keeping koi in cold weather?

[dmopar74]

how cold can the water be and koi/goldfish still survive? tips/tricks? i live in washington so freezing temps happen quite often.

[houie925]

koi can survive water just over freezing. as long as the pond doesnt freeze solid and there is a thawed spot at the surface they should be fine. get a pond deicer. they kick on at around 35F and keep the surface from freezing solid and add some heat throughout

[Yanbbrox]

Koi slow down and stop under 4c. They will survive fine in temps below that and even if the pond freezes. The reason to keep the pond from freezing is so the gas exchange can occur which can't if the pond is solid.

At colder temps koi metabolism slows right down as does there immune system making them weak and more likely to get sick. This normally happens as the water warms and they get more active, but are still relatively weak.

[Muske]

Koi and goldfish will be fine at temps. at or around freezing. There are a few Canadian Koi keepers and in other parts of the world that have to deal w/much worse extreme temps. A pond needs to be at least 24" deep and a hole in the ice must be kept open during winter. Other than that, a good fall clean-up to remove as many leaves and debris prior to freezing temps. is about all the winter precautions needed.

[OldMarine]

Hi Dmopar74,

I don't live far from Funkytown, I'm in Tacoma. As noted in the other postings, koi and goldfish will do well in the outdoor ponds over the winter. I have had cheep gold fish incapsulated in the center of a bubble of water in the center of the ice for several months thinking that they were dead. After the thaw they were just fine. I'm not sure any of us would want to put any koi through that kind kind of ordeal, but I'm sure they would make it in the wild winter conditions if they were submitted to it.

I have a 365 gallon pond with just shubunkins in it and they are doing quite well.

Happy ponding,

Rich :mwave:

[gigas12]

Hi,they should not have problems during winter,the important thing is having a pond that is deep at least 2 feet which does freeze from the surface to the bottom.My goldfish are just fine in my pond,in the last few weeks they have been subjected to subzero tempertures.

[Purpledevil]

What about fancy goldfish like orandas?
Will they survive the cold?

[gigas12]

Hi,fancy goldfish will not survive the low tempertures!

[Shavelieva]

if you're not interested in heating the pond but want to keep the an open spot int he ice point a pump upwards to keep the water aerated.

[jennypoo]

I live in Ny and it gets cold. I've never heated my pond, but we have a couple of 3" pvc pipes going to bottom to make sure gas can get out and koi have been fine. I have also had my black moors survive the winter in my pond.