Koi and frog concern with winterizered pond

[gloria]

Hi,
I’m in zone 6b and have winterized my 1500 gallon pond. I’m running a bubbler for oxygen. One of my koi babies from this year is trying to get into the koi castle with the others but can’t seem to make his way in. He’s can’t find the openings. Also, when I took the netting off to remove leaves a giant frog jumped in. There are really no places to hibernate as it has a rubber lining. Should I attempt to net out the frog and move my koi or leave them to nature. My last pond was away from my house and I didn’t witness any of the daily struggles.

 

[poconojoe]

Not sure what you mean by "move" your koi. The koi should do fine anywhere in your pond as long as its deep enough not to freeze solid. It's important to keep an opening in the ice for the bad gasses to escape. I use a deicer, an air stone and a small pump in a bucket filled with lava rock. The air stone should not be sitting on the bottom. You don't want the cold outside air to cool the water too much on the bottom. Tie a string to it and keep it suspended about 10"-12" down from the surface.
I'm also in zone 6b and my pond is also about 1500 gallons. It's depth slopes down and the deepest part is 3 feet. Even after two weeks of single digits, my pond only gets about 8" to maybe 10" of ice. My fish have run of the whole pond. I don't have any koi castles. There are some plants, but they mostly just sit around in groups during the winter. They seem to congregate in the sunny spots. There are some rather large ones in there too. Six of them are at least 18" or larger. Don't worry, they know where to hang out so as not to get frozen in shallow water...if that's what you're worried about.
Oh, and the frog...don't worry about him either, his natural instinct will guide him.

 

[Tula]

Sadly, I've often found a dead frog in the Spring Usually I find one in the skimmer, so I'm thinking they think it's a good spot to hibernate, but it's not.

 

[poconojoe]

Sadly, I've often found a dead frog in the Spring Usually I find one in the skimmer, so I'm thinking they think it's a good spot to hibernate, but it's not.

Yeah, I don't have a skimmer anymore, but when I did, I would find fish trapped in there.
I'd just rather scoop any debris out with my net. In the fall, I cover the whole pond with a net.