Newbie from Montana - can't believe they survived the winter!

[Montana Gal]

Hi, My name is Judy. My husband and I bought a house last fall that had a 3' to 4' deep "pond" with fish in it. After moving in, we didn't have the time nor the knowledge of how to care for the fish and pretty soon the water began to freeze. We tried to keep the water "open" by breaking the ice daily. Eventually the pond froze over and became too thick to break. I thought for sure the fish would die. We had a long but fairly mild winter with little accumulating snow. Temperatures did get below zero and rarely got over freezing. To our amazement all six of what I believe to be some sort of goldfish (comet?) survived. And, dispite their challenges, they perservered. The fish multiplied. We have two new 2" black baby fish. I thought for sure that the pond had froze solid. But, obviously not.

So now, spring is here. The fish are beautiful and fun to watch. Have we just acquired a new hobby? The pond needs a new liner and I need to learn about outdoor ponds and how to care for the goldfish. The pond, I think, was created to also serve as a watering hole for the horse and wild deer. It is fenced to keep the large critters out. The pond is fed through an underground tube that is hooked up to the gutters from the house to then receive and utilize the rainwater. A valuable commodity. Or, we can run the hose from the well through it when the water level gets low. We bought some fish food pellets from Wallyworld last fall. The fish don't seem to be too interested, eating very little. I haven't a clue if I need to feed the babies.

I'm looking forward to getting some feedback from you all. We would like to keep the fish and want to make some improvements. We need to keep it simple and start with the basics. My guess, replacing or fixing the holes in the liner would be a top priority, The current set-up is barebones rustic with no filters, no pumps. The fish still thrive. What's up with that? I attached some photos.

Judy in SE Montana

 

[callingcolleen1]

Welcome Judy! Looks like the fish were small enough to survive under the ice and had enough air for them too! You lucked out! Now I would get a net and skim off the crud floating on top, and look for a pump and filter so they can do even better in the summer!

 

[Montana Gal]

Thanks for the welcome. My husband did take most of that crude out. I noticed that the little ones are hiding in some small floating branches. Should I be concerned about them having cover at this point?

 

[mtpond]

Welcome Judy! It's nice to see another person from Montana on this forum.

 

[Montana Gal]

Thank you. I'm new to forums too. As I look around, I feel I should be embarrassed by the state of our pond. But, I just inherited it. I'm looking forward to its transformation. May take a year or two.

 

[callingcolleen1]

The small goldfish would like some cover most likely, You can create a swim tunnel out of a large plastic pipe or milk crate, and place a few stones over and around it, and the fish will love it!

I was new last year when I joined, and quickly made a few new pond friends to chat with. You will find lots of help on here, lots of different threads to explore, and learn all kinds of new and exciting pond stuff! I am from Medicine Hat, not too far north of you, and I have a couple threads on here too that you can look at, one is under Ponds In Canada (garden photography).

I have been busy in my little greenhouse I built all myself a few years ago. Got lots of things growing nice now that the sun is getting warmer. Today we reach 53 degrees! Ice melted all today off the last pond and fish were out and about and moving around a bit more today.

 

[gardengimp]

Hi Judy, sounds like a neat place you and your husband have there.

Looking at your first picture, it looks just like a small stock pond in south Texas would look. And the goldfish would have been added for mosquito control (in south Texas or other mosquito places). Does Montana have Mosquitos?

Where are the holes in your liner? And what type of wildlife or livestock water from it?

 

[Carolyn22]

Welcome Judy - soon you will be a pond addict like the rest of us!

 

[sissy]

Welcome and hope you were careful as breaking the ice like that can kill the fish.Get a pond heater

 

[Montana Gal]

Just coming out of another freeze here in Joliet, MT. Snow is all gone. Suppose to get to 59 today. I think gardengimp, you may be correct in calling it a stock pond. Previous owners had a horse. I think it was a nice way to utilize the rain and snow. We also get a lot of deer, pheasant, grouse, birds, and who knows what comes through at night. I was told a bobcat has been seen by the pond. Mosquitoes in Montana? We have a few. But, they don't last too long around here. But I can see how have the fish in there helps to keep the mosquitoe population down.

 

[Montana Gal]

Oh... the liner, we discovered it had a hole in it when we bought the place. So we were constantly adding well water to keep the water level up. Not sure here it is. About a foot from the edge I think. I can see where the previous owner patched in couple of other places. There are a few new holes along the upper edge. Silly me, used a pitch fork to try and break ice and pocked holes through the liner. Duh!

Sissy, how would breaking the ice kill the fish? When we were doing it I thought it must not be fun for the fish.

 

[sissy]

The sound is so load underwater it kills them .If you need a new liner now is the time to do it and if he has patched it that many times it is better to replace it and you can get rubber roof material cheap and clean it and use that 45 mil thick and works just as good as pond liner and sometimes but not always cheaper .You can google your area to see what is readly available as shipping is not cheap unless you can find a free shipper .Not sure how big your pond is or how deep .The deeper you go the better .My pond is just over 4 ft deep .That is for the hot summer plus the deeper you go there since it is cold the warmer the deep water will be .

 

[sissy]

I have taken apart abandoned ponds for realtors here so they could sell the houses without the smell of them .Last pond was abandoned for 5 years filter and pump still worked and fish ok and no electric in the house that whole time and understand it could have been longer .I gave everything to people who wanted to start a pond .Goldies are not fussy .I was just looking for more energy saving pump and maybe you are interested as i found ones on webbs online for 2400 gph laguna powerjet uses 100 watts at 130 dollars .My other one uses 150 watts .You can go on you tube to see how to build your own filter .

 

[gardengimp]

Actually, for a stock pond I do not think EPDM is th liner of choice. I think the liner that addy used is what she wants.

 

[j.w]

Judy
New liner would be a good start. Find something to put your fish in like a child's swim pool while you are redoing the liner. Use water from the pond as new water right from the well will shock the fish. They need their old water they are used to. I bought my liner from a roofing company near me. Same rubber and won't hurt your fish. Can't remember the name of the liner addy used but she'll be back in a couple days and will say what it is and explain its benefits. You'll need a pump for the size in gallons of your pond. Here is a link to a calculator that will help figure out how many gallons your pond is: http://pet-expo.com/trivia/ponds-figuregallons.htm%C2