Goldfishes survive!

I ventured out into the garden today, and had a poke around in my barrel to see if anything was showing signs of life after 2 days with min. temp of -8 degrees. Ice had finally melted and I pulled out some very dead water hyacinth - and there were the goldfish! they disappeared to the bottom but I put some food in for them... also still alive, Lobelia Victoriana, small clump planted in shallow water.

 

i wouldnt feed em very much, they ll be pretty near dormant i imagine

 

Did you cover the barrel with anything to help keep the frost off Liz, it could be a good idea if we get another cold spell :(

 

Hi Pete and LG, I put some bubble wrap round and then cardboard, but nothing on top. The ice has been over 1" thick on it - I couldn't melt it by putting a hot pan on it , and the ball I put on the top was as uncooperative as the sword in the stone. I am thinking of some kind of polystyrene lid, maybe with holes in.

 

Dont really think you need the holes, if its only on there a few days, anyway you can always take it off during the day when the temp. is above freezing.

 

i couldnot be bothered with this dig a hole and sink barrel in it

 

Then you cant see the barrel, which is surely the whole point in having it, ....as a feature.

 

I'm not surprised the water hyacinth didn't make it. The lobelia is usually OK, but can die off. If possible always collect seeds, just in case.

 

I haven't had any kind of pond before, LG. I know it seems a lot of hassle but as I am not very mobile and find bending and lifting hard, I use a lot of raised up things to help. It is a very nice barrel, and looks quite good.
Rich, I had imagined that the lobelia would be like the small blue variety, and die off in the cold. I did collect some seed. As for the water hycinth, I bought one plant and it tried to take over the whole surface. It didn't flower, but I think its' deep roots helped protect the fish in the summer. Should it have flowered?

 

Hello all, I think you did the right thing covering them up, mine go down out of sight on really cold weather. I feed mine if they are about, not too much though.

Christmas avatar gone? hopefully, first reply

 

If you find fish looking for food then feed a wheatgerm based food and only give very little.
I would only feed fish if I saw them for a few days as the cold weather could come back and any food in the gut would ferment and cause internal bacteria problems.

 

Hi

I have keept fish in a pond for years, when the tem drops the fish will go into a sort of suspended animation so try not to disturb them to much. As a genaral rule they wont need food if the water temp is delow 10 degrees. If you do get ice on the top for a long perion stand a hot pan on the top to melt a hole. DO NOT poor on hot water. A very good idea to insulate the barral in extended or very cold whether. If you can when the whether wames up try to get as much old vegatation of the bottom as you can as this can polute the water. All the best