DId we all survive the long winter?

[waynefrcan]

Hello friends, the ice and snow is off my pond now. Only 3 dead fish out of 50. Far better then last winter. And all the koi have made it. Can't tell yet if all are healthy as movements are still slow.

How did did your guys ponds do over winter?

Thks
Wayne

 

[addy1]

Mine did fine, we had some cold, some freezing pond, some snow, but nothing like you do up there. Right now they are cruising around, pond 48 degrees, water crystal clear, pump running, bog growing.

 

[j.w]

Mine doing fine and enjoying the sunshine. Our winters are pretty mild here tho. Not much ice usually.

 

[addy1]

Frogs singing like crazy, we can hear them through closed doors and windows.........the serenade has started

 

[waynefrcan]

Good to hear as I think I see the 4th one floating now :sad:

 

[waynefrcan]

WE had lots of late snow fall and low temps, some geese have come back and no water or grass for them.

 

[pecan]

Pond is doing great. I am on my second winter and have not had a fish loss.

My first winter it froze solid (minus where the air stone runs) for about 3 weeks from the last week of Dec till the middle of Jan. Then all the ice was gone quickly

This year we had record snow fall and cold. The pond was frozen minus the air hole from the middle of Dec to the first of March. But March temps have been in the 60's and 70's almost every day. My pond is running, crystal clear, plants growing and water temps have been 65 for the last 3 days.

I took this yesterday:

And here is the pond yesterday. I can't wait for everything to grow in

 

[JohnHuff]

1 - My oldest and biggest fish, a comet died. We think he might have died of old age as he came with the house and was probably about 7years old.
2 - A small koi, we think he came from one of the big box stores. I think he's only been a year with us.

I don't think the pond got iced over this Winter and I don't think any of the fish have ever died of the cold. Not sure what the 2nd guy die of, starvation maybe? But we're still not feeding them yet as the temp. hasn't really stabilized.

 

[Nova]

Pecan, I love your white koi. All my fish made it this winter and I am hoping some of the hyacinth did too.

 

[waynefrcan]

I agree beautiful healthy fish!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Sorry to hear some of your fish died Wayne. My fish are all fine, things are growing again, and I spent the day cleaning the pond filters as they have been running since last fall, sure was lots of guk in the filters! Pumps all running full speed now!

 

[fishin4cars]

We made it through all three days of winter just fine, Spring lasted a good two weeks this year, Now we are heading into our LONG summer. BTW, Did you know that summer lasts for 9 months out of a year in south La.! We are suppose to be in the eighties starting Sunday all through next week.

 

[Dave 54]

1 - My oldest and biggest fish, a comet died. We think he might have died of old age as he came with the house and was probably about 7years old.
2 - A small koi, we think he came from one of the big box stores. I think he's only been a year with us.

I don't think the pond got iced over this Winter and I don't think any of the fish have ever died of the cold. Not sure what the 2nd guy die of, starvation maybe? But we're still not feeding them yet as the temp. hasn't really stabilized.

Sadly your comet didn't die of old age 7 is quite a young age, unless he'd been with his previous owners for a heck of a while as, 40 is more like old age for goldfish and 80 is the top age a koi can get too.
Winter can be a hard mistress on both koi and goldfish and from time to time everone will get a winter fatality so dont go beating yourself up over it as it happens.
Your looking for 10c and above before feeding again take it easy with this a little to start with moving up in greater amounts as the year goes on, feed Wheatgerm and garlic if you avent any you can allways chop some up or make a liquid to mix with the food.
This helps in two ways in that 1) it stimulates the fish to start feeding by adding garlic to the mix ( they go nuts for it a little like cats with catnip ).
Garlic in the mix acctually helps with Parasites in that the dont like the tast of them .
Move away from Wheatgerm as the summer hots up we use koi health and koi beauty food pellets to bring them on then as we fall back into Autumn we look towards those bleak winter months again.
Not forgetting all the other alternate foods they get during the summer .

rgrds

Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

Peacan, you got such nice green grass? Did you get snow at all this year? How cold did it get this year for you?

 

[pecan]

Ha! yes we got snow, a huge amount of snow, in fact I did not see the ground from mid Dec till the first of March. We have been in the 60's and 70's now for about 3 weeks and had some rain so the grass is greening up quickly and already needs to be mowed.

We had record snow fall and record cold. I think we got down to -5 degrees F.. In a normal year we don't get below 0 to 5 degrees F. Luckily I think the record snow fall saved many of my plants. As they were all covered in 1-2 feet of snow during the coldest days. Had we not had that amount of snow insulating the plants I think I would have lost a few.

Here is a picture of the front yard. I think it gives a pretty good idea of the amount of snow we got. BTW. I broke my shovel I used it so much this year