How to keep koi fish safe through the winter

Winter, when the southern fish farms and southern fish friends have pool Yang and ushered in the golden season of Koi Koi high feed burst body, the north of China has been snowy, cold wind. Whenever this time, it is the northern fish friends to show their skills, the time to make a big fuss. Covering the cover, heating the heating, busy and happy. The hard work is unimaginable to the southern fish friends.

　　But we always find some pretexts to comfort ourselves. For example: let the koi in the low water temperature over winter, is conducive to the balance of the growth rate, conducive to the fish repair, conducive to the koi pigmentation of the precipitation, especially the deposition of ink color and so on. But these reasons always