How did the winter treat your fishes

[brokensword]

Finally able to see the whole pond, it looks like I lost three smaller gf and one medium sized. With all the threads, with all the low temps and probable thick ice, I was a bit worried. I only use a bubbler and that crapped out mid Feb, leaving the pond to ice up for prob 2 weeks. I wasn't that worried but had never gone through such a harsh season, soooooo...

Once half the pond was open, I tried to get my pump working but had issues. Not with the pump, but with the hose. I'm suspecting there is ice still inside, somewhere, as the pump still works and I jury-rigged a temporary solution to give me the falls back as well as run some of the water into the bog. Not as good as pushing it up through the pea gravel, but something, at least, while the fish are still dormant. Btw, water with ice on it is still REALLY REALLY cold, as moving some of the lilies higher taught me. Sheesh, never felt water that cold in my life and I only had it submerged for seconds.

STILL have snow in the yard and near the pond edge, but the weather looks to have finally broken. Can't wait for two weeks from now to see how fast everything can change/green-up.

Anyway, looking forward now to getting everything back on track.

 

[j.w]

I lost a few tiny ones too but all the others seem to be doing fine.

 

[wispfox]

Oh. I'm beginning to think that I had an outbreak of ich in the fall, and didn't realize that it was a huge problem, in part due to lack of familiarity and in part because grad school had started.

 

[rb.]

Lost all 5 of my 6" goldfish. Insulated, vented cover with 4 feet of snow on it, air stone. Worst winter for cold I can remember. Went down to -20C in November, and didn't stop until April.

 

[koiguy1969]

so who else is gonna have a basement wintering pond this fall?

 

[MitchM]

After 6 1/2 months of ice cover, all my fish survived.
I used 2 pond breathers for aeration and also kept a low fish load.
6 8" goldfish in a 6000 gallon pond.

I still have about 50% ice cover on my pond, but I've now seen all 6 fish venture up into the areas that are ice free.
Hopefully the rest of the ice will be gone within 1 week.

.

 

[j.w]

Good deal Mitch so glad they survived. We are all learning more as we deal w/ different weather situations. Every year brings something different our way. Would be nice tho if we could all get some nice easy winters for the next few if that's not too much to ask

 

[Sunshine]

I'll keep mine outside as I have been doing ever since I started ponding. All survived. And oddly enough, when I cleaned the Bio filter out after this winter, it was not as dirty as past winters. I used a pond de-icer when I seen it start to freeze over. It was a horrible winter, but I think we were due. Winters have been pretty mild here in the past.

 

[waynefrcan]

Nice Mitch I was worried for you. Can I have it back now as your method worked better then mine.???

I lost 2) 10 inch koi and 1) 8 inch, 5) 4" goldfish and 2) small 1 inch of last years youngen. Happy to see 1 large koi made it, all the 8 inch koi made it and smaller ones and the rest of the goldfish. Total about 10 lost out of 45.

 

[waynefrcan]

Lost all 5 of my 6" goldfish. Insulated, vented cover with 4 feet of snow on it, air stone. Worst winter for cold I can remember. Went down to -20C in November, and didn't stop until April.

Sad for you. You guys really had a crappy winter worse then us in Alberta.

 

[waynefrcan]

Oh. I'm beginning to think that I had an outbreak of ich in the fall, and didn't realize that it was a huge problem, in part due to lack of familiarity and in part because grad school had started.

ICh or cold water fungus? The weak fish will get outbreaks of the stuff. Happened to me last winter 1 fish and this spring one 6 inch goldfish had it. Poor fella lasted all winter and then to get that stuff in the spring. It doesn't seem to spread to the healthy fish thank goodness.

 

[waynefrcan]

so who else is gonna have a basement wintering pond this fall?

Buddy I was seriously thinking about it. IT seems so harsh to put the fish through our winters. 2 of last years babies the ones I didn't catch are dead. I might move my cleanout to the fall and set up a basement pond.

Lets say I do the foundation brinks and liner in a rectangle, how many gallons would I need to support 30 koi and golds from 1" to 12"? I have seen your filter setup and it is crazy beautiful for filtration. How much will a minum set up cost? Availability to Canada as well.

THanks

 

[koiguy1969]

my basement filtration cost me less than $75. i do use my filter media inside and outside tho. that way i always have an active bacterial colony. skimmer is from a $5.00 Walmart bathroom trash can. bio filter is $10 55gal polybarrel.(carwash) $20 in pvc. i built the pond itself for about $100.00... got the 14 x 14 pvc liner for $40.00 and the lumber.

 

[MitchM]

Nice Mitch I was worried for you. Can I have it back now as your method worked better then mine.???
..

You bet, Wayne. I need your address again though, so send me a pm.

Sorry about your losses.

.

 

[Lisak1]

Our fish all look good - we lost one who swam over the falls and got caught in the shallow water (she was prone to doing that in the summer, too) but other than that they all look great. Coldest winter in many, many years. Snow cover from November through early April. We kept the pump on and the main waterfall running. As I've commented elsewhere - if we had known what was coming we wouldn't have had the guts to keep the pump running for fear everything would freeze solid and ruin the pump. As it turns out, our system can handle some pretty extreme weather!