We are expecting Hurricane Rita to hit us this weekend and I wanted to know if anyone knows if I should leave my Koi in the pond ( 150 gal prefab in ground) or remove them and put them in a large garbage can into the house for the duration.
Thanks

Sesco

First off koi cant be in a pond that small even if they are small. I would give them to a pond store after the hurrican hits. Good luck.

How many koi? are you getting a bigger pond? In a 150 gallon i would recomend trading in the koi for 4-6 goldfish.

Can someone give me a straight answer, I know that they need a larger pond but that is not my question, will they survive the hurricane in the pond or should I transfer them temporary to a protected container?
If this hurricane didnt materialize the Koi would have had a 1400 gal pond. I have $1750.00 worth of pond supplies sitting in my garage.

if i were in your situation, which i havent been so i dont have any direct experience with this, i would play it safe and put them in a protected area if only to protect from dirty water contaminating their water, as well as debris. do you have somewhere to put them? maybe a holding vat in the garage would do quite well. obviously you would still need adequate filtration and what not, but thats what i would do. good luck and no matter what you do, let us know so we can all learn from it and help out the next guy with the same or similar problem.

If i have to evacuate, the fish are going to have to stay. if the power goes out then the filtration system goes out, which means a lack of oxygen flow... hopefully if that happens, the plants and rain stirring up the water will make enough oxygen for the pond while i am gone.

the turtles more than likely are going to come with me, i will put them in a boxes until i get to where i am going and set up something for a couple of days.

thats sounds good to me. if you have a net i would put it over the pond to catch large debris, this may mean that it will be damaged, so thats up to you if you want to do it.

Where do you live? If you're in the main forecasted to be hit area, I would bring in the koi into holding tanks inside if you plan to stay. If you plan to evacuate, I would leave the fish, net the pond (to keep large debris out), install a battery-powered aerator if you can find one (try pet stores, bait shops, etc.), and hope for the best. Rita is one nasty storm so you want to take care of yourself and your non-aquatic pets first. The fish are harder to deal with as far as moving, etc. They are probably safe from the actual storm unless the area floods (are you in a flood-prone area?). What will get them is the prolonged period without electricity, no filtration or aeration. I hope everyone who posted here avoids the brunt of the storm. When you recover, let us know how things went.

I thought of a few things. If the pond is small, you might want to cover it with a piece of plywood and heavy rocks to block most things out. Leave a few cracks to let oxygen in though. Battery aerators need to be protected as well. You might stick one inside a plastic container or ziploc bag (leaving it open again to get oxygen in) and protect the whole thing with a pile of cinder blocks or something. Too much rain will lower the oxygen levels and often lower the pH and hardness. For that reason, test kits and things like baking soda might come in handy in addition to aeration devices. In most cases, most of us leave the ponds to fend for themselves during storms because it would take a lot of time and effort to catch and move fish and other animals (and move to where?). If you have just a few fish or a few expensive ones, then those can be removed.

Also, my section on what to do for ponds when the power goes out:
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pcare.htm#power

Thanks for all you adivce, I tried to get the battery powered aerator but to no avail. I covered the pond with netting as adviced, but I am afraid that the koi did not survive. The power was off for 12 hours and the pond was murky and smelly when I return yesterday. the only fish that survived are the .29 cents goldfish.

if anybody survived it would be those as they are the hardiest. thats a shame. how many of the cheap fish survived?

i guess you dont have to get a bigger pond for the koi now. sorry for your lose.

well, they were all cheap fish I had 6 gold fish, 2 fan tail ($4.95) and the others were the .29 cents deal. my Kois were more expensive which I gave up several of them when adviced. but I became very fond of them and decide to build a bigger pond for them. It broke my heart to see them floating in pond. but now that I have invested so much time, effort anf money into it I am determined to build a new pond. I hope to come back to you folks for more advice and send yu pictures of the new pond.

By the way is it better to have the waterfall in the deeper or shallow section of the pond?

i have mine in the shallow. My pond was built by experets so i would definately say shallow, dont know why though.

how big will the pond be? what fish do you plan on stocking?

I'm so sorry that your fish died. They needed the filtration and aeration without which they couldn't make it. Plus, all the rain altered the water chemistry.

It's always the fish you want to survive the most that don't. :-(

I suggest putting the waterfall in the deep end. It results in more water mixing. Plus, it's easier to keep going in the winter in cold areas. If my waterfall were in the shallow end, I'd have to turn it off in the winter.

Here are some battery aerators on-line that you might get for future use. They are all meant for aquariums (don't know of one specifically for ponds) so you would have to build a little house around them to protect them from the elements outside. I'd only bring them outside after the power's out.:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F0...4/Itemdy00.aspx

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F0...2/Itemdy00.aspx

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...0&N=2004+113029

It's about 4 x 19 x 1.5 -2.5 = should be about 1400 gals. wider at shallow end and narrower at deep end. will have tetra bottom drain, primer/strainer, 3200SEQ20 pump, ultima II 2000 filter. UV to come later. plan to have 3-4 koi, Survivors of Rita.
Couple of bull frogs, that was from tadpoles.

Robyn, I am about 40 miles north of Houston, The Woodlands, Texas. We rarerly get a freeze although it does happen occassionaly but never more than a couple of days.
the pond will be kidney shaped with a narrow deep end with bottm drain.
I think I will take tommy's advice an set up the waterfall on the shallow end then the water will circulate more efficiently.
Thanks for the links

I would make it bigger for those koi i would say at least 2000 gallons. They do get big and do need alot of space. That size pond is good for maybe 2 koi.

I finally got to go to my house today, for a few hours, before we had to leave again. sadly all the fish were dead. i was really upset, i've had some of those same fish for 18 months or more, ever since i started my pond. i didnt have high hopes for them, it had been over a week since i left. if there could have been anyway i could have taken them with me, i would have loaded up some aquariums in the car.

the ponds smell like utter swamp, just green smelly water. our swimming pool was in the same condition. i just feel bad that those fish suffocated, and because they arent cheap, especially when you add in the plants that are probably going to be ruined. i couldnt clean anything because they tell you not to repair anything until they can have insurance adjusters come out and all that mess. hopefully later tonight and tomorrow i can upload some pictures to my website. i will send you all a message when they are up.


edit: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jarrodrossi/my_photos click on the hurricane album and you can see pictures of my house and some random damage pictures.

sorry to hear about this jarrod. i looked at the pics and its said. I hope everything goes well. How are you turtles?

the turtles seem fine, they are in a 20 gallon tub in the hotel room.

kk, your in a hotel? Ohh, your probably fixing up the house and stuff.

I'm so sorry about the damage and the loss of fishy life. I am glad your turtles are okay. I hope you can fix things up soon.

we havent started cleaning up yet. we arent allowed to yet, we only were allowed to go and look and to make emergency repairs and things, but we had to go back to our hotel 1 1/2 hours away.

Oh Jarrod, I looked at your pictures and am so saddened. I feel so bad about your loss but am glad your turtles are safe. God bless you and your family and neighbors and I hope you are all able to move back home soon. I will be thinking of you!

we are back home as of yesterday. i started draining and cleaning the ponds today... i drained them all, cleaned the two preformed liners and got the turtle pond up and running so they are finally back home and able to swim swim and swim. my first pond hasnt been cleaned yet, i was too tired, but i did drain it and theres a bunch of muck to get out. i hope to get the ponds up and running in a couple of days. as for fish, i dont know, it all depends on when the local stores are up and running

Glad to know things are getting fixed up. There's no rush on the fish. Let the ponds (and you) recover from their trauma. Without fish though, be sure to add something like mosquito dunks to keep the skeeters in check.