Let the ponding season begin!

[clm]

All of the koi have made it through the winter fine. The water is still very cold, 41.9 brrrrr. I got all 3 pumps cleaned out today and the filters are all hooked up and running as is the waterfall. Now all I need to do is a good water change tomorrow and work up the nerve to go into that cold water and retrieve the hardy lily pots as they need to be divided this year.

clm

[Melinda]

and the now grown "babies"??? how did they do through the winter??? can we expect pictures again soon?

[Tommysmom]

Yay, they all made it through the winter! I'm always amazed that they can live under the ice all season like that. I guess all the babies you had will be big now, eh!

[clm]

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow if I can. No babies from last year to worry about but the babies from the year before are doing very well now and are I would guess around 8 - 10" long, so while they are smaller than their parents, they are a good size. Any babies that hatch this year will be sure to make it as there are no longer any fish small enough to get at them in the nooks and crannies.
I'm going to set up the show tank in another few weeks or so and move all the fish in there while I drain down the pond down to wading level and haul up the lily pots so I should be able to get some good pics of all the fish and measure all of them and give them a good look over to see how each one is doing. I want to get that done before the first couple weeks in April as the fish tend to spawn in April and the lilies start growing very quickly.

clm

[MyBirdIsEvil]

I'm glad all your fish made it through .

I'm planning on putting a 300g pond (not real big but I don't have much room) and stocking it with some medium sized native catfish. I don't feel it would be big enough for koi, but I might add some smaller goldfish. It doesn't get nearly as cold here so they should overwinter just fine.

[clm]

You'd be surprised how much mileage you can get out of a small space if you just make the pond deeper, either by going down or up. A raised pond is nice to sit on the edge and watch the fish and you can get a couple of extra feet of depth doing that. Goldies are great, I kept them in my two previous smaller ponds for years. Tough as nails and you can get some very pretty ones.

clm

[MyBirdIsEvil]

I would love to make it deeper, but for right now we're using the 300g trough we were using as a sump for our 220g aquarium, so I'm limited to that depth, lol.
The trough is already paid for and the hole already dug to that size, so we figured it's the best option for now

[hazelrunpack]

Congrats on a successful winter!! Looking forward to the pics, clm (with some of the boys, maybe? ).

And good luck retrieving those hardy lilies... brrrrrrr... Just thinking about it is giving me a chill!

[Dee-O-Gee]

Can we have some pictures of you with waders clm?

[mummummum]

Originally Posted by hazelrunpack

Congrats on a successful winter!! Looking forward to the pics, clm (with some of the boys, maybe? ).

Yes PLEASE!!!!!!!

[clm]

Here's a couple of fish pics from this evening. It's been so cold the past couple of days. Pond water is only in the mid 40's so the fish are still down at the bottom, but moving around a lot. I started with 7 and now have 17 thanks to previous spawns. Not the prettiest of fish, but I love every one. Tough fish they are too, after that cold, cold winter we had. The pond water was at 34.1 for most of January and February.

clm

[Dee-O-Gee]

Oh Wow 7 to 17--that's pretty neat.

The 2 in the bottom picture look huge. How big do the Koi's get clm?

[clm]

Originally Posted by klmccallum

Oh Wow 7 to 17--that's pretty neat.

The 2 in the bottom picture look huge. How big do the Koi's get clm?

They can get to over 3 feet in length. 2 - 3 feet is the norm.

clm

[Dee-O-Gee]

Holy cat fish that's big!

The spotted ones are very pretty and would love to see more snaps of the whole pond when the weather gets nice!

[hazelrunpack]

34.1!!! Oh, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!! I'm shivering just hearing it! Do you have some sort of heater that will keep it above freezing, clm?

The fish are looking marvelous, btw! Obviously the cold didn't bother them as much as just thinking about it is bothering madame hazel

[clm]

No heater Hazel. I have 3 pumps running to keep holes in the ice though.

clm

[hazelrunpack]

At what temperature will they start eating again? Or are they already?

[clm]

They were browsing around for bugs and algae during the week of March break here when it was so warm. The pond got up to the mid 50's then. I will likely start feeding them lightly by late next week, as it's supposed to get quite warm and the water should get up into the 55 - 60 degree range. Note to self, must go out and buy some fish food today, ha, ha.

clm

[chico2]

clm,I always wondered how the fish survive in the winter,but your pond is huge,so I suppose they survive the way fish in a frozen lake would.
The Koi look beautiful..