Thursday, February 11, 2016

Beneath The Ice

There are three fish ponds I am in charge of that must stay running no matter the weather. Sometimes the hardest part is just being able to get to them on snow covered roads.




















This is what deep cold looks like on the upper koi pond. As long as the water is still flowing, the ice falls don't matter. 





















Koi and goldfish are totally cold hardy. As long as the pond does not freeze solid they will be fine. They go into a hibernation stage and stop eating as the water cools down.

The lower koi pond was a solid sheet of ice when I arrived. It also has a leak that is exacerbated by the deep cold. The water level was way low. I added water and starting ice breaking as the sheet began to melt.





















There ya go fishies. All better now, until it freezes over again in this weekend's deep cold.


5 comments:

Lola said...

I did not know they would live when it freezes.

Christopher C. NC said...

They do. The original carp species must have come from a cold climate.

Rebecca said...

Fascinating!

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I love the look of those moss covered rocks at the bottom of the koi pond. They look so pretty. They make the koi stand out more. Just seeing that frozen waterfall makes me cold.

Christopher C. NC said...

They are fun to watch Rebecca. It is a high maintenance garden feature though.

Lisa that isn't moss so much as pond scum, ie algae, which the fish do eat, but too much of it is a problem. That is why pond plants are critical for using up the nutrients in the water to suppress algae growth.