help rescuing pond fish

[qclabrat]

cross posting, as it was suggested that i start a new thread.

new to site and ponding, came across this thread and forum just today

I'm rescuing some pond fish from a lady in a neighboring town who is moving to Florida from northern NJ
****disclaimer**** I have very little experience with fish and have a really bad track record with aquariums
It's late in the season here and I'm been furiously researching how to build a pond and winterizing, I even began digging a small pit.

Then I got the idea to instead winterize the fish in the garage over till the spring, when I can spend more time building the pond and preparing it for fish. So here I am

@waynefrcan, were you able to figure out the ammonia issue and how many fish and size are in each container?

where I live it gets down to about -10F but most of the time it averages about 25F, so icing is an issue. Water will not freeze in my garage since it's in the same level as the basement. I was just planning to keep the fish in two plastic whiskey style half barrels with aeration stones till spring. The tubs will be on casters so they can be dragged closer to the inside walls to get more heat. What water temp should I be targeting?

I may try to winterize a few fish outside next winter, but I think trying to doing everything before xmas and adding fish outside to new home is a sure fire way to dead fish. After reading this thread, I'm fairly sure this is the right approach for my situation, let me know otherwise.

I'll do a formal intro soon, just too much to do before the holidays, vacation and riding bikes....

update: Fish are a mix of koi, goldfish, and mollies, they have been in the pond for about 5 years. The koi are about 6-7 inches, molly and goldfish between 3-5 inches. There about 10-12 fish total

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
What's the size of the whisky barrows per.gallon.
Is the lady just giving you the fish only, any chance she will give you the filter to ?
Or you able to build a filter or purchase one.?
I would think with 12 fish at those sizes you would need at least 200+ gallon tub with a decent filter and the air stones to over winter them.

Ruben

 

[Faebinder]

Mollies in a pond in an area that goes as low as -10F? 5 years? How did those survive?

As for garaging them, it will depend on the temperature of the water when in the garage. You want it below 50 or else you're gonna have to feed them and change their water in those barrels. Mollies won't survive that temperature. They will need an aquarium to go inside with you.

 

[sissy]

Stock tank tractor supply sells them and the tuff ones are not expensive .I have used mine to move fish in my truck and plugged an aerator in my truck since the bed has outlets .I only put enough water in the tank to hold them ,but ponddigger had told me to transport them use bags for the fish and then you can use the tank with some of the pond water they were in to start the tank sorry pics are fuzzy

 

[qclabrat]

Hello
What's the size of the whisky barrows per.gallon.
Is the lady just giving you the fish only, any chance she will give you the filter to ?
Or you able to build a filter or purchase one.?
I would think with 12 fish at those sizes you would need at least 200+ gallon tub with a decent filter and the air stones to over winter them.

Ruben

I have two barrows, each 75 gallons, plan to split the fish across the two
She giving me everything, including the filter, waterfall and deicer, I'll also take some decorative rocks (only not taking the liner)
I've read that the filters should be turned off in a pond, why is it needed if the fish are not eating and dormant?

 

[qclabrat]

Mollies in a pond in an area that goes as low as -10F? 5 years? How did those survive?

As for garaging them, it will depend on the temperature of the water when in the garage. You want it below 50 or else you're gonna have to feed them and change their water in those barrels. Mollies won't survive that temperature. They will need an aquarium to go inside with you.

I was surprised as well, I was buying a piece of furniture from her and we got to talking about her move and that she had no one to take her fish. I live in a higher elevation than her so my temps are likely 5-10 degrees cooler. But she did say it does get iced over in the winter and that she needs to use the deicer. She has had a few mollies and orandas for the five years since setting up the pond and none have died amazingly. What's more amazing is that her pond is only 300 gallons! Hardy fish they are.

My garage ranges between 30-40 degrees, so keeping the water below 50F shouldn't be a problem.

 

[qclabrat]

Stock tank tractor supply sells them and the tuff ones are not expensive .I have used mine to move fish in my truck and plugged an aerator in my truck since the bed has outlets .I only put enough water in the tank to hold them ,but ponddigger had told me to transport them use bags for the fish and then you can use the tank with some of the pond water they were in to start the tank sorry pics are fuzzy View attachment 96423 View attachment 96424

I'm hoping the whiskey barrels are sufficient, but thanks for options
Glad you mention the transport, which was to be my next questions

I was going to keep them in a covered tote, but the bagged idea for each makes a lot more sense, as the sloshing around would surely stress them out more. I still plan to pull out about 100 gallons of her pond water to to add to my barrels. I'm only driving 20 miles, about 30 mins. Any reason this isn't the best approach?

