Thread: Ponds First Winter

Welcome to the forum and hobby! A cover I personally think is an almost essential bit of kit purely to hold temperatures. This week I lost 2.5 degrees in the 7 days where the temperature was down to -3 and barely above 4 each day, it was 11.2 in my pond last week and was 8.7 this morning. By using Polycarbonate covers I can help retain any heat and also not have huge spikes or drops in temperature. Without covers I would expect my pond to be around 4/5 max after the week we just had so you can see the difference and when we had a prolonged period of cold weather a few years back my pond got down to 0/1 degree.

I also use them every night to protect from any predators and again hold temps in summer, this way I can help to hold a good temp through summer which improves the growth season for me

I was uncovered last year. Never again. I got down to 2.5 and the fish were clamped to the floor. I had to scramble to sort heaters.

This year I have 25mm polycarb. I took them off to re-jig them on Friday and the pond lost two degrees in about 40mins.
That's me convinced they're doing their job.

Now its not so cold they weren't in shock so immediately were asking for food today. -last year it would take them days to recover.

Years prior on the temporary IBC setup, even just perspex over it kept the wind off and made a difference,.but the Polycarb is far superior if you can afford the thick stuff.

depends on pond depth and how you want to run your pond.
it's not compulsory but there are benefits.

I like to keep my filter bacteria ticking over and fishes immune system working so hold at min 16C over winter.
and use 35mm 5 wall poly carbonate to cover.
it works so well i can have the pond at 18C like i have now, and ice still on top of the poly where the snow fell recently.
but insulation is important if you heat, or it can be very costly...

I use 150mm clamps 'toolzone' brand and 'rolson' from ebay

I just have some left over concrete blocks/bricks from the build which have been fine for me. Obviously not the most pleasing on the eye but does the job for me

Daz, when someone is new to the hobby, they will hear all sorts of suggestions/rules to follow and a subject that promotes much controversy is about feeding in winter. Many koi keepers have already discarded the old outdated ideas about winter feeding but the widespread misunderstandings about feeding koi in winter still persist; here are the facts:

When their water is cold, koi will want very little food but it's important to feed them the very small amounts they need if they are actively looking for it. Although koi will survive not being fed during winter, they will emerge in better condition if they are fed small amounts when they are looking for food.

It's a widespread myth that carp hibernate in winter in lakes or in unheated ponds when the water becomes too cold for their normal behaviour. They don't, they just retreat to the bottom of their environment where it's slightly warmer. Their metabolism slows right down and they don't move very much in order to conserve energy. However, they must still use some energy to maintain the body functions necessary to stay alive. For example, the heart, gills and osmoregulation must never stop working and these functions use energy. In the carp natural environment, as their stored energy in the form of ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate) depletes, they will occasionally feel the need to go searching for food to top it up again. No artificially imposed limits by koi keepers will stop fish in natural lakes from eating very small amounts when they need to.

Related to that, it's another myth that fish are too stupid to know when the water is too cold for them to digest food. The enzymes that control the metabolism of food and the appetite are linked so that they match, regardless of the temperature. So, when the temperature falls below the point where they can digest, they have no appetite and simply don't attempt to eat anyway.

Fish have evolved to instinctively know what's best for them. If a fish in the wild wanted to eat, it would do so and fish have evolved quite successfully following their natural instincts. If carp continued to eat when it was too cold with the consequence that the food rotted in their gut and caused them serious health problems or death then they wouldn’t have survived evolution and the species would now be extinct. So why do koi in a pond need us to impose artificial temperature limits when we stop them eating if they need to?

My thoughts on winter feeding are on my website here:
www.mankysanke.co.uk/html/winter_feeding.html

This is a guide I made to show students on the Nutrition course I teach FOC for Koi Organisation International how feeding should vary through the year. PM me for more details or to enrol.

Originally Posted by Daz82

Good evening.
unsure how I post pics to show via phone

I have 7 healthy koi in there at the moment and just starting out the adventure and hobby ☺️

I use imgbb.com on an android phone ( I don't use Tapatalk app as others do)

https://imgbb.com/

Create a profile/account, then upload your photos. You can select up to four at a time (that's all the forum will allow embedded per post.) then click on 'actions' and then select bbcode. Copy and paste the gibberish looking link it creates and
Paste it into your forum post. Your photos will be embedded in your post, rather than having to click on them and scroll through.