General Chat

morning julia, yes its our whirley, her coi pond is stunning, xxx

Dont break ice on a pond,, I just pour hot water near the edge to melt the ice,just to release pressure,,or put a couple of kids balls in before it ices over.

Still feeding mine but changed to wheatgerm only a couple of weeks ago just to build up for winter,2/4 times aweek,this will stop over the next few weeks,,,,

I 've never lost a fish over winter in over 25 years.of mixed fish,including Koi.

don't add hot water to pond please. place saucepan with boiling water in it, this will melt the ice and you can put a ball in it although sometimes this ices up too. We just every day use the saucepan in same spot. Been doing this for over 20 years. If you have a pump keep it going all year. If water murky - perhaps pump is not large enough for pond. We too have mixed fish including Koi and use the autumn/winter feed as required.

I used to keep my pump on all year round, until I was told that they use quite a lot of electricity. Don't know if this is true, but our bills were rather high, so I turned it off last winter and just have it on during the day in the summer. I would prefer to leave it on in the winter, because it stops the pond icing up.

Try Either Barley Straw in a Ball,or Tetra Pond AlgoRem, do what it says and it works. **M**.

Wend, Try and get a "Solar Pump" **M**.

We only have one of those fibre glass ponds so if yoy leave the pump on and it freezes then the water pumps out. Did it one year and came down to find very little water in the pond and the fish literally floundering !!. we do have a large flat stone that overlaps the pond and this allows the water not to freeze under it so the air can still circulate .

Wend if you do not keep it on during winter at least keep it on 24 hrs during summer especially of warm weather otherwise you will see in the morning fish gasping for air.

My daughter has a pond, last year after the winter she decided to give it a bit if a clearuot, thought that all the goldfish had been "Heronised"

but lo and behold ONE small survivor, who now lives indoors in a smallish aquarium with a new fancy companion, along with a few mussels?

Bob

yep they WILL survive a frozen pond by living in the muck stuff at the bottom of your pond......

along with a couple of frogs

The murky ponds will clear up in the winter. Some of the problem is overfeeding the fish, they are greedy and wont tell you they have had sufficient. Our pond cleared up quickly this summer once the fish were gone and there was no food going in the pond. Fish will pick at the algae on the sides of the pond when hungry. Dont forget, fish in the wild feed themselve from what they can find!

Ive always poured hot water round *just *on the edge of my 3 ponds ,,,,,,,I turn off the large UVA filter pump in winter and change to a small uva filter pump in and leave on a trickle 24hours ..a pump costs little to run..

if there is dead leaves and dead plant waste in a iced over stll pond gases can build up and kill off fish,so a pre winter clean is good and net down if near trees...

I have Koi thats 20year old,

Some good tips on here. Thanks.