Winter - what to do with fish

I have to deside what to do with the fish this winter.

Leave them in the pond, its deep enough, but I have to go out and make sure
a hole is always open, I cover the pond and snow covers the cover, but even
then the ice will close in as winter progress.
I do have an air line and will buy a heater, but I still would check in to
make sure everything is alright, it can be a pain to check on whats
happening on the inside after the snow has covered it up.

OR

I have a childrens sand box which I could put in the garage along with the
airline and heater, it still gets cold in the garage, but it will be warmer
inside the garage then outside and alot easier to look after the fish, I
have a door from the house to the garage.

The fish range from 3 inch to 8 inches, I have 17 in all.

Do I leave the fish outside or bring them in, how will this affect the
fish?

Do I need light for them in the garage as it is dark, the door is opened
from time to time as I still use it.

in or out ?

Joel.

If your only option on bringing them in is the use of a sandbox, then I
would say leave them out. A sandbox is much too shallow, and many of the
fish would probably end up on the floor. Now if you want to bring them in,
build a 4X4X4 foot or 4X8X4 foot raised pond of 4X4's and put a liner in.
Then you can have 2.5 or 3 foot of water and the fish stay in. A simple
trickle tower filter could be mounted above and the fish would do fine.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html

"Joel" wrote in message
4...
I have to deside what to do with the fish this winter.

Leave them in the pond, its deep enough, but I have to go out and make
sure
a hole is always open, I cover the pond and snow covers the cover, but
even
then the ice will close in as winter progress.
I do have an air line and will buy a heater, but I still would check in to
make sure everything is alright, it can be a pain to check on whats
happening on the inside after the snow has covered it up.

OR

I have a childrens sand box which I could put in the garage along with the
airline and heater, it still gets cold in the garage, but it will be
warmer
inside the garage then outside and alot easier to look after the fish, I
have a door from the house to the garage.

The fish range from 3 inch to 8 inches, I have 17 in all.

Do I leave the fish outside or bring them in, how will this affect the
fish?

Do I need light for them in the garage as it is dark, the door is opened
from time to time as I still use it.

in or out ?

Joel.

I would leave them in the pond with no cover so you can easily see what
is happening from a distance. Let any pumps you have run but disconnect
any hoses and just let the water circulate underneath.
This will generate enough heat to open up a hole.

I did this last winter and didn't lose a fish and believe me it gets
cold here in Canada !



Joel wrote:
I have to deside what to do with the fish this winter.

Leave them in the pond, its deep enough, but I have to go out and make sure
a hole is always open, I cover the pond and snow covers the cover, but even
then the ice will close in as winter progress.
I do have an air line and will buy a heater, but I still would check in to
make sure everything is alright, it can be a pain to check on whats
happening on the inside after the snow has covered it up.

OR

I have a childrens sand box which I could put in the garage along with the
airline and heater, it still gets cold in the garage, but it will be warmer
inside the garage then outside and alot easier to look after the fish, I
have a door from the house to the garage.

The fish range from 3 inch to 8 inches, I have 17 in all.

Do I leave the fish outside or bring them in, how will this affect the
fish?

Do I need light for them in the garage as it is dark, the door is opened
from time to time as I still use it.

in or out ?

Joel.

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:44:13 GMT, CanadianCowboy©
wrote:

I would leave them in the pond with no cover so you can easily see what
is happening from a distance. Let any pumps you have run but disconnect
any hoses and just let the water circulate underneath.
This will generate enough heat to open up a hole.

I did this last winter and didn't lose a fish and believe me it gets
cold here in Canada !


Here is what I do, it may be helpful and then maybe not. I am in New
Hampshire, not as cold as Canada but still cold.

I operate a bubbler to keep an opening in the ice. My pond is 40
inches deep and the ice gets to be 18 - 20 inches thick. The first
year I ran the bubbler from an aquarium pump but found that when it
gets really cold the pump cannot produce enough pressure so I switched
to my compressor.

Last year I set it up to run from the compressor (in my detached
garage so the noise is not an issue) all winter. That worked great,
no problems and no lost fish. Too bad because I have too many fish.

Good luck.

John

Stunning amount of ice! Does the bubbler increase the depth of ice by
moving 32 degree water to the surface to melt the forming ice?

Our MS ice sometimes gets 1" thick here in the Jackson area.

Jim

John Bachman wrote:
On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:44:13 GMT, CanadianCowboy©
wrote:


I would leave them in the pond with no cover so you can easily see what
is happening from a distance. Let any pumps you have run but disconnect
any hoses and just let the water circulate underneath.
This will generate enough heat to open up a hole.

I did this last winter and didn't lose a fish and believe me it gets
cold here in Canada !



Here is what I do, it may be helpful and then maybe not. I am in New
Hampshire, not as cold as Canada but still cold.

I operate a bubbler to keep an opening in the ice. My pond is 40
inches deep and the ice gets to be 18 - 20 inches thick. The first
year I ran the bubbler from an aquarium pump but found that when it
gets really cold the pump cannot produce enough pressure so I switched
to my compressor.

Last year I set it up to run from the compressor (in my detached
garage so the noise is not an issue) all winter. That worked great,
no problems and no lost fish. Too bad because I have too many fish.

Good luck.

John

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:03:43 -0500, Phyllis and Jim Hurley
wrote:

Stunning amount of ice! Does the bubbler increase the depth of ice by
moving 32 degree water to the surface to melt the forming ice?

Our MS ice sometimes gets 1" thick here in the Jackson area.

No, remember that water is most dense at 39 F so that is the
temperature at the bottom. Then the heat from the earth is
transferred to the water so that full freezing does not occur. In a
normal year, our frost line is 3 feet down or more for bare earth but
since water can move the ice does not get that deep.

The ice around the bubbler hole is much thinner than the rest of the
pond. I attribute that to the movement of the warmer water from below
by the bubbler.

Not everyone has a compressor situation like mine, separate from the
house, etc. This year I will add a tee to the air line so I can also
use the compressor for other things while the bubbler is running.

John



John Bachman wrote:
On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:44:13 GMT, CanadianCowboy©
wrote:


I would leave them in the pond with no cover so you can easily see what
is happening from a distance. Let any pumps you have run but disconnect
any hoses and just let the water circulate underneath.
This will generate enough heat to open up a hole.

I did this last winter and didn't lose a fish and believe me it gets
cold here in Canada !



Here is what I do, it may be helpful and then maybe not. I am in New
Hampshire, not as cold as Canada but still cold.

I operate a bubbler to keep an opening in the ice. My pond is 40
inches deep and the ice gets to be 18 - 20 inches thick. The first
year I ran the bubbler from an aquarium pump but found that when it
gets really cold the pump cannot produce enough pressure so I switched
to my compressor.

Last year I set it up to run from the compressor (in my detached
garage so the noise is not an issue) all winter. That worked great,
no problems and no lost fish. Too bad because I have too many fish.

Good luck.

John