Hi

I've just bought a new house and there is a small pond with Koi & goldfish in the garden. I know very little about keeping ponds and could do with a little help.
Before the guy moved out he told me not to feed the fish at this time of year and to turn the pump of at night.
This morning I got up and found a fish laying on its side on the top of the water, it doesnt seem to be dead but its not moving. Would you recommend to put some hot/warm water in the pond to warm the water up as there was ice covering the top.
I know running the pump puts oxygen into the water, is it worth leaving the pump running all the time so the water doesnt freeze.
Any help will be appreciated.
Also if anyone could recommend any good sites about maintaining pond's.
Before he moved he left a note but I have no idea what he means he says "in shed is a UV for fish pond I put on April - OCT" theres also a diagram underneath...any ideas.

Hi there I have moved your query to Pond - Setting up and health, as I feel it will do better there

Hi Miller, welcome to the site

The UV thing he is talking about is a filter to keep the pond clean. You won't need it in the winter but it will help during the times he said.
I wouldn't recommend adding hot water, if the pond is deep enough it should be OK for the fish. Do you know how deep it is?
The fish that isn't moving, does it have any marks or spots on it and do its fins look OK?

Hope that helps

i leave my pond pumps running, i'd suggest u put them on bricks/other objects to raise them from bottom then leave them running, adding hot water wouldnt do much tbh as it'll cool straight back down so is a waste of time to constantly add it not to mention money

by small what do u mean? koi get big so need a big pond so u may be best to take them to an aquatic shop (i mean a specialised local one not a chain one or maybe not even one in a garden centre as they are usually quite poor quality, no offense to any garden centre aquatic people)

the UV would be to kill off floating algae with UV rays, bulb needs replacing every 6 months that its in use, or every 12 if its in use over winter as its still effective enough over winter as long as u replace it in spring
the pump pumps water through it and then it needs to go into a filter to catch the little bits

The pond isnt deep at all about 20 inches, and is 5ft by 5ft with about 10-12 fish in. There is no marks on the fish or signs of disease. I came home from work and it seemed to be ok moving around the pond ok but suddenly went back on its side, I just looked again and its seems ok. although when it does float on its side its fins dont seem to move.

The man said when the koi gets too big he gives them away so I will find a new home for them which will be a shame. I see what he means with the AV now thanks, I guess its best to just leave things as they are in winter.

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Sad to give them away, unless you make your pond bigger

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take it from me u wont find a better site than this one, the help i have had over the past year from the experts on here has kept me off valuim.

regards

keith

koi need at least 3ft, 4ft-6ft is preferable and the pond is likely to freeze due to its depth, 2ft is the suggested minimum to prevent the freezeing and thats down south like cornwall and portsmouth and places like that (cant think of any others atm)

but when u rehome the koi how about replaceing them with goldfish (anything that isnt the fancy types) so standards, comets, sarrasa comets, shubunkins

dont bother with sterlets as u wont be able to rehome them and they dont eat the blanket weed (long algae strings) as they usually get tangled in it and die, they get to over 1metre long

dont bother about tench as u wont see them, even if its the golden type

no carp as they'd get too large IMO

u may be able to try ghost koi as IME they only get to about 18", although thinking about it its abit big

Some reading for you

http://www.hintsandthings.co.uk/kennel/fishpond.htm