My pond runs all winter, zone 2/3

[callingcolleen1]

On my thread you can feel free to talk about what ever you wish. I believe strongly in freedom of speech! Freedom to agree and disagree and I do love a good debate!
With that said, I feel it necessary to discuss the effects of Ice Cold Water on Koi. After wintering my koi outside for 24 years, Ice cold running water has NEVER hurt my old koi! Some people believe that Koi are somehow tropical! There are really only two types of fish, tropical and cold water and that is it! Cold water fish really do best is cold water, I firmly believe this to be very very true. Never have my fish ever had sickness and disease like they get down south where the water is so warm year round. Matter of fact my fish quit getting sick after the first year I wintered them in Ice Cold Running water! After 24 years of studying my pond with the two oldest koi and all the rest of the fish, it still amazes me that they do so well cause I sure could not imagine putting even my hand in that ice cold water right now, would hurt my fingers as many years ago I did this too much and now some of my fingers are sore! People who know me and come for visits are always amazed that in the early spring the koi seem to look even bigger! So how is this possible even after the extra cold winter we had last year? Larkin mentioned to me that the cold water allows the fish to gain more fat, and I do see them nibble on pond greens in very early spring, before the hardy plants even come back, there they are, eating the algae and horn wort that lives below the water surface. My fish only eat Puppy Chow during the months of May to September, and some years I quit feeding them in late August if it is cold.

Which brings me to another topic... Feeding my big koi high quality Puppy Chow! Yes I have been doing this for at least 10 years now! The food is made right here local in Alberta and is very fresh. I should also note that it is a fact that CANADA does not allow the use of growth hormones and Chinese Melamine! I once was shocked when someone said to me many years ago that they fed their fish dog food cause they grow really big on it and plus they really do love it! Makes hand feeding very easy too if the food is extra yummy!
My hubby is the one who first said "Lets try it" years ago. We carefully choose the food for our dogs and I only feed my old dogs puppy chow. People say to me that my dogs will get fat eating puppy chow cause it has more fat. Bear is no way shape or form overweight, but Poppy has a extra love handle but not too bad like some old dogs that I have seen. I eat a high saturated fat diet and because I believe strongly in a high saturated fat diet, of course I feed it to my puppies and fish as well. People can say what they wish but all I can tell you is that I work very hard and am 49 years old! People at work say that I am the hardest worker they have and other mangers try to steal me but I love the bakery cause I have been there so long and have so many friends there who come party by my pond with me. So many others that are my age have so many problems, sore back, weak, ect. Old age does set in, even for me, but at least I am on no Pharmaceutical painkillers and rarely do I ever get a headache, and when I do, half a aspirin is all that is needed for pain relief. Maybe I am lucky, maybe it is my diet....
But I am healthy and so are my fish!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Which brings me to another topic, why do so many people loose their fish in the winter EXCEPT me? Maybe it is the way I winter my pond! I do winter my pond different than most and my ponds are set up much different than most. Most people have upper little streams and ponds that flow into a larger pond. Most people have no pumps to create flowing water all year, and I believe that is where most problems come from. Over the many years of helping others, I have discovered that those who completely shut down all pumps and filters over the winter and only run a air pump with heater, are the ones that loose the most fish.

Years ago when I started my ponds, somehow it made sense to me that the top pond should have the largest fish because that would be the freshest pond, and larger fish require much more oxygen and are usually the first to die off if they are suffocated under too thick of ice or too much build up gases. So if your largest fish start to die off first, then you will know that it is more the likely that they suffocated. Suffocation can also happen in the summer and I have warned many in the past to be VERY careful with floating plants as they can take over too much surface area and large fish can start to suffocate, Ponds with way too many lilly pads can also "blanket" the pond and smother it slowly as well. If you just have smaller goldfish you may not have any problem, but for larger fish who require more oxygen, this can be a problem!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Please note that if you have wintered your ponds for over 24 years like me, then feel free to criticize me, otherwise please keep an open mind! I am not saying this to anyone here on this forum as most are very nice and good at having a friendly healthy debate.... just some that ARE WATCHING me from a distance!!!!!! I know who you are and I am glad that you too are reading my thread!

 

[addy1]

Lol Colleen love freedom of speech.

It is colder at home, my pond is dropping dropping, down to 46 now, but no ice yet. Night temps around 30ish. Bees snug in their bee home, fish snug in the fish home, us snug in our brief florida home. It will still be winter when we head home.

 

[MitchM]

The success of your ponds and longevity of your fish speak for themselves, Colleen.



Ignore the detractors. They are obviously missing something.

.

.

 

[j.w]

You say it as it is Colleen and it shows that it is working great for you in all that you are doing w/your ponds and fish. My fish also do fine w/the pump running. I don't have the very cold weather a lot have but it still gets into freezing at times like right now. There is some ice on my pond but not much. Fish look fine.
I do so enjoy you sharing your knowledge in all that you have learned for all those years and enjoy all your video's. Now you keep on doing what you do and all will be good! Just let the squabblers squabble. Can't believe they kicked you off that forum for just saying how you have kept your fish and ponds so well for so many years. Keep looking up and smile

 

[callingcolleen1]

and Lord Forbid I mention what I feed my fish! ... somebody sent me message to tell me they are reading my posts and she says to me "Funny thing, when lot of people are on a lot of the same groups people talk and they've been telling me about your antics".... and ??? so I must be Popular!

