"~ janj" wrote in message
news
On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 10:39:07 -0600, Tristan
wrote:

Removed personal attack, keeping main idea:

I seriously doubt the water in
those kiddie pools froze to any substantial depth with a heavy frost.
A skim coat at most......send those fancy guinea pigs to a person who
lives up in the cold mid west or northcountry and see if the
results are the same come April or May of next year. Your
posts as such do nothing to help folks try and make a decision to leat
their goldies inor out during the cold months, and what little y may
find works or does not work for you is far from being sufficient to
sway folks on what they need to do espeically when its proven the
fancy types do not far well overall in frozen ponds..........

Regarding fancy goldfish, though some will winter over.... the proof is if
they make it through to next summer.
==========================
Jan, they've been out there since early fall. The bubble eyes have been out
there since last summer and it was a hot one. We shade the ponds if the
water goes over 90F and add extra aeration. We have some pretty hot summers
here. The water is also partly shaded with water lily leaves. We had a
good freeze here with an inch of ice on all the smaller tanks and pools.
The inground ponds (800 and 2000g) had only a coating of ice. The last few
days have been in the 60s. I'm in zone 6.

Surviving a mild freeze or even most
of the winter is not proof of hardiness, imo,

What would be then? What would you consider hardy? I think healthy fancy
GF are no less hardy then the common pond GF. That's been *my experience*
in zone 6 since 1995. It was in the teens at night and there was an inch or
so of ice on the tubs for days. Bubblers kept an opening. I lost the
original Orandas and fantails to predators if you remember. I had Moors and
Orandas and one Pearlscale out there for several years in a 150g kiddy-pool
pond. At that time the problem was parasites if you recall. Gill
mites/flukes. With the help of Dr. Johnson and Rick Hess parasites are a
thing of the past here. :-)) I will always be grateful to them.

as it is usually the
fluctuating temperatures in spring, when their immune system is down and
they're weak from not feeding, that can do them in. ~ jan

I'll keep everyone posted on that. :-) The inground ponds don't have the
same fluctuating temps as these above ground tubs. Due to an occasional
frog getting through the nets, I wouldn't keep really *valuable* fish
outside anyway. These are real nice lionheads and bubble eyes but all were
under $20 locally. Another thing I've noticed. The water-bubble-eye
compete for food just fine with their faster brothers, the Shubunkins.

If any die I'll let the group know - just as I did with the little koi who
was gill-netted and killed by the net over the water lily's pot.
--
ZB....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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