In spring 2011, I bought Tom 19 goldfish for our pond out front. Their numbers quickly dwindled to 6, maybe 8. Our best guess is that birds or maybe a raccoon got them since we never found floating bodies. Due to wild moss overgrowth in late summer, we haven’t seen the little sweeties since August. Then, the pond froze.
The valley experienced some early, sub-zero temperatures for about a week, and the ice blocked our chances of getting the fish out. Our plan had been either to (a) overwinter them at the humane society pond or (b) overwinter them in a tub in the house (as we did in the past, with our first batch of fish that lived 3 years).
Weeks of family and work demands meant that Tom and I didn’t have the time to cut through the ice and see what’s what until right before the holidays. My main concern (besides the cold temps) was that perhaps our small pond had frozen to the bottom. Tom, who humors my requests, got out an ax and chopped through the ice in the deepest part of the pond.
I’m happy to report he found plenty of water underneath. We’ve been watching the meltoff from recent snows and such, and it seems a decent supply of new water is ongoing.
Because of the ice and the remaining moss, we could not see any fish through the hole he chopped. So, we honestly don’t know if the goldfish are in there or not.
At this point, we won’t know until spring.
In years past, we’ve been astounded at the hearty nature of the fish. Truly. So, we’ll continue to chip through the ice and drop in goldfish food once in a while … even though there is plenty of natural food on the pond for them.
A piece of plywood covers the hole to protect the dogs from the thinner ice. Ginko typically gives the pond little attention once it’s frozen, but Lilly often races across the ice on her way through the pasture and toward the house.
As it stands now, the ice — which is several inches thick — will hold her weight (and mine). That’ll change with weather conditions, of course, but for now, we’re OK.
I can only hope the goldfish are too.
We used to have a pond stocked with goldfish. It froze over every winter (though not enough to require an axe to break the ice) and every spring, we had MORE goldfish than we started with. I hope yours survive!
Everyone I know around here with goldfish or koi just let them overwinter in their ponds, and they seem to do just fine. We probably don’t freeze to the same extent that y’all do, but the ponds do freeze over. We used to have an above-ground pond with goldfish and koi that survived the winters without trouble. I don’t think you are supposed to keep feeding them once the temps get to freezing, though – I think they pretty much slow down and basically go into stasis, so all you are doing is adding to the organic matter in the water, which could lead to a build up of toxic decomposition products. I also don’t know that breaking the ice is a good idea – I was told to get a floating de-icer to keep the pond from freezing over totally, rather than breaking the ice.
Oh, not good. I have another friend who was doing pond fish and they lost them all each year. Seems like a lot of work and worry to me.