Too cold for goldfish?

[pskerrett]

My goldfish have been wintering in an indoor aquarium since I closed down my barrel pond last fall.

I live in Chicago, and we are still having overnight lows in the 30's this time of year.

Last weekend, I cleaned out and got the barrel pond back up and running. It gets cold at night, but we're almost certainly not going to ice over anymore this year.

Is it OK to transfer the goldfish back to the pond now? Or should I wait for warmer temps. I'm getting to the point where the aquarium needs a good cleaning if they are going to stay in there any more, and I'd rather just get them in the pond and then I can drain the aquarium completely.

Thanks.

 

[27goldfish]

Mine arent in a barrel, but an actual pond. Mine stay in year round. Where you winter stored them, is it heated?

 

[c2c7390]

i would take the temp of the pond before you go to bed so you can get a ball park reading of where the water temp is around...i wouldnt put the fish in until youre sure that its warm enough

 

[pskerrett]

Thanks for the replies.

My barrels are above ground, and keeping the fish outside over the winter was not an option. We were froze all the way through for the entire winter here. (It hit minus 50f at one point!).

I have the fish inside in an aquarium at room temp.


Regarding:
"i wouldnt put the fish in until youre sure that its warm enough "

So what is "warm enough"?

RIght now the waters high is probably 55f and I would estimate the lows to be in the low 40's at best.

No ice.

What do you think?

 

[c2c7390]

my goldfish were in water at around 50...they were fine...is there a thermometer in the pond

 

[pondlady]

When I uncovered my ponds this spring the water was at 40* and then dropped to 36* and the goldies and Koi are fine I live in zone 4 so we get pretty cold. If the temps of the waters are the same or very close then the transfer should not bother the goldies over much. They are a tuff breed of fish. To cold too fast will kill them so be sure the waters are close to the same temp!!!!!!!!!

 

[pskerrett]

35-36 seems to be our temp overnight still. But during the day it can get all the way up to 50 right now.

I might transfer them this weekend. I'll probably start out with a few ice cubes in the aquarium, and then get them into a big plastic bag filled with aquarium water & sit that in the pond for a while. I'll transfer some pond water into the bag every once in a while. I'll let them go and take the bag out after the bag temp stabilizes with the pond temp.

Sound like a good plan?

Thanks.

 

[bunnymp]

Sounds like a very good plan.

 

[DrDave]

Excellant plan, just make sure you use your pond water to assist in bringing the temp down, That way the water chemistry and temperature are gradually equalized at the same time.

 

[c2c7390]

sounds good...i would let them sit in the pond for at least 30 min before you start adding the colder water from the pond

 

[oldmarine]

Last fall I went from a 60 gallon above ground plastic tub to a 365 gallon in ground plastic pond, and my Shubunkins weathered the winter quite well. I also had a 150 watt aquarium heater in the filter reservor that kept the water temps. above freezing. I did add two 2" Shubunkins in late October and they aclimated without any noticable ill effects.

 

[pskerrett]

Well I decided to hold off because we dipped into the lower 20's this weekend, and got about 6" of snow!

Freaky weather this year.. Oh well. I plan on waiting until this coming weekend and then watching the 10 day forecast from there. If it all looks decent (lows in the 40's ideally) then I'll go for it.