Nicole Thompson wrote:
: I live in Central PA - current temp - 5 degrees F - nighttime temps
: are below zero.
:
: My question is, I have a *raised* pond made of cinderblock (was here
: when we moved in) and the single goldfish that was here when we moved
: in survived the winter last year just fine w/out any "assistance" -
: the pond was already frozen when we moved in, so we were delighted
: when we saw him alive and well in the spring.
:
: We added some friends (I've posted here in the past about that) and
: for the winter, I bought bubbler stones - two long ones - which were
: working pretty well until this really cold snap. My concern is that
: the water surrounding the bubblers will freeze and burn up the pump
: (which is a cheap small one, but works well) - and my worst fear is
: it'll catch on fire or something - since I have the pump inside the
: house (figuring the warm house air going into the bubblers wouldn't
: be a bad thing).

unplug the bubbler, you dont need it for one or two fish in a pond that
size.
fish dont use much oxygen at this time of year, but you may need it
switching back on in the height of summer, but even then it's not imperative
with only a few fish in so much water.....
:
: So, my question is, should I unplug it altogether until warmer
: weather or just let it keep going? The pond looks frozen solid and
: the pump doesn't *sound* much louder than it did......but I'm still
: concerned. I thought of adding a de-icer,
: but I have no idea if that
: would really help or not - we're talking about a 10' x 10' (roughly)
: water area that's 18" deep. Am I being overly-concerned about the
: fish since the one *did* survive w/out anything last year?
:
Fish arent like people, they adjust their body temperatures to the
surrounding water and no amount of ice can harm them *unless* the pond
freezes solid IE all the way to the bottom - if theres only half of it
frozen, 9inches, then the fish will live happily underneath it until it
thaws out again.
If the entire pond does freeze all the way down, you'll have to excavate a
deeper one, maybe three feet deep, or if this is too costly then a pond
heater to work through the winter to stop it feezing completely will have to
be used.

NEVER try to break the ice on a fish pond, you will kill the fish - the
pressure of the ice pushing down into the water will kill them or severely
damage their internal organs.