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JohnC
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« on: January 04, 2009, 05:56:25 pm » |
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I know they are cold blooded but I just can't help feeling sorry for them and would like to bring them indoors Lol. It's a few years since I've seen the pond frozen over like this. It was -3C here today. The large fish are orfe..we had them as tiddlers about 8 years ago. They are schooling fish and grow to 18 inches ,we've lost three. They leap out of the water -the females do so in the mating season to get away from the rather aggressive males. I happen to look out from the kitchen window one day and saw orange on the lawn- it was lucky , it survived. http://tinypic.com/?t=postuploadhttp://tinypic.com/?t=postupload |
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JohnC
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« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2009, 06:01:07 pm » |
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Something went wrong with Tinypic.   |
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jgs001
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« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2009, 06:15:00 pm » |
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Well caught through the ice John. Looking at that I know what you mean, you do feel sorry for them...
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John Canon 450d, EF-S 18-55 IS, 55-250 IS, Raynox DCR250 HQE5 + C80ED & Vista 80s. NexStar Skymax 102 SLT. *** My Astro Blog *** |
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Paul
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« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2009, 06:48:17 pm » |
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Nice shots John - just looking at them makes me feel cold!
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brianb
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« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2009, 06:52:40 pm » |
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you do feel sorry for them... You may have a serious problem in a day or two, with the pond frozen over the oxygen in the water will run out. DO NOT SMASH THE ICE the shockwaves will injure the fish - melt a hole through with a hot bucket then put a football in the hole to prevent the hole from freezing back over. |
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rjgjr
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« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2009, 07:26:52 pm » |
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Great shots John, we use to have Koi in Southern California before moving to Oregon, never had to worry about icing over though. I'd have them here, but with all the wild critters, I'd ahve to keep the pond covered 24/7, that's no fun. Good luck!
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martinastro
Martin Mc Kenna
Global Moderator
Hero Member
Posts: 5182
Maghera, N. Ireland
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« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2009, 10:18:08 pm » |
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John, that looks nasty!!...geat vivid shots of the scene, the images are that pure that I feel like I'm looking into the pond. I hope the fish survive the Winter OK. Great shots  |
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JohnC
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« Reply #7 on: January 05, 2009, 09:58:50 pm » |
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Thanks for such positive comments.
I'll keep my eye on it, Brian. There are two running cascades and I very gently break ice if it looks like 100% cover is imminent, you're right, they don't like the crashing sound of breaking ice.
Koi eat all the plants so we decided against them- we just wanted regular goldfish and didn't know the orfe grew to 18 inches but they have 19 feet to belt up and down in Lol. and they used to but now they just swim gently along. We don't get critters but I've twice seen a scruffy heron on the roof of the house behind but I'm told they didn't come down because they knew there wasn't enough take of space. I was surprise then that they were quite scruffy birds, I thought they were elegant like egrets but then I saw these two, many years ago now and I saw herons in Scotland last August. They need to get themselves a wash and brush up Lol.
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Roman White
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« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2009, 11:46:12 am » |
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John, that looks nasty!!...
I'll second Martin. I like those shots. |
SkyWatcher 130/900mm EQ3, Bresser 76/700mm, 20x90 bino. and other, Olympus SP-550UZ Eclipse & comet chaser, occultation & meteor observer Poltava Astronomy Portal |
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JohnC
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« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2009, 02:43:00 pm » |
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you do feel sorry for them... You may have a serious problem in a day or two, with the pond frozen over the oxygen in the water will run out. DO NOT SMASH THE ICE the shockwaves will injure the fish - melt a hole through with a hot bucket then put a football in the hole to prevent the hole from freezing back over. Brian.. I've been advised to leave it ,something to do with the 'gas mix'. On reflection though I'm not happy to leave it for the reason you pointed out and what I thought too - a depletion of oxygen but I can have a compromise - don't break up the ice but still have an area without ice- there are two cascades keeping the small area under the cascade free of ice. One person at the pond centre advised shutting the pump down because it's taking the freezing water to the bottom and another said leave them on to stop the 100% freezing - there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer. Anyway regardless of the physics of the 'gases' mix I won't break any ice as the cascades are keeping a section free and as I text the ice is thinning and the water coming from the filters is also keeping that end of the pond ice free. What a do. The main thing is that the fish are still alive. The feed box states no food under 4C..... what a life. |
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brianb
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« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2009, 03:18:35 pm » |
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One person at the pond centre advised shutting the pump down because it's taking the freezing water to the bottom and another said leave them on to stop the 100% freezing One person doesn't understand basic physics - ice forms on the top of a pond because, when water is cooled below 4C, it becomes less dense - so the chilled water will tend to sit at the top of the pond, the water at the pond bottom will not freeze until all the rest of the pond is solid. I'd definitely leave the pump running, the cascade will keep the water nicely oxygenated. The fish might well go almost inactive as the temperature falls (which is a help as the O 2 requirements will be less) but provided they don't actually freeze they should be OK. We had a fish pond in Derby where the temps were very much lower than we get here nowadays & used the football trick. The fish survived even during the winter of 62/3 when the ice got to a foot thick (three quarters of the volume of the pond). |
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JohnC
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« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2009, 03:28:25 pm » |
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If yours survived 12 " thick ice these will be ok, I'm sure. I've just looked down on them (I'm upstairs with this computer) and they are bunched together in the centre of the pond and two aer swimming around the grouop, one seems to come up to the underside of the ice and nose along it. Another is just now moving very sluggishly.
We're getting very light snow just now, it's just started.
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