Well I am part of the group today! I found a dead fish in my dumb deck pond. It was Benny, my Mom's 4inch goldfish she trucked 14 hours up here when she moved. She is not going to be happy when I tell her :o After I scooped him out I had an aerator in there in less than 2 minutes. I was shocked to find the ice 2 1/2 inches thick :o What a terrible thing! I KNEW to put an aerator in there I was just LAZY!!! I tried to turn on the pump and filter but it is frozen! Well lesson learned for me: IT'S TOO DARN EARLY :angry: You just can't rush Mother Nature!
Signed: KK the fish murderer

Sorry about your fish. It was too early. I've killed a few fish in my time too. One year, I got some plain old guppies that I wanted to put into a tub pond. I thought it was plenty warm; they disagreed and were all dead by morning.

Ouch...sorry to hear that.

OK, here's what you do....Go running over to Mom's and tell her the most amazing thing happened and she has to come see it! Tell her you put Benny in your pecker pond, and because of the cold over night he changed color! Just make sure you have a similar sized "Benny" in there!

I really think I should run for office.......

Derrick

Do you think it died from the cold or from not enough oxygen? You had the de-icer in there right?
Sorry KK :(

:(

Sorry to hear about Benny, KK :(

He was the only one you lost, right? How do the others look?
Try not to be too down on yourself ... you were attempting to make life better for them.
Mother Nature just threw you a curveball this year. :(

btw- Derrick, you'd make a fine politician. :)

PG

I managed to get all the ice off the deck pond by last night and got the pump going again too, the aerator is pumping in the air. The other three babies are doing okay although one looks a little "off" but will check this morning. The cold is only supposed to last another 4-5 days so I am hoping I can keep the pump running from now on. The coldest it is supposed to get is 9F. The water temp is 34F, pretty darn cold. Still no sign of the dummies in the "tent" pond. I will pump it early next week, I am tired of the not knowing and quite frankly I am getting a little "panicky" about the whole operation. What if it is a mass grave down there? Lets face it....it has been 6 1/2 months since I have seen life :( Keep ya'll posted!

I sure hope everything is ok in your main pond!

KK

Keep the faith! I used to worry about my turtles being in the pond so long, but then I got to thinking about the fact that in northern Wisconsin, the origin of my turtles, they are under the 3-foot-thick ice from November to May year after year. And, as far as fish go, people chop holes in the thick ice and go ice-fishing. Some of those lakes aren't all that deep. As long as the pond doesn't freeze to the bottom, there's a good chance they are still there--just staying at the bottom where the warmest water (4 degrees C) is. Why 4 degrees? Water is at its most dense (heaviest) at 4 degrees C.

Don

Thanks Don I hope you are right! I have been obssessed with thinking the worst! Won't be long now, it is supposed to be warmish this weekend and I am pumping that pond and getting to the bottom of this mystery ;)