fishlady Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hi ponders. I forgot I joined this site but due to another forum recalled today. Curious as to whether any of you out there overwinter their fish in their pond and if so how do you do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I've built a few Ponds for people over the years and most of them overwinter their fish in their ponds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishlady Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Hi J. Curious as to overwintering. I've had my pond for 15 years. It's only 3000 gals. 18 ft long x 6 ft wide. 42" deep in the deep end about 8 ft across there. I run 2 external pumps on it through an over the liner bottom drain into 300 gal settling chamber on one pump and skimmer on the other. From there to 2 waterfall bio filters. I left a few fish in one year with an air stone but it domed over and fish were dead come spring. So I bring my fish inside to their 300 gal tank for winter. I lost 12 fish two weeks ago when I went away for 3 days and left them in the care of my son. He didn't check on them at all and when I came home discovered one was sucked up against the intake of the fluval xp5 I use and the rest except 3 were dead. Looked like ammonia poisoning. This is why I'll be looking for a quarantine tank before buying new fish. If I could figure out a way to overwinter them in the pond I would. I had mostly Shubunkins and Sarassa comets and one koi (accidental looked like a Shubunkin). All were over 6" without tail. These were fish I'd only had for 2 years but still a loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 23, 2016 Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 Yeah, the doming is the only time my clients have ever lost any fish, but it's usually just a couple. I've seen people use straw inserted vertically in the pond so that it reaches both the water under the ice and the surface - that'll allow for gas exchange even if the pumped water domes over. This would have been the perfect winter to leave them in... it's hardly been cold at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishlady Posted February 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2016 I was wondering about putting a straw in or a small diameter piece of abs pipe. The nice thing about havnt them inside is you get to see them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodsboys Posted February 24, 2016 Report Share Posted February 24, 2016 I keep my fish outside all winter. My pond is relatively small and above ground too. 4' x8' x 2' deep. I use an air pump running 2 big sponge filters and a floating 750 watt heater/de-icer. I usually do not have any ice at all on the surface and my electric bill has no noticeable increase from the low watt de-icer. My pond is insulated though on the sides and bottom with 3" thick rigid insulation. I am sure that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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