Winter feeding

[Pond skipper]

How deep is your fish pond?

Only about 2.5 feet at the deep end. That’s where the bubbler is.

 

[LuvKoi]

I have another feeding question.. and an update.. first the update… The air hose popped off the air stone even though I had a hose clamp tightly attached. Since at the time there was ice thick enough for me to walk on and only the hole made by the bubble I couldn’t really get the stone out to reattach and don’t think I should anyway. What I did was take a wood handled rubber mallet and attach the hose to the handle with an elastic band. When I dropped it back in the water the head of the mallet went to the bottom and the wood handle floated vertically…thus I have inadvertently complied with the advice from those who said to suspend the air stone just under the surface.. (albeit without said stone) Ok , so here’s the question, I’m fairly sure what my answer is going to be here but I’ll ask anyway. So we are going through a January thaw here in Ontario, all of the ice has gone off my pond. The air temperatures are hovering between 35 and 50 degrees F. I don’t know the water temp. The good news.. so far my goldfish have survived. I see them hiding in the dead leaves that I didn’t manage to get out. The bad news… or at least my question, should I feed them anything while the ice is gone? I say no but my wife says yes, but then she would feed any animal (including me) 24 hours a day if she could..

I always wait until the outside temperature is over 50 degrees for several days before introducing food again. I find looking at the forecast a great help as well. I understand the urge in wanting to feed your fish during a warmup but I would definitely not recommend doing it. Waiting until the start of Spring when the weather becomes more consistent is the safest way to go.

 

[LuvKoi]

I always wait until the outside temperature is over 50 degrees for several days before introducing food again. I find looking at the forecast a great help as well. I understand the urge in wanting to feed your fish during a warmup but I would definitely not recommend doing it. Waiting until the start of Spring when the weather becomes more consistent is the safest way to go.

 

[Jhn]

Just curious, What does everyone think will happen if you feed your fish in the winter when they are hungry/showing an interest in food?

It is an old wives tale/misinterpretation of data if you think they will die because you fed them. In all likelihood the reason fish die in the winter is because people over feed them screwing up the water quality, when they need much less food to sustain themselves. Do they need to supplemental feeding perhaps not, is it going to hurt them if you do no.

When you lose fish coming out of winter to spring as the water warms perhaps it is because they had to get into too much of their fat stores over the winter as there wasn’t enough food in the pond for them to sustain themselves

 

[GBBUDD]

I was tinkering with the pond all day . The fish had no interest in me until mid day when the sun was shining. I noticed they came swimming over to me so i gave a very small amount of food . Some may not have even gotten any. They'll be fine plenty of peach fuzz in the pond. But it is comical watching the fish try and catch a palette . It's like watching drunks bog for apples but the drunk is the koi

 

[GBBUDD]

I have left some dead vegetation and a small amount of leaves in the pond to promote some algae growth for a winters snack for the koi..