The Ponds, Goldfish and Koi

[Barbara]

Here's some pictures of our ponds and fish. We have goldfish in the one pond and koi in the closer one. The Koi and goldfish were originally in the larger pond, but since they like to jump out if it's too shallow, we had to dig a deeper pond (no fun in clay) which was completed nearly 2 years ago.

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Goldfish:
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Koi:
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The Twins:
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[cb977]

I love your setup! Awesome

[Mahon]

Neat! How do you prevent the pond from freezing over?

-Pat

[cb977]

When I lived in Staten Island NY, my boss had a huge swimming pool that had a large framed grating over it (They bought the house in foreclosure and the bank covered it for insurance purposes). They threw a few koi and some goldfish in there and after about 5 yrs, there were literally hundreds in there! The lining was coming up and it was bunched on the bottom of the pool. They had their own little eco-system going and in winter, the top would totally freeze solid, in spring the ice melted and all the fishies came out to play!
It was truly an awesome thing to watch!

[Tindomul]

Wow!! Nice. That is my dream garden. How deep does the water have to be so it doesn't completely freeze?

[Barbara]

Cool story Sue.
It doesn't really matter if it freezes, but you must keep a hole open to allow methane gas exchange or else the fish can be poisoned. We cover the ponds with a tarp and straw to insultate and we keep the pumps running and that usually serves as an openning. You can also buy a heater to do the same thing, we don't bother since the winters are getting so soft that the ponds don't freeze much under the coverings. This year we haven't even bothered. You also must remove the filtration from the pumbs over the winter so toxins aren't pumped back out into the water. During the rest of the season the filteraton sponges must be cleaned weekly.
Lots of fun.

[Barbara]

Originally Posted by Tindomul1of9

Wow!! Nice. That is my dream garden. How deep does the water have to be so it doesn't completely freeze?

The shallow pond is only 2 feet deep and the Koi pond is three feet deep and it should be deeper but we couldn't dig out any more clay.

[Tindomul]

Digging clay, cleaning filters. But its all worth it when you can enjoy sites like that in your own backyard. Congrats!!!

[cb977]

Originally Posted by Barbara

Cool story Sue.
It doesn't really matter if it freezes, but you must keep a hole open to allow methane gas exchange or else the fish can be poisoned. We cover the ponds with a tarp and straw to insultate and we keep the pumps running and that usually serves as an openning. You can also buy a heater to do the same thing, we don't bother since the winters are getting so soft that the ponds don't freeze much under the coverings. This year we haven't even bothered. You also must remove the filtration from the pumbs over the winter so toxins aren't pumped back out into the water. During the rest of the season the filteraton sponges must be cleaned weekly.
Lots of fun.

The New York fish must have been a bunch of ruffians!

There was absolutely no care involved in their wintering. The pool could've been used as a skating rink...rock solid! A great sign of spring for me was always the first crocus but then watching the pool for signs of fish just under the surface became a close second

Very cool...and I love the pictures you've posted. What you've shown us is a lovely garden and all that goes with it.

Thank you

[justatypn]

That is awesome Barb...have a great friend of the families that has a pond much like yours and the undertaking at times gets overwhelming but the overall enjoyment out weighs the work. What an awesome view.