Pond Freezing Over Question

SaintCaleb

My mother-in-law has a pond that is 3 feet deep x 14 feet wide x 12 feet long. She has two fish, a 7" goldfish, and a 5 and 1/2 inch butterfly koi. My question is, will the pond freeze over during winter? She plans on keeping the pump running through winter to help keep a flow in the pond. What kind of impact could this have? Our concerns are for the fish. Thank you for any advice in advance. If you have any questions that may help answer my problem please ask.

Fat_Fender_40

How cold does it get through out the winter? Big difference between 20 or -20.[/list]

SaintCaleb

I'm sorry. Knowing what state would probably help... It is in Michigan. The coldest it would more than likely be is approximately 0 degrees Fahrenheit. With the likeliness of that being very unlikely. Typically the coldest it will get is low 20's and the last 2-3 years there hasn't been enough ice to go ice fishing.

tangy

i dont really like the idea of keeping fish(even cold water fish) outside in the winter unless its a good 40*F or so. i them inside for the time until the ponds temperature begins to raise again, but thats just me :D

MegK

we have a few unkept ponds on a property and usually the smaller ponds will freeze over (but these do not have pumps) and usually about 3 fish die a year from this one pond *there is a massive pond, but contains snappers and muskrats so the fish dont go uneaten* and it gets really really cold in this area during the winter -20 C is what i can recall without exaggerating too much :)

is it a new pond? if not, how did they survive before? you could always buya pond heater

SaintCaleb

The pond is two years old, but this is the first year it has ever had fish.

I did do some online research, and found an article. In the article it said that as long as the pond was more than 18 inches it shouldn't completely freeze over. This pond is at least 36 inches, and could be close to 42 inches (since it was dug for 3 1/2 feet, but I think some settling has occurred, as well as some build up of dirt, algae, plants and silt along with the rocks that were added for the substrate).

I am just wondering to what extent that I can rely on this information. I know that water gains and looses heat slowly in larger bodies of water, so I don't think a day or two of below freezing weather will have an horrible effect, but I do not want the fish to die either.

Originally, this pond was designed for a 3 acre garden (Romance in The Garden). It has a waterfall that runs into it, but it will be off for the winter. My mother-in-law thought it would be nice to have fish in the pond, and just recently my wife and I have been interested in aquariums, so we have been taking care of the fish.

Since we are new, I was looking for some input. The more information we can gather the better decision we can make.

Sadly, we do not have the funds right now to buy a fish heater. Lights would be nice too. The fish in the pond was not our priority to begin with. Recently we have been more sensitive to the idea, and just how precise aquarists need to be in keeping fish healthy.

We want to keep the fish, but they have a hard time cooperating (since we have limited space in our small tanks) with our tropical fish- mainly due to the size differences (my tank blurbs and aquarium logs are up to date).

Our other option is to sell back our fish. :(

willow

hi
well here in England,during the winter it can get very cold,
and ponds do freeze over,the pond that i had was
3ft,it had a pump running throughout the winter,
it stopped the pond from completly freezing over,
the fish go to the bottom of the pond and stay there
they were fed up until october,then nothing until the spring.
when at one stage the pond pump stopped,the pond
froze over completly,i took a kettle of hot water
up to the pond and in different places ran the water,(carefully)
to let in some frsh air,and let any gasses out.
never bang the ice to break it,it will damage the fish,
if you can,leave the pump running.