How deep should a pond be to prevent freezing

[xman]

Hi,

I have a 4' x 3' preformed liner in the ground, and was wondering if I can put a couple of goldfish in there. The depth of the pond is 18" and the pond get 4 - 6 hours of sun daily.
The minimum temperature in winter (TX) get to about 12 - 15 F, will the fish be able to overwinter at 18" depth thru winter or do I have to bring them inside after the temperatures drop below a certain number?

The decision to put fish in the pond will depend on the answer to the above question. Are gold fish the hardiest for a small pond? or are there other fish that I can get?

thanks,
xman

 

[Stouty109]

its possable it depends on what your frost level is in TX and you need to keep the top open for gasses to excape weather its a heater (preferably) or an air buble and u should not feed them after if drops below 40deg. Goldfish are pretty hardy.

 

[xman]

I think that the frost level is about 36", how does that influence the freezing of the pond? What kind of goldfish are the hardiest?

thanks,
xman

 

[MassKoi]

I have heard that a pond in colder climates should be at least 30" deep to allow for stratification of the water. In warmer climates obviously they can be more shallow but then you run into them heating up in the warmer weather.

 

[27goldfish]

I live in indiana and my pond is 3 ft deep. That is in the middle. It gets cold here and the most ice we've got here is 3 inches. You'll be fine i think.

 

[xman]

Thanks for the replies.

I just want to make sure, the only other time I tried keeping a fish was when I bought a betta from Walmart. I got a new bigger fish bowl and filled it with water from the tap and dropped the fish in, it died in minutes. We saw it struggling, but we did not know what was wrong or how to fix it. That incident scarred my wife and I, and she had sworn not to kill any more fishes and is adamant that I don't put any fish in the pond. But I would love to have a couple of small goldfish in there for the kids..

thanks,
xman

 

[oldmarine]

I have a 365 gal. pond that is 2' deep in the center. I put it in ground in last Sept. I used a 300 watt submersable aquarium heater in my filter secervor that I was able to set so that the pond temps. wouldn't drop below 38 to 42 degrees F. It took a little trial and error to get the temp range where I wanted it to be, but it worked for me.

Heating a larger pond would invole some expert advice.

 

[shoeman]

FYI,
I live in a skii resort community in Canada, temp. here gets to -30 in the winter and I have about a 100 small koi and 2 large koi (they spawned) and I never take them out of the pond through the winter. Depth of my pond is 18 to 24 inches in winter I do use a trough heater to keep a hole in the pond to let the noxious gas escape. Done this for 6 years no problems.