Winter Care For Your Fish Pond
If you live in a temperate zone, fish from temperate zones can easily overwinter outside. On the other hand, tropical fish would die without a water heater. We will be looking at how you can keep cold water, temperate climate fish contented for the duration of a typical winter.
If you live in an area where winter is cold enough to create ice, you will need to bear this in mind when you construct your fish pond. How thick is ice normally in your region? In most cases, a ‘deep end’ of thirty to forty five inches should be ample, but you will have to get advice locally if you do not know the answer. A pet shop, a neighbour or the zoo can provide the necessary advice.
The other problem with winter and ice is that a layer of ice prevents poisonous gases escaping and oxygen entering, as it would do in the usual course of events. Therefore, you will have to ensure that there is always a hole in the ice. However, smashing a hole will scare the fish.
There are several ways by which this air hole can be kept open under mild freezing conditions:
Aerator: a bubbler, can be placed in the pond. It has to be under water, obviously, and it has to be fairly vigorous, so that the bubbles keep breaking the ice above it. If it is put in water that is too shallow, it can freeze up too, so that is a consideration to be borne in mind.
De-icer: a mild, floating heater. This kind of device does not produce enough heat to threaten pond liners, but it is adequate to keep a small surface area ice free under most weather conditions.
Water pump: a pump pumping water at force through the surface can keep a breathing hole in your pond, but only under fairly mild icy conditions. The pump must be placed in deep water or it could freeze solid.
Hoola-Hoop: if the weather is only mildly icy, a hoola-hoop with a round football floating in its centre can be successful at preventing ice forming within the hoop. The wind keeps the ball moving within the hoop and ice does not get a chance to develop.
This hole in the ice is critical. Your fish will be semi-dormant in the winter and you may not see them for months, but they still have to breathe and excrete and the gases that that and the plants give off have to be permitted to escape or they will poison the water and kill your fish.
At this time of the year it is extremely important not to over-feed. Fish build up layers of fat in the summer and live off that fat during their semi-hibernation in the winter, but they do eat occasionally. The only problem for you is that you will not know which days they decide to come up for a bite.
This is where the hoola-hoop can come in handy again. If you only feed within the hoola hoop, you can see how much food has been taken and how much has been left. Aspire to give no more than they will eat.
