Koi are in for the winter...just in time!

[Fishnut]

This year we had such a warm november that my koi and goldfish stayed outside until just before we had the first dusting of snow a couple of weeks ago.  Since we'll be doing some back-yard renovations in the spring, I decided to buy a 180 gallon tank so I can keep the fish inside for the winter and potentially an extended period of time in the spring.  Here's how they look this year!  The 2 largest are about 14", the 2 middle ones are about 12" and the little one hiding from the camera is about 9".  The goldfish are 6"...not including the tails.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[J]

wow, nice to see such healthy fish coming out of a pond...if i had the land to build I pond I'd be all over it!

[White Lightning]

I keep mine in the pond during the winter months. I noticed that my de-icer stopped working so I boiled some water and made hole in the ice for the gasses to escape and then took a trip to Princess Auto for a new de-icer. I was able to see some fish swimming around when I created the hole. I only saw a glimpse of orange and yellow. I am really hoping that my blue koi is still alive. I guess I will find out come March/April.


Nice looking koi BTW!

[Fishnut]

Thanks!  I'm too afraid to keep the koi outside in a place I can't see them.  Last winter they went into the garage.  They got just as cold and the pond/bucket thing froze but I could still see them to make sure they were all alright.  One fish didn't make it though.  I saw that he wasn't doing well, so I scooped him out and kept him in the basement.  He didn't survive long and I have no idea what went wrong.  Thankfully he didn't die in the pond because that would have been a pretty big dead fish polluting the water for the others.

This year we needed to keep them inside because the patio where their pond usually goes is being ripped up in the spring...plus the garage seems to have collected more stuff and there's no room for the pond in there any more.