i found a dead bird in my winterized (covered) koi pond

[dutchstar]

i have a 3600gal pond with 7 big koi. we live in SE pennsylvania in bucks county. i have winterized the pond by removing the pump and covering the top with netting to prevent leaves falling into the pond, and i've been using Microbe-Lift Autumn/Winter prep once a month.

this morning i was doing my weekly inspection of the pond and found a dead bird floating on the surface, with feathers all over the place. there were a lot of feathers near one edge of the pond, which i'm guessing is where he got under the netting, and probably wasn't able to get out. (we actually saw some bubbles coming from the middle of the pond yesterday afternoon but thought it may have been a frog...

i was able to use my skimmer net to get the bird and all of the visible bird fragments out of the water, but i'm now concerned about the health of my koi. the bird didn't look to be significantly decomposed, and it still gets pretty chilly at night (low 30s lately) with today's water temp at 40, so hopefully that may have slowed any decomposition...but the pump isn't on so i have no filtration, and i'm worried about decaying organic matter being potentially harmful to the fish. i don't want to stir the water up too much as i know in the winter the layering effect of water temperature keeps the fish safe and at a comfortable temperature.

any ideas on what to do from here? am I ok to leave my fish be and see what happens? the water looked a little cloudy this AM but it may have been from me fishing the dead bird out - and the fish looked otherwise ok.

any advice would be appreciated.

thanks.

 

[adavisus]

At 40f the bird would have been in fresh condition, it's the same temp as a refrigerator...

Regards, andy

 

[CliffandJoann]

It will not harm your fish...this is why we don't net out pond in winter, too many birds get stuck
in the netting. We are surrounded by huge trees and have to be diligent in the late fall
scooping out the leaves. In the early spring our pond is clear, so netting is not necessary --
if you do a good job skimming off the pond of leaves.

 

[dutchstar]

thanks for the replies.

Joann - this is actually our first season owning the pond (and the house), so we are kind of learning as we go. I had thought about posting a few weeks ago to ask about when folks uncover their ponds, as at this point there aren't really any leaves left on the trees. we also had a baby at the same time we bought the house, so it was a lot more realistic (this year at least) to cover it than to commit the time to effectively remove the leaves ourselves. thanks for the thought - we may consider this next year.

 

[CliffandJoann]

dutchstar, we've been at this since 1997 and we're still learning.
Congratulations and best wishes to you on your new home and new baby,
your adventures are just beginning.

 

[DrCase]

Your weekly inspection helped the Koi a lot
You never know what falls in if you dont look