"islaygardener" wrote in message
...

Hi there. I'm a new member and I think this forum is going to be
invaluable so lovely to meet you all.

I live on Islay in Scotland so the gardening here can be quite
challenging due to salt laden air and high winds.

My question today is about my half barrel pond.

I kept 2 lovely goldfish in it for 3 years until the thaw after the very
cold spell at Christmas, when they both died.This also happened to my
friends parents fish (old bathtub pond ) and friends sisters fish (
another half barrel ) - all died after the thaw.We all had floats to
keep a hole in the ice open but they failed - it was just too cold to
prevent total freezing.

Whilst at the Glasgow branch of Dobbies last weekend , I had a chat with
the fish salesman and he said without doubt in order to keep fish
healthy in our present climate, I need an electric filter / oxygenator
and pond heater. Goodness ! He reckoned the levels of ammonia built up
in the pond whilst it was frozen as the toxic gas had nowhere to escape
to and thats what killed my poor fish.

Anyone out there with advice / experience on this half barrel fish pond
malarkey ? I really miss my fish but need to know how to care for any
future ones properly.

Also would my pond be big enough to keep 2 metalic or ghost koi in ? I
can't make a bigger pond as I'm not strong enough to dig one out .

Thank you for your help. Susan



Your problems stem from the fact the pond is not below ground and therefore
the frost line, whilst in the uk this is fine most of the time it is not
fine in very cold weather as it allows the pond to freeze too deeply.

The answer is to have on winter standby some heavy duty insulation so you
can cover the outside thickly when its going to be cold , may be this can be
made perminant with a decrotive outer skin and insulation between? a heater
may help keep a small area of surface free of ice but would not be able to
keep the whole pond temperature up. Neither would a filter help.
Stick to small gold fish and not too many, a half barrel is not much better
than a fish tank with regard to how many fish it will sustain.

Have a good autumn clean up and remove any debris


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk