In the depth of winter spare a thought for your fish.
It is really important to keep an area of your pond ice-free to allow fresh air to get into the pond, otherwise gases can build up under the surface of the ice and harm the fish.
Care should be taken with any exposed pipework as frozen blockages can easily occur, especially if the turnover rate is reduced over winter.
Don’t be tempted to simply crack the ice on the pond. The shockwave from doing this can seriously stress your fish at a time when they are already vulnerable.
To safely make a hole in the ice, boil some water in an old pan, then take it out to your pond and stand the pan with the hot water in it on the ice to melt it (don’t worry, the handle will stop it from sinking!). This is an effective method, but it is time-consuming as you may need to do it at least once a day.
Pond Heaters are an effective method of preventing ice. Basic models float on the surface of the pond and a heating element keeps a small area of the pond warm to prevent any ice from forming. They are other types of heater including heat exchangers working off gas or oil fired boilers.
Pond skimmers may help to stop ice forming by keeping the water in the area around them moving. Skimmers may not be able to withstand very low temperatures.
Air pumps will circulate the water in your pond, bringing warmer water from the bottom up to the top. This warmer water will help to keep an area of the pond from freezing over, but will also cool your pond water dramatically.
Covering your pond will also help keep the ice at bay, polycarbonate sheets will allow light in and keep the worst of the weather out, there are also solar pond blankets, which look like bubble wrap. Bubble wrap is a good insulator too, and can be used to wrap external filters, and can be placed on a frame over the pond like a poly tunnel.
Do:
Prevent ice from fully covering the pond.
Service and clean the filter and pond before winter.
Cover the pond with a fine mesh net to stop leaves etc. entering the pond and settling on the bottom.
Provided you have fed your fish well over the summer, they will have the reserves to overwinter succesfully.
Tips
A small pond heater on a thermostatic control will come on during a frost, so you can fit it and forget it.
A black fine mesh net to prevent leaves falling into the pond is not as visually obtrusive as a green net.
Floating objects are not always effective at leaving a hole in the ice as I have seen them lifted out of the pond by ice.
If some fish appear to have problems during the winter, it is likely that it is a problem from the summer as pathogenic problems progress so slowly at colder temperatures that there is little danger of new problems arising during winter. If possible, isolate the affected fish indoors by bringing some pond water inside to an indoor tank or vat and gently raising the temerature to see if the fish's behaviour improves. Remember, having removed a fish in winter it is unwise to return it to the pond before springtime.
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