Wintering Koi in Pond Zone 5ish Ottawa Canada

Neil Law wrote in message . ..
On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:29 GMT, "rob" wrote:

Hi All,

Got a pond of about 2000gal. Deepest spot is 4'10" about 3 feet around. I
will have ice covering the pond for approximately 3 months in the winter.
Do I have to have an opening in the ice for gases to escape? Should I heat
the bottom of the pond or the surface?

I use a couple of things.

1) An Oase Pond Vent Ice Reducer (basically a small pump underneath a styrofoam
disk). See http://www.pondsonlinecanada.com/misc4.htm.

2) Roof de-icer cable along the bottom of the pond coming up through some PVC
piping. Got this idea from somebody else in the Ottawa area (I'm from Waterloo,
Ont.).

That would probably be moi, about the de-icing cable:
http://members.rogers.com/swatsons
But ever since the Great Fish Disaster of February 2000, we have also
run a bubbler to get a bit of active circulation and gas exchange.

At 4'10" deep, the OP probably doesn't need a heater to prevent it
freezing to the bottom, and if it's only 3' across, he can probably
put boards (or slabs of styrofoam) across to help shelter it. (At 18"
deep by 10' across, that's not really an option for ours).

-- Kizhé

right, they dont gasp, they stick their heads out of the water.
fish SHOULD NOT come up and float under a deicer. they should be on the bottom of
the pond very slowly moving around and pretty still most of the time. that is in
water that has ice over the top.
Ingrid

"Iguana" wrote:
They weren't gasping in any way, they weren't sticking their heads out of
the water, they seemed to like to come up and float just below the bottom of
the de-icer, like they wanted the warmth of the surrounding water, or access
to the sun.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

koi. go to the bottom and stay there. good fish. stupid GF bop all over the pond
right up under the ice and even get frozen into Goldfishicles. Ingrid

~ jan JJsPond.us wrote:
Koi or Goldfish? Makes a difference. ~ jan


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
http://puregold.aquaria.net/
www.drsolo.com
Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.