be kept in temporary tanks? I am very nervous about their welfare and am wondering about separating the work to minimise their disruption. We do have a slightly smaller pond in the front which has never had fish in it before and it did cross my mind that this might be better temporary housing for them. Any advice welcome.

 

[EricV]

Do you have filtration you can move to temporary holding pen or to the other pond? Or even just filter media? Have you thought about one of the Intex pools? They seem to be the go-to way to make a temporary pond on the cheap.

 

[WaterGardener]

I second the Intex pool idea. I use them and they can be picked up pretty inexpensively this time of the year. There is one company that I have bought 2 of them from that sometimes sells open box pools. There is nothing wrong with the pools, but the boxes have some damage and nothing has been missing.

You would need filtration since what comes with the pool is pretty useless for fish. If you can move the system you have, that would be ideal.

 

[sissy]

depends on how big the fish are and how many .You need to feed them less food and provide lots of oxygen and a filter is as easy as putting a crate in the pond with a crate on top of the one in the water and a rock to hold the top filter down or laundry bags of lava rock will filter and hold the top crate down .I used that method with success with every rebuild of my pond and did not loose a fish .You may need to cover the tank or pool with window screening to keep critters out and fish in .They sometimes freak out and jump out .I used a fish tank aerator from PetSmart

 

[j.w]

@waterleysimp
Do you just have goldfish? IYou could use that smaller pond if the fish aren't too big or too many. The kid pools w/a pump/filter and aerator would be good for your holding area for quite awhile too as long as not too many fish. You could cover w/the bird netting to keep out predators.