Wintering frigid temps in GA

[callingcolleen1]

My heater is off and has been off for the last week. I only have the heater to prevent the ponds from freezing solid. My water temperature is always about 31 or 32 degrees (+1 Celsius) The one heater is really meant to keep a 100 gallon horse trough open, and I use the one heater for all three ponds which is in excess of 3500 gallons!

Without the heater, my ponds are only 3 feet deep and they would freeze solid . I only use the heater when temperature is below minus 10 or 15 degrees, depending on how hard the ground is froze too.

Some times I have forgotten to plug the heater back on and when it was below -20 overnight. Woke up and found ponds froze over really hard, but at least water was still moving under the thick ice.

I have been doing this for over two decades now so I think I know what I am talking about Dave. Koi also live in Great Lakes remember! !

 

[callingcolleen1]

Fish all alive and doing very well! No sick fish either!

 

[Dave 54]

My heater is off and has been off for the last week. I only have the heater to prevent the ponds from freezing solid. My water temperature is always about 31 or 32 degrees (+1 Celsius) The one heater is really meant to keep a 100 gallon horse trough open, and I use the one heater for all three ponds which is in excess of 3500 gallons!

Without the heater, my ponds are only 3 feet deep and they would freeze solid . I only use the heater when temperature is below minus 10 or 15 degrees, depending on how hard the ground is froze too.

Some times I have forgotten to plug the heater back on and when it was below -20 overnight. Woke up and found ponds froze over really hard, but at least water was still moving under the thick ice.

I have been doing this for over two decades now so I think I know what I am talking about Dave. Koi also live in Great Lakes remember! !

koi dont live in the great lakes colleen carp do their wild cousins, long removed thats the big difference they are wild..... Did you read the piece by Peter Waddington about the importance of warming koi durng the winter and the fact that no fish out from japan have experianced anything bellow that of 10c, these are words from a man who spent decades of his time working with the Japanease learning all there is to know about them,their customs way of life and more importantly all about koi. The result of which were two stunning books KoiKichi and koi2kichi
I know you've been doing this for two decades and everything else you do with your koi flies in the face of conventional wisdom such as feeding your koi dog food not cleaning your pond etc weve been through this senario before if you recall, it works for you when it really shouldn't .
However I still stand by my warning to others over the superchilling of ponds and my reasoning is sound.for doing so i;e the protection of our koi and goldfish .


Dave

 

[callingcolleen1]

First aND foremost, water can be cooled down, but NOT Super Cooled in a pond. Super cooled water can only happen in certain conditions, and you have to have "pure" water!!!!! Ponds are NOT Pure Water!!!! So please quit freaking people out thinking that they could end up with Super Cooled pond water, and that fiSh will have frozen gills, that simply NEVER happens. If the fish have damaged gills it is most likely from very poor water conditions under the ice.

You can't tell me that koi in the Great Lakes are "natural" and we know they came when people released koi into the lakes. They were fancy koi at one time, but have reverted back to the wild version, which does happen after SEVERAL generations of living in the wild, like "wild guppies"! What happens is just nature at its finest, and the weak and slow fancy breeds of koi end up as food for some big Pike!

But they survived as fancy koi and bred successfully and after several generations you simply end up with Carp, which are STILL Koi, bUT only generations removed.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Dave you are my friend and I love to argue with you and if you ever came down here I would love to entertain you around my ponds aND have a good laugh over our friendly debates!

 

[Lisak1]

they make the water and air temperature parallel which means as the air temperature plunges so does that of your water thus superchilling your pond

I would venture a guess that our pond water never matches the temperature of the air - if it did, the waterfall would freeze solid, which it never has even in temperatures at -30F which we experienced for several long stretches last winter.

We run our waterfall all winter long, we do not use a heater, and our fish have survived five winters in those conditions. If koi aren't designed by nature to survive cold temperatures, then why do they have the ability to enter a period of torpor? Now koi may not PREFER the cold water, but i haven't actually asked them so I can't be sure about that. And Dave if the Japanese have never subjected their koi to cold temps, how did they get to be such experts on cold water ponds?

I appreciate these friendly debates, too. We all continue to learn. And while I love my fish, I don't have a single one that cost me more than $15. If I paid hundreds or even thousands I would err on the side of caution. But having said that, I would never do anything to a living creature that would result in suffering. I just had a good look at my koi this morning - we are in the midst of a warm snap so no ice on the pond - and they look good down there! The proof is in the pudding they say - healthy fish are good to see!

 

[addy1]

My most expensive fish is 2.50.................

 

[Lisak1]

My most expensive fish is 2.50.................

addy - you big spender you! Most of ours are in the same range - or actually even less since they have reproduced themselves numerous times. What's that called - cost averaging? I'm neither a scientist nor an economist! But we have a few that we chose for color that were more expensive. Funny thing is they all swim the same!

And I just realized I said "warm snap" up there - I'm not sure that's a real thing, but we're so used to "cold snap" at this time of year, it just slipped out. It was 45 degrees today - it's like spring!

 

[addy1]

ddy - you big spender you! Most of ours are in the same range - or actually even less since they have reproduced themselves numerous times. What's that called - cost averaging? I'm neither a scientist nor an economist! But we have a few that we chose for color that were more expensive. Funny thing is they all swim the same!

laughing................so lets see take my 2.50 fish lets guess 25 fish at 2.50 = 62.50 ................ best guess 100 babies = 0.50 per fish............ good cost averaging! I love the colors you get when they pond breed. Even the darkies are nice to have.

 

[callingcolleen1]

My fish were all very cheap too. My two biggest koi cost me three whole dollars each, back in 1991! But they are my most precious cause after all these years outside in freezing water, I would be very sad if anything happened to them now! I also can say that they have never shown any sign of being ill or sick, and I really think that is due to the ice cold clean running water for many years.

 

[j.w]

I started out w/12 feeder fish...........something like 12 for $1. lol!
Then added some free oj w/ white on them from freecycle. Then made the big jump to Shubbies at $1.99 on sale

 

[Dave 54]

I would venture a guess that our pond water never matches the temperature of the air - if it did, the waterfall would freeze solid, which it never has even in temperatures at -30F which we experienced for several long stretches last winter.

We run our waterfall all winter long, we do not use a heater, and our fish have survived five winters in those conditions. If koi aren't designed by nature to survive cold temperatures, then why do they have the ability to enter a period of torpor? Now koi may not PREFER the cold water, but i haven't actually asked them so I can't be sure about that. And Dave if the Japanese have never subjected their koi to cold temps, how did they get to be such experts on cold water ponds?

I appreciate these friendly debates, too. We all continue to learn. And while I love my fish, I don't have a single one that cost me more than $15. If I paid hundreds or even thousands I would err on the side of caution. But having said that, I would never do anything to a living creature that would result in suffering. I just had a good look at my koi this morning - we are in the midst of a warm snap so no ice on the pond - and they look good down there! The proof is in the pudding they say - healthy fish are good to see!

Dont care abpoout the cost of the fish Liska our remit which you'll see at the bottom of all our posts it to stop the deaths of all fish by education , so I'm glad we are being helpful

Dave