I'm responding to the Subject header (my lovely server only keeps messages
for one day or so)... I was just talking with a woman whose neighbor put in
a very expensive pond with very expensive Koi and then over the winter
covered the pond. When he opened it up that spring all of the Koi were
belly up of course (did a great job of trapping in all of the bad gases and
not letting in any oxygen). Just wanted to remind any newbies that fish
need oxygen no matter what the season. I have never known of anyone to put
a cover on a pond period but if you do I assume there must be some type of
venting and oxygenating system for it. For keeping a hole in the ice I used
to use a water heater that you use for outdoor dogs or horses water buckets.
I now use an air stone which I like better since I like the down time of
winter when everything is dormant.

wrote in message
...
p. 361 of aquatic ecosystems catalog, $44 and extra 30 for the controller.
but they
got titanium that are cheaper. mine has a separate temperature probe and
the heater
is covered to prevent it from getting hit or melting liner down. people
in warmer
zones dont understand that our ponds drop below 50o (when koi's immune
system goes
down and feeding stops) sometime mid october in zone 5 and doesnt rise
over 50o until
mid april. that is 6 months of no immunity and 6 months of no food. it
is VERY VERY
hard on koi. you can always order some kind of pool from aquatic
ecosystem, or,
build a stud wall pond in the basement and line that with permalon.
Ingrid

(MC) wrote:
What kind of heater are you using? I've heard of people using trough
heaters and there seems to be several kinds of pond heaters. I only
have 500 gallons in Chicago.

It is early, but my first year I lost all my Koi (used a bubbler to
keep hole open). Last winter, I brought them inside. They are now kind
of big to bring inside. I am trying to plan ahead. If I need to bring
them inside this winter, I need to buy a kiddie pool and you can't
find them in the winter in Chicago.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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