When do you put your fish outside

[Cincy Ranchu]

http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj339/CincyRanchu/100_1057.jpg

LAst week the koi pond was ready to go, goldfish and koi alike were up and swimming, it was 67F, tomorrow the low will be 14F. No one is happy. ack in the fish room, things are crowded. I have several 1000 more fish now than I did in Novemebr.

The Frost free date is May 15th in southern Ohio but the enjoyable weather realyy starts in early April. It is always a gamble to clean out tubs, below and start filling them with fish. What do most of you folks do about putting them out? I am also curious if anybody puts babies outside with heaters?

http://i552.photobucket.com/albums/jj339/CincyRanchu/000_0242.jpg

thx GH:coffee:

[cowiche ponder]

I haven't purposely raised any babies yet.

My koi and goldies are all in the greenhouse or hoophouse this winter. The pond needs a major cleaning with all the leaves that are in there. I won't even try for that until the irrigation water is back on which happens in late March if I remember right. I do hope to get the rockwork around the pond done before I do anything. Much easier without the fish in there!

I would put fish out with heaters..which is kinda where mine are anyway in the plastic houses. The hoophouse especially can get a breeze blowing through. The pool with the big koi has insulation wrapped around it and a pool cover over it.

I did devise using a 1000 watt bucket heater with an old thermostat and DH creation to heat the big 12' intex pool. Cheap heater!!

[Sabine]

Already that warm in your area?
The ice in my pond (300 gallon tub) is likely solid to the ground, the snow on top of it 3 feet at least. The ice auger can barely manage to drill a hole in the lake when we want to go after a trout dinner...
Temps tonight: -10F or -23C :cry:
My ranchu can usually go outside after the first week of June (frostfree time, supposedly). When I still had them in a 80 gallon tub (insulated!) I used to have a heater in there to avoid big fluctuations at night and I covered the tub each night with styrofoam, until July, and then some. That way even young ranchu were fine.

[Veil Gal]

Sabine, I am assuming you don't keep fish out in your 300 gallon pond in the Canadian winter.

[Sabine]

I wouldn't dare to think about leaving ranchus under ice for 5 months every winter.
But I know people in town who have a pond only 2 feet deep, and their commons and shubunkins do survive! It is sheltered, in the ground of course, with a hill on the north - I don't know if these fish will survive this winter though. It has been a long and cold one.

[Cincy Ranchu]

Sabine, I am assuming you don't keep fish out in your 300 gallon pond in the Canadian winter.


Of the ten ponds, I have one that is about 1200 gallons the rest are about 1880 - 10,000 gallons,; but the tubs (12) are 120 gallons to 300 gallons:exact::exact::exact:

[mikroll]

barely manage to drill a hole in the lake when we want to go after a trout dinner...
Temps tonight: -10F or -23C :cry:

thanks Sabine That temperature report is making us fine better here with +12°C night and up to 20° C day.:)

[SeaWitch]

This year was my first attempt at a pond. I have a 150g stock tank with a PondMaster 1500 filter. It has five fancies in it. I didn't put my fish out until about the first week of May. Usually here in GA, it is summer-time by then! However, about Mid May, we had a cold snap and my fish didn't like it at all! I guess I need to invest in some type of pond heater to have on hand in case something like this happens again next year.

[bigbettadan]

In your part of the woods, it really should not be an issue. Just keep in mind if the temp falls below 50, don't feed. It is good for fish to go thru a period of dormancy. In Japan, the breeders all hibrenate their fish in the winter months.

Dan

[SeaWitch]

In your part of the woods, it really should not be an issue. Just keep in mind if the temp falls below 50, don't feed. It is good for fish to go thru a period of dormancy. In Japan, the breeders all hibrenate their fish in the winter months.

Dan

Thanks, Dan! The water temp never got below 64 degrees, but I didn't feed them then, either. As of right now, they are getting fed once every other day as there is lots of algae in the tank. Our temps have stabilized now, thankfully, but now I am dealing with my tank getting too hot. I am going to buy more plants for the pond and hope that helps. I have it sitting where it only gets about 5 hours of full sun a day, but the water temp is still gettig to about 84-85 degrees some days. I also have half the pond covered. When the temps are that hot, I don't feed them on those days.