My 100 watt heater/de-icer arrived from PetSolutions and has replaced
the 1250 furnace in the 4 or 5 hundred gallon goldfish pond. The 24
watt is back-ordered from MarineDepot and I'll put that in the 2000?
gallon koi pond. The smaller wattage is going in the bigger pond
because there's a considerable hole made by the falls. Because the
pumps are in the newly installed skimmers and I assume drawing water
mostly from the surface rather than disturb the depths, I leave them on
and keep holes in the ice from the falls, the de-icers being back-ups.
Miraculously, here in central Pa. I've never lost a fish to the cold.
In fact, if I'm counting right, I've never lost any fish in the ponds in
the several years I've had them. Maybe the frogs have eaten some babies,
though, that I didn't know were there. Good thing because my goldfish
are wildly prolific. Aquariums are a different story. An occasional
fish *passes on* as they say these days. Remember the baaaad old days
when fish, people, and dogs died?

Here's an oddity, new to me. My brown goldfish are turning colors
seemingly randomly: big white spot here, blue blotch there, pink on the
other side.


Ruth Kazez