 

[callingcolleen1]

OK back to some serious advice for wintering your pond. I have come up with a list a things that you should be aware of if you plan to winter your pond like mine.

1. Winter Only the fish that have been in the pond all summer long. I do not advise taking fish from pet store or fish that have lived "Inside" all their life, and putting them "Outside" in the pond in the fall.... because they will be weak and fish that live indoors tend to have much more illness. If you have fish like that, wait and introduce them to pond next spring and let them spend the summer first eating nice string algae, plants, and fat juicy worms first to build up strength. Fish that live indoors are generally less colorful and are weaker as well.

2. Do not feed fish in late fall. Let them eat plants and other things that fall into pond naturally. This will better prepare them going into winter. Fish that are still eating a high protein diet will have a hard time digesting that if the temperature suddenly drops. The plant based diet found naturally in pond in the form of Algae and etc, will be much easier to digest should winter suddenly come.

3. If you are wintering your pond, do not forget that it needs to be checked daily if very cold. If extreme cold like minus 40 and below, I constantly look out the window and peak to see that everything is still flowing and pumps are still working.

4. Check the level of water often especially after a big freeze. If you have several connecting ponds like me, the bottom pond tops up the upper ponds and so the water level drops in that pond due to Ice Displacing the water and evaporation. When you are heating your pond during extreme cold, the water in my pond is around freezing, and if the air temperature is many degrees colder, then you will get lots of evaporation. The colder it gets, the more water is evaporated, and you can see the steam running off pond from the open holes. It is like a pot of water on a stove. Even though the water is at around freezing, because the air is so very much colder, evaporation is then greatly accelerated.

5. Use only under water pumps and filters, cause anything above ground will freeze, except hose as the pressure is greater and the constant flowing water will keep hose from freezing solid. Above ground box type filter loose too much water pressure inside the box, and then they can freeze. In all the years of wintering my pond I only ever had trouble with small pumps under 300 GPH, cause if the filter clogs, then the water flows too slow coming out of the hose and then it freezes.

6. Have a good filter that will work all winter under the ice. You never want to have to get in and bust the ice to fix a filter when it is minus 40 and below, trust me, been there, done that!

Lets see, have I forgotten anything?

 

[MitchM]

It's too bad that the people that criticize you won't participate in a public discussion.
The problem with closed groups is that they also tend to have closed minds, and a closed mind cannot learn new things.

.

 

[j.w]

It is called Communism and they tell you what you can believe and do and what you can't. If you don't follow the rules they exit you from the building and not in a nice way

 

[callingcolleen1]

Exactly!! Even I am trying to learn about new things every day, like Mitch's little pond breather! A lot of people cannot run there pumps all winter and if you use that breather in a small pond with smaller fish and a heater it would work really good! Smaller ponds would would freeze too had without a heater but for Mitch's little lake and all his cute Rosy's and goldfish it seems to have work good last year!

At least I would never kick anybody off my thread for speaking their mind and telling me what works well for them! I would even welcome those who are unable to comprehend how my koi not only survive, but THRIVE under my harsh winter conditions to come and participate on my thread! Even those who angered me the most on other forums are ALL Welcome! I would love them to see how well it works for me and comment and ask questions!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Besides... My Big old Koi can clearly speak for themselves!!

You can tell the age on the large orange one, the darker marks on the scales are a good indication of a VERY mature Koi! See the picture of the two koi and my big fingers. You can see how the very large orange one has darkened marks on her back. She used to be all orange and the last few years she started to get darkened scales on her back.

 

[callingcolleen1]

And some of them said my koi were not very colorful! Well they may not be 1000 dollar koi but they are mine, and I only paid 3 dollars for the very very tiny back then orange koi and the larger white koi with orange patch. They were so small back then, like about a inch long from head to fin! I just Love my old pond dogs no matter if they are not award winning koi. They are very VERY friendly and the two biggest koi have only been moved twice in the 20 some years that I have had them. Moving Koi is stressful on them and If I build a bigger upper pond in the spring, which I most likely will in early spring, then I will build the new addition as a new top fourth level pond and only move them Once!

On a exciting note, I will be on the our local Garden Club tour next July so I will be taking a week off work in July to make sure my yard is EXTRA Nice! They have approached me and ask me to put my ponds in the tour cause so many people in this town remember me as "The Pond Lady" from Suntec Greenhouse (now closed). and they all want to see my big old koi again!
I will be very sure to take lots of pictures of all the people that come. Last time I was in the Garden tour was back in 2005 and 2001, This will be my third time that I have shown my ponds. Last time hundreds of people had shown up and I still see people at the grocery store where I work, they still remember me and ask me about my ponds and are looking forward to seeing them again!

 

[j.w]

That's so neat you get to be on the tour and will look forward to seeing all the pix you post. Do they have certain ponds on certain days so you get to go visit some other ones also?

 

[haver79]

Very cool about the pond tour Colleen. Also be looking forward to the pics. I for one also enjoy your videos and like to hear your tips and advice from your many years of ponding.