Please send some good vibes to Dad's Pond!

[bagsmom]

We visited up in Illinois for Christmas and turned off the pump, drained the waterfall filter, and drained the water through the check valve, etc. Lo and behold, a mighty cold front came and guess what? My Dad called to say his de-icer has crapped out. Dang it. I am hundreds of miles away down south so I can't help. I did order two new de-icers for him, which should arrive tomorrow. I am hoping the fish will be ok under the ice for a couple of days. I'm crossing my fingers.
Helping family long distance is tough.

 

[JRS]

Best wishes on the bad timing. I am thinking they will be fine for a short while.

 

[j.w]

Would a good aerator running 24/7 have prevented this by leaving a hole open in the ice in that cold of temps? It does here but we don't get that much freezing.

 

[addy1]

Darn, it is hard to be far away.

I used to help my parents from 2400 miles away. Luckily phones calls etc fixed things.

 

[sissy]

We never realize distance from famiy seems even worse when things happen SMALL OR BIG THEY MATTER so lets hope that it all works out for the new year

 

[Lisak1]

What kind if fish does dad have?

 

[bagsmom]

What kind if fish does dad have?

Just little goldfish. But he has become attached to them! He does have a new de-icer now. They are going to be mostly above freezing for a while and I haven't had any panicked calls about fish deaths, so I am hoping they survived the freeze.

 

[bagsmom]

We never realize distance from famiy seems even worse when things happen SMALL OR BIG THEY MATTER so lets hope that it all works out for the new year

From your keyboard to God's ears... There are lots of big (non-pond) things happening, I believe. We are in for a bumpy ride.

 

[Lisak1]

Goldfish will be fine. They're tough little fish. Let's hope the same for your dad!

 

[sissy]

tough but the breed like crazy We are going to be in the high 60's and 70's this week and boy is that disturbing everything here . Trees and shriubs and pond think it is spring

 

[bagsmom]

He doesn't feed them, so I think they eat most if not all of any eggs. (Cannibal Caviar!) It will be interesting to see if there are any surviving offspring this year.

 

[j.w]

He doesn't feed them, so I think they eat most if not all of any eggs. (Cannibal Caviar!) It will be interesting to see if there are any surviving offspring this year.

I don't feed mine except on Fridays in Spring/Summer. Only get one or two babies each year so think mine are getting most of the eggs.

 

[sissy]

I have babies that showed up yesterday and they barely got fed this whole past year because was to busy to care . I looked in yesterday when I was headed to the basement and noticed small babies and my fish are pretty big koi and butterflies . I counted 7 babies around one of the dead hyacinths in the pond . They were really small . I did not notice them all summer . We had alot of rain so I must have missed them . I guess i may catch them come spring and give them away

 

[GBBUDD]

So long as the pond is deep enough where it didn't freeze solid. the goldfish will be fine. But this is a warning to everyone reading this to think about redundancy. A back up for vital equipment is a must and even in the most populated areas and equipment replace.ents only take a couple days to replace it could be too late . So having the extra air pump or de icer, even a temp pump are well worth the investment. Even if my power goes out i have a small 1500 gph pump and a battery backup. It's. Like bags mom said its not about the replacement cost as much as its about giving our pets our extended family stay healthy

 

[Cakeatron]

We visited up in Illinois for Christmas and turned off the pump, drained the waterfall filter, and drained the water through the check valve, etc. Lo and behold, a mighty cold front came and guess what? My Dad called to say his de-icer has crapped out. Dang it. I am hundreds of miles away down south so I can't help. I did order two new de-icers for him, which should arrive tomorrow. I am hoping the fish will be ok under the ice for a couple of days. I'm crossing my fingers.
Helping family long distance is tough.

As long as there's a way for the fish to access the surface for gas exchange, like a small opening in the ice, they should be able to survive this temporary situation.