Pond Fish

Winter Fish Kill – How To Prevent It

Unless you happen to like temperatures way below zero, or blizzard conditions, you’ll probably agree that this past winter has been one to hate. It was tough on everyone, and everything, including fish.

There have been numerous reports throughout our area, and most of the northern U.S. about fish kills and large die-offs in ponds. In one case, a local pond lost around 9,000 pounds of fish. In the end, it created one big mess.

So what’s the solution?

Well, apart from having any kind of influence on Mother Nature, which we do not, the best option is to put some safeguards into place that can minimize the loss during the winter months.

The problem for fish in cold weather is that, if the water freezes solid, no fresh air can get into the water, and maybe more importantly, gases that accumulate from bottom sludge degradation, can get trapped under the ice. With no way out, or in, this combination can cause some problems for fish. Of course fish face other stressors during the winter, but when you see massive die off, it’s the air exchange that was most likely the problem.

So the solution is simple.

You use either aeration, and by this I mean a subsurface aerator that releases bubbled air up from the bottom, usually in one single, shallow position, or your use a surface based circulator, to keep a spot of ice open all winter long.

In a smaller pond, a pond heater would work well to for this purpose.

Basically anything that keeps a spot of ice open on the surface (and it doesn’t have to be all that big) will help with this exchange of air and gas build up. With a system like this in place you may still see a few fish die off in the winter, but generally you won’t see large fish losses in winter, or summer months when things get really hot.

Pond aeration in any form will therefore work as a great protective tool for your pond and your fish, all year round.

How Long Should I Quarantine A New Fish?

By Mark Leave a Comment

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For pond owners, there’s not much of anything that’s more exciting than bringing a new fish home and adding it to your pond or water garden.

In all the excitement, one thing that some folks do that’s really a bit of a risk it to just put their new friend right in the pond with all the other fish. Sometimes you can get away with it, but other times, this will mess up everyone else in the pond that’s been doing pretty well all along.

What do I mean? Well, it’s not a pleasant subject but I’m talking about fish diseases.

These can range from simple parasites all the way up to HPV which is a herpes virus that affects Koi fish.

And let’s say you put the newcomer into the pond and it happens to be infected with something. Depending on the ailment you can expect many of them to spread and particularly affect any of the weaker or more stressed fish in the pond.

But there is a way around this issue that can safeguard all of your other fish and it’s called quarantine.

The First Call Of The Season

By Mark Leave a Comment

dead fish

It always comes, and I hate it. It’s that first call of the season each spring or summer when the temps start to rise. It usually goes something like this. “Hi, I need some help here, my fish are coming to the surface of the water and appear to be gasping at the air. Some are dying and I need to try to save the other one’s. What can I do?”

My first response is usually with a simple question. “Do you have aeration in the pond?” And usually the answer is…no.

In fact I can’t think of an instance, although that’s not to say it couldn’t happen, but I can’t remember anyone ever following that question with a “yes”.

And therein lies the problem.

Without a pond aerator in place before the problem starts, you’re going to end up in crisis mode, trying to respond like a M.A.S.H. unit in a war zone.

To start with, I’ll cover what you might try to help curb the losses in the short term. And then I’ll tell you how to end this tragic problem for good.

There’s No Better Way To Protect Your Fish From Herons

By Mark 10 Comments

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Carol, a pond friend of ours, wrote into us recently and had a great question about heron decoys.

Last fall, a Great Blue Heron came into her fish pond and may have taken out any number of fish. It was hard to tell just how many, but some were likely eaten, and while eventually they did get the bird to move on, she was worried about the return of another one.

It’s a valid concern for fish pond owners, particularly in the spring and fall when herons are migrating around. They’re always on the lookout for an easy and tasty meal, and fish ponds tend to provide that in droves. These easy pickings tend to keep a bird around, and it’s not unheard for them to clean a pond out in a few days of feasting.

But this doesn’t have to happen to you…or Carol.

Watch Out For Chlorine In Your Fish Pond

By Mark Leave a Comment

I recently came across this post in a pond forum and wanted to share this with you…and while you’d think this would be a rare thing to happen in a fish pond, that’s not really the case.

“Late last fall ,I allowed a distraction to cause me to effectively KILL all of my Goldfish ,I had just turned on the tap water to add about 50 gals of make up water,company came ,and you know the rest ,5 hrs later ,the massacre was found ,I was SICK ,after the funeral for 85 of our friends.”

If you live in a city and/or use municipally treated water, then you’re facing a challenge of dealing with either chlorine, or worse yet, chloramines, in the water. These chemicals are commonly used to help disinfect drinking water and while they may not cause any issues for us in the short term, the fact is they are deadly to pond fish.

Don’t Feed Your Fish In Cold Water!

By Mark 3 Comments

I noticed a fairly common but disturbing post on a pond forum today and I wanted to share this with you here in the hopes that it will help you avoid this with your Koi in particular.

Here’s the post

This is a story that would usually start with “A friend of mine…” but I’ll fess up. I made a major bone-head mistake and fed my koi while the water was still too cold. The weather was warm and they were obviously very hungry, but I didn’t think to check the water temperature. Now I have some very sick koi, including two that are near dead. They’re behaving strangly, some are losing scales, and a few even have blood streaks in their fins.

They’ve always been very healthy, and all of my goldfish appear unaffected, so I was baffled. After testing the water (all normal levels) and some serious googling I think it’s septicemia caused by the food rotting in their digestive tracts. I’m now trying to warm up the pond and running to the store for some salt. Any other recommendations for this emergency case? As always, thanks in advance!