Hello everyone! In April, I set up a sugar kettle pond and I put in 12 inexpensive feeder goldfish. Here we are 8 months later and they are all alive and thriving! But, the weather is turning colder. (I live in SE Louisiana.) My son also put in some of his fish from his tank, and they died recently during a cold snap. There were four tiny catfish and a pleco. He is very upset with me for not putting a heater in the pond. I have asked the "fish guy" at our local pet store, and he seemed "on the fence" as to whether or not I even need a heater. My SIL has a similar set up, and she said her goldfish do fine during the winter months. I'm pretty attached to my little fish and certainly don't want them to freeze their tails off. But, I'm sure it's not easy to heat a 450 gallon pond, either. I would love input from this group! Thanks in advance!
Does my pond need a heater?
- Thread starter CBloom
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Heating 450 gallons will be expensive. Goldfish will do fine - they are hardy fish - but it sounds like your son make the mistake of trying to put tropicals in the pond. I don't think you'd want to heat a pond to 70 degrees all winter long even in Louisiana!
Question for you - are you sure your pond is 450 gallons? That would be a big container. What material is it made of? Did you have to coat it with anything to protect it from rusting?
sissy
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More cold weather headed your way by what the weather report says .I saw it was going all the way down to Florida but will your pond freeze ,I don't think so .You can buy a swimming pool thermometer to see what the temperature your water is .Your ground temperature is probably high also .You should really have an aerator and a water test kit those are more important than a heater .Heat will kill fish if water gets to hot and plants in the pond give off oxygen during the day but plants use that oxygen up at night
j.w
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Mmathis
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@CBloom I want to laugh at your question, but not in a bad way. I joined here in 2011. After being around a while, everyone had me CONVINCED that I would have to go through the whole get-the-pond-ready-for-winter thing for my first winter. Problem is.....I live in Shreveport, NW LA (I laugh about that every winter!) No, you absolutely do not need a heater! But you may want to take the pleco and the catfish inside for the winter, and keep them in a heated tank. They are tropical fish and won’t tolerate low temps. The goldfish, however, are cold water fish.
And welcome to our group!
And for everyone else, here is a bit of Louisiana history: https://www.sugarkettles.com/
And welcome to our group!
And for everyone else, here is a bit of Louisiana history: https://www.sugarkettles.com/
Welcome! I think you have enough fish in the kettle. Hummm, sounds like a song! Anyway, I vote for no heat too. Just concentrate on water quality and you will be successful. A sugar kettle pond is interesting. How about posting a picture?
sissy
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i SEE SUGAR KETTLES AROUND HERE ALL THE TIME AND LOVE THEM BUT GEEZE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE darn key lock keeps coming on ,I just got a new keyboard so it is not that .
My keyboard is several years old and it keeps misspelling words! Guess they just don't make 'em like they used to.
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Welcome to our forum.
sissy
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nothing is made to last anymore and it has been getting harder and harder to find American made things since China deal destroyed that .Gosh I bought 2x4's the other day and they were 6 dollars a piece ,I used to pay 1.88
Great idea - I will post a picture tomorrow!
We got so lucky! We found someone who had one sitting in their yard for 90 YEARS and they were anxious to get rid of it. We paid about 1/6 of the "going rate." We love it!
Thank you!