My pond...

[Hailey]

Well since it was a nice day today we did some work in the yard, and most of the ice is off the pond now, but I looked and there was one big goldfish dead, and then another one dead underneath the ice. Is this normal?, I have no idea on how ponds work when they unfreeze, or well at anytime I guess. Oh by the way I have no idea how big it is, or how many goldfish are in there now. And when should they start to be fed?

[toddnbecka]

I have a small pond in the back yard, no goldfish, just some rosy reds I tossed in a few years back. Every so often I see some floaters, never more than 1-2 at once. They look fat and otherwise healthy, no real idea what kills them. I would think the pond being frozen over for weeks at a time through the winter would do them all in, but oddly I never see any floaters right after the ice thaws. I'd estimate there are currently 2 dozen live ones remaining, and they do breed every year. Some of them are obviously last years spawn, while there are a few that are at least several years old. It's always the smaller ones that turn up dead, though I suspect the neighbor's cat may get a few of the larger ones on occaison. I'm not sure about feeding goldfish, but the rosy's (aka fathead minnows) will eat whenever they find anything edible. I don't feed them other than tossing in some duckweed occaisonally, they live on whatever they find growing in the pond.

[smaug]

Did your pond freeze completly?If so did it stay that way for more then 2-3 days?In the winter do you have some sort of aeration device running or a water pump to keep the water moving.How about feeding your fish during the cold times?If you do ,dont.Give us some more info so that we may better serve you.