"Scott Evans" wrote in message
...
Hello! My wife and I are considering doing a backyard pond, but being
the type of person who's not going to jump into this totally blind, I
have been doing research to help figure out what this entails.

- Would we need to bring the goldfish in each winter, or would they
survive under the ice? We can get pretty cold here in Iowa (down to
-20F a couple times a year at least with spells of several days at a
time of below 0 temps), and I'd be concerned that they'd either get
too cold and freeze, or the pond would freeze solid to the bottom,
since I'm looking at an average max depth of about 30".

I live in zone 5b (NE Ohio) and have successfully wintered over both comets
and goldfish for years. Just remember to keep the water aerated (I bought a
little aquarium pump and some flexible tubing) and always have an opening in
the ice. I also sank a large PVC "y" connector for my 4 fish to take cover
in. My pond is similar in dimension to yours, so I imagine you could do the
same successfully. I also invested in a floating pond heater. It is donut
shaped and maintains a hole in the ice. Doesn't cost much to run at all.

NJ