Koi Garden: How To Prepare Your Pond For The Winter Season

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Koi Garden: How To Prepare Your Pond For The Winter Season

Thursday, May 21st, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Wintertime is almost here, and this will be the very first time that your Koi pond will be exposed to the cold weather. Winter is the downtime for your Koi pond, because during this season, less events will occur compared to the other seasons. To ensure the survival of your fish and Koi pond through the weather, here are important precautions that you need to take for your garden before winter blows its first cool breeze.

First, clean up - Take your time in completely going over your pond (this can take about a weekend). Remove those unwanted bulk materials around it and inside of it. Inside the pond, remove all those leaves, slits, and other materials from its bottom. If you have any plants or flowers that will not be able to survive the cold, remove them as well.

Around your pond, clean up those things that can be blown into it, because you will not be able to notice the debris until the winter's end (this will then prevent those potentially harmful parasites and bacteria in the future).

Second, stop feeding - Keep in mind that your fish needs to stop feeding during the winter period. Feed them once a day when fall starts and temperatures reach around 55 degrees to 60 degrees. Completely stop the feeding once the temperature hits below the 50-degree mark (even though the temperature will go beyond this mark, you should refrain from feeding your pets).
It would take at least for days for them to completely digest food and the temperature is above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you forget this vital step, you will surely end up killing your pets! Don't mistake it for hunger when your fish open their mouths to you, as it is only a learned reflex rather than a sign of hunger. Don't worry about not feeding, because your fish will feed on something else besides the food that you provide them (especially if your pond has a great amount of natural plants). If you're not feeding them and if ever they get hungry, they will feed on this.

Third, check up - Do a seasonal check up on the equipments that you have, from your filtration system to your array of preventable medications. Remember that most of the ponds lie dormant during the winter, you would be able to have lesser chances of finding the stuff you are going to need. Make sure that your emergency kit (including water testing kits, medications, bags and nets) is always ready and up to date.

Fourth, prepare for the cold - Make a preparation for the cold weather by investing in the items that you’d be needing during the summer time. It is known that the fish can withstand constant temperatures as low as 39 degrees for short periods of time (including those slightly lower than 39 degrees).

If you buy a heater, research first on what size you'd be needing in order to heat your pond during the winter rightly. Otherwise, ice will still form, causing danger imposed by the amounts of gas in the water, as it is trapped under the ice. In extreme cases, you can put an emergency tank inside of the pond.

Finally, turn off all of your water sources - Your heater will do its work harder in order to maintain the temperature suitable for your fish to live in the cold weather. If you add-ons like fountains, waterfalls and streams, you should turn them off during the winter (as they will circulate water and constanly bring new and cold water to your Koi pond). By switching them off, you'll make your pond's standing water the only thing that your heater will be responsible for.

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