 

[sissy]

The ones I got were just down the road 6 houses from mine .the others I rescued I used bags and pumped air into the bags and then put them in the stock tank .You need to pump air into the bag .Must have been fate you were there for something else and got a pond .I would take the liner you can always use it for pieces .I use it under my waterfall filter ,This way if they overflow it runs right back into the pond .My lily pond is made with free liner .A lot of pics don't want to load for some reason

 

[Nepen]

5 years and the koi're only 6-7 inches and goldfish around 3-5 inches? Well, for goldfish they are small so ok, but Koi?

I think you are coming to the right track. Just keep an eye on ammonia level and if it gets high then you can do water change. Keep some clean water next to your pond (or whiskey barrel) so that when you need to do water change, the temperature of the water are the same. I do not think you need a heater if you are sure it'll not ice over. It'll be nice with heater but it is not needed.

I transported my fish in a 5 gallon home depot buckets. They will be sloshing around in the bag too, anyway It's ok both ways though.

I think it'll be helpful to have a hang-on filter type, like the aquarium filter, I know there are many school about beneficial bacteria in winter but most talk about the pond that's already established (with beneficial bacteria everywhere in the pond itself) so who knows. But with your new sparkling pond, it might come inhandy (they are not expensive). Also fish still eat in cold water, they still munch on little bugs/algae in the pond in winter, just way, way less.

 

[Ruben Miranda]

Hello
My fish are.outside all year and.my filters run all the time.
We don't get.the low.temps you get.
So I don't know why a filter would be nessary at those temps other then circulation and filtering debris.
A small pump in each barrow along with the air stones should be good enough.

Transport
Bags would be the best
But I would suggest having the barrows up and.running and ready for the fish.
That way when you get home
Float the bags in the barrows and trickle a little water from the barrows and get them a custom to the new water and temps.

I would also think about some kind of cowering to keep the fish from jumping out.

Ruben

 

[sissy]

Window screening and clamps to hold it down .I use it with my stock tank for babies .Easy and cheap .You could also put the tanks up on rigid insulation if you are putting them in the garage to help with cold transfer .I have my big stock tank up on home made furniture dollies so I can move it from the outside to the basement easier .This way empty or not it is easy to move

 

[qclabrat]

okay the rescue happened today. There are 10 fish in total, 4 medium and 6 small fish. I'm really not sure what varieties they are. Can someone point me to an identification guide? The pond used a canister filter and some type of powered filter device which sat on the bottom and was connected to the canister. Sorry, I'm so new to this that I don't even know names of parts and fish varieties.

it only took about two hours to pack each fish in jumbo sized zipper bags, which then went into two storage tubs. I filled a third tub with about 30 gallons of pond water to add to the barrels I have setup in the garage.

here's a picture of the pond which the fish came from, about 5x5x2.

all packed up and she even let me take a bunch of rocks and the faux waterfall along with the filters, deicers, food and meds.

they all survived the move which was only about 30 mins ride but a total of 2 hrs in the tubs

one barrel was filled and the other 1/3 with tap water. prepped the water with an additive to remove chlorine. both barrels are about 50 gallons. When I got home, added the pond water to the partially filled barrel. The water temp was about 39F. Floated the fish for an hour and checked the pH in the bags and the barrel. The bags were fairly acidic at 6.5 and the barrel water was 6.8. From what I've read, no need to adjust the water since not a drastic difference. All will be squeezed in one barrel for 3-4 days till I can mix and swap water with the barrel with mostly native pond water. Is this a good approach? I only have an air pump and stone right now and plan to make changes as needed based on the water tests and fish reactions. At this point was should I be testing for? And what should or shouldn't the fish be doing?

going to check them once more before bed, the are cover by a hard plastic sheet, but there's a significant gap for air, wish them luck

 

[sissy]

What a mix of fish looks like koi and maybe shubbies and I think fat fantails and the one looks like it has a large head ,I forget what it is called but thought they were not suited for cold climates

 

[Lisak1]

I think it's a bunch of goldfish actually - sarassa, comets, shubunkins? - plus a few fantails. No mollies. I guess the two bigger ones could be koi - the white and the white and orange. Hard to say for sure from the pictures.

 

[qclabrat]

I think it's a bunch of goldfish actually - sarassa, comets, shubunkins? - plus a few fantails. No mollies. I guess the two bigger ones could be koi - the white and the white and orange. Hard to say for sure from the pictures.

there's definitely a black molly, here's it in a bag before I put it in, no clue how it survive winters outside for five years in our climate