Newbie with major winter kill

[sissy]

polar vortex has caused lots of things to happen here .Rocks like shale were actually exploding or that is what it looked like .It was on the local news here .My sister whose yard is always wet froze and her cement slab lifted and cracked on one of her patios .We get attached and yes it is very hard when people do not understand .i saw that when my to doggies died and i was heart broken and they said they were just dogs ,no they were my children I raised them from babies

 

[sissy]

But it took time and rescued a pit bull and now also have 2 chihuahua's and my heart feels better because i rescued all 3 of them .King Arthur came from a shelter and was an older pit bull and my pee wee from a puppy mill and my puddles from a breeder who got sick and was turning them over to a shelter if she could not find homes for them .It is hard but we need to open our hearts to make us happy again or at least ease the pain

 

[ReadLisaScott]

Wow, crazy about exploding shale! Yes, maybe they wouldn't have survived this winter no matter what I did. On the bright side, we'd been feeding a stray cat all winter (he found a cozy spot under someone's deck) and it took weeks before he'd come near us. We had him checked out at the vet and took him in. That first day he came in, he found the heater behind the couch and stuck all four legs underneath it, and bellied up next to it. He laid there for hours, poor little guy. That's great you rescued so many dogs.

 

[sissy]

My mother raised chihuahua's and I wanted another one and still want 2 more .We love them .If it had not been for pee wee my hubby would have died of his heart attack in 2012 .He went in the bedroom bathroom to shave and said we were going to the bank after he was done .I was watching tv in the living room and suddenly pee wee started howling and barking and I got up to look to see what was wrong and found my hubby and got him to the hospital where they did surgery and doctor told me he was darn lucky because they had to bring him back 5 times on the operating table .He is my little fat pork chop .My hubby adores his pee wee and pee wee does not let his daddy out of his sight for long .pee wee got stuck in the screen that they ripped and puddles was trying to rescue him .

 

[Dave 54]

It was incredibly cold in upstate NY for a very long time this winter. The pond was iced over for months. (I'd say the aerator worked for 2/3 of the winter.) When we cut the hole in the ice, it was about 6 inches thick. I did clean the pond and prep it for winter. I've used the aerator for 4 winters, and for those winters, I didn't lose a fish, or maybe just 1. Although those winters were much more mild. I wouldn't say the pond is overstocked, but it's certainly more heavily stocked than a big natural pond. Maybe cold was the issue. I don't know. It's just so sad to be pulling all these dead bodies out. I really appreciate all the input and understanding. Most people don't get why it's so upsetting: "Just buy new fish" they say.

Lisa at what depth is your pond you only say size 20 x 20 at 5,000 gallons , the recomended depth for keeping koi is 4ft-5ft .and an inline heater would be needed to keep your pond ice free during the winter months of perhaps 2kw going off the size of your pond.
Koi if you listen to Peter Waddington author of koi kichi and koi2kichi recomend they be heated throughout the winter .
Koi and people will argue this come fom a sub tropical clime with short harsh winters where the Japanese breeders bring their koi indoors for that period our winters ae different they are long hard and drawn out .
Weve gotten around much of the need for heating by insulating evrything we can possibly think of including the pond, weve also enclosed the filters in a housing which they are insulated by nd topped everything off with Polyicarbonate sheeting the result is the pond even at -15c outside air temperature only goes as low as 7.5 c or so as it can be higher the milder the temperature goes.
Last but not least as a back up we can heat the air in the filter housing thus warming the water temperature a degree or two via an oil heated radiator but that only in dire needs so to speak.

Dave

 

[jmajid]

sorry for your loss - we lost almost 40 fish over this past new years - we had 3 left - they formed the survivor group and now we have many more goldfish and koi that have joined them.
its tough - we know.
listen to the advice here - test your water - add beneficial bacteria - ensure your water is cycled if you started afresh... before you add new fish.
we waited 6 weeks - it was tough.