I've always wondered just how long fish can survive if the power went out and the pond froze over. Other than the lack of oxygen, how long would it take for the gases to build up and kill them?
Losing electric
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IDK. A lot probably depends on the size of the pond and the number and size of the fish. Keeping a air hole open will help with gas exchange.
Has this happened and you are wondering what to do or is it just preparation? If frozen over now, by all means don't 'blast' a hole through the ice with a hammer or such. Drill or melt a hole.
No, I have a hole open. I was just wondering with all the talk of power outages and this deep freeze we are in. I have a generator, just wondering if anyone had any knowledge for people that don't have a back up plan in case this happens.
When I had less and smaller fish, my pond would freeze over for a week every February and the fish were fine. When the fish got larger, I purchased the pond breather so that there is always a hole in the ice now.
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My lotus tub gets fish via eggs and or fry living through the pump draw. I never use a pond breather or anything for them. They make it through every winter with it freezing up. There are not many fish but they do ok. Last fall I saw 5 I think, tried to catch but with all the lotus plants in there no way.
It is directly proportionate to the size of the pond and the number and size of the fish. Exactly what that formula is would be almost impossible to calculate. You definitely don't want to find out the hard way - been there, done that.
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if you google fish kills, you'll see this typically happens when the ice and snow cover lasts too long. How long is too long? As others have said; depends on surface area, depth of water column, bioload size and number, and amount of decaying organics. I've seen fish kills here at the large pond at the end of the block, when we did NOT have our typical January thaw and the ice remained unbroken for 3 months. That's why we tend to always promote keeping a hole open in the ice to alleviate any buildup of toxic gases from the decaying debris. This process also uses oxygen and with an ice/snow cover, even the algae that remains can't give off enough to keep some sizes/species of fish alive. Not a nice sight seeing myriad dead fish floating on the edges of the pond in the spring. It's the time I realize we have a lot of vultures here in Michigan!
Drop a handfull of shiners in a 10,000 gallon pond and there will never be a problem with o2 or co2. place one 16 inch koi in under a 1,000 gallon pond and you'll have issue for sure and it won't take long
100% true. The winter we lost all of our koi when the pump failed, our goldfish were unfazed. Didn't lose a single one. That's the number one reason I'm not interested in having koi again - that's not an experience I want to repeat.