Has anybody lost any of there pond fish due to the recent cold snap?
I have a mirror carp and a golden tench i do hope the weather warms up soon.

We have plenty of koi carp and gold fish (as well as babies) in our pond and so far we havent lost any luckily enough. I think they shoul be fine as this is the 3rd winter they've been in there

Our fish have been in the pond for years and we never lose any, though we never turn off the filters and the waterfall, I know people say you should in winter but as I say been there for years never any trouble, though I always worry about them out in he cold which is a bit silly

We never turn them off either. The only thing we do different is not feed them as much as we do in summer as we were advised this when we first built our pond

yep same here we leave everything on through the winter only feed them a little ocasionally in fact we have more problems throught the summer than the winter lol

After losing lots of fish last year, we've stripped the pond of all fish and now have it purely as an ornamental pond - and for frogs. The stress of it all was huge and frankly I didn't want the responsibility of being the No1 fishkiller in South Yorkshire. :(

If I still had them though, I'd be worrying about them too. :hihi:

I once remember Mum years ago cracking her pond when it froze over - so that the fish could 'breathe'.....needless to say they all died. :rolleyes:

We leave our running all year too. As long as your pond is deep enough the fish should be ok.

Never break any ice on the surface as it can kill the fish (as Stagewalker has said) instead float a football on the surface then if it does freeze removing the ball will leave a air hole.

We get wheatgerm fish food for ours in winter and just give them a tiny bit, but if they dont seem bothered scoop it back out.

I seem to have more problems in the summer to. In winter I just leave everything on and don't feed them. I lost one last summer and as they are about 70cm+ long it was a bit tricky to swoop out of the pond and weighed a lot. I could'nt bear to touch it so had to swoop it with an old hamster cage lid. :gag:

They are not something I'd choose to have myself but we inherited them with the house, though I'm a bit upset when I found out how long they live for as I don't think I'll ever have a nice big lawn! :lol:

your best bet for yer ponds is cover them with a tarporlin or just cover 1 corner that way it wont freeze and let it breath , yu dnt have to turn yer filters of but if yu want no worries , just remeber to clean them before starting them up again in summer , feeding fish just wheat germ pellets or like me i go fishing so they get the maggots wats left allways remeber dnt over feed them in winter if any food is left on surface net it out i feed mine 2 to 3 times in week

in summer clean every part of yer filter down , if yu have problems with blanket weed buy a couple of grass carp , i got 2 for me pond 2 years ago now never have a problem with it

I've had ponds with large fish for over 30years and never lose any in the winter. The most susceptible time for them is when the weather starts to warm up about April time.

It is good advice to leave the pumps running, as this leaves an ice free section were the flow hit's the pond, plus it stops the filters freezing up.

It is not the time of year you decide not to feed fish, but the water temperature.
When the temp is over 10'C you feed them as normal. When it starts to get below this their digestive systems begin to shut down and cannot digest food as they normally do.
With temperatures between 10'C and 5'C feed a wheatgerm based food as this is more easily digested.
Below 5'C DONT FEED AT ALL, their digestive systems cannot cope (especially koi) and the food is liable to rot inside them and poison them. It dosn't matter if the cold lasts for months, they will survive on any algea in the pond if they need food, this being a lot more digesable.

If we have a couple of days of warm weather, do not be tempted to feed them, as this does more harm than good. Make sure it is a long sustained warm spell before you start, and remember, start them on wheatgerm first.

Very brief, but hope it helps.

some useful tips. Thanks

I tend to feed them on wheatgerm towards the colder weather and then when it warms up, untill it get too cold then they get nothing. They have variety sticks in the summer months. Last year I started to feed them on alternative days as it warmed up early, then had to slow right down again as we had a cold snap for a couple of weeks. :) seems I was doig roughly the right thing.

Another question:

What do you do if you you need to replace the liner? I have a sneaky feeling some roots may have broken through and caused a very slow leak, level is down more than I would expect from evporation/ lack of rain at this time of year. It's a biggish pond about 5ft deep and 12ft long and what to do with the fish?

Hi,
If you can manage with the liner till the weather warms up It would be better for the fish, When the time comes to replace the liner I would get myself a garden type swimming pool to put the fish in; pump some or all of the water from the pond into the pool and if you can set the pump and filter up to the pool also, If you can get your hands on some mesh to cover the pool just in case one or two decide to jump !!!! then you can take your time as no doubt you will need to do some spring cleaning once you start. I did this some 3 years ago when I built my new 6000 gallon KOI pond.
Hope this is of some help
Frank (member of the yorkshire koi society )

I seem to lose a couple of fish each spring, theyre great in winter, summer and autumn but each spring I can guarrantee that I`ll lose at least two.

All but one of my goldfish have died, I think due to the extremly cold two weeks we had.The one fish that is left has just been attacked by a frog. I left the filters on.Don't feed them when it's less than 5 degrees and fed them wheatgerm as it got colder.
Thinking about filling the pond in.I have had no luck with it at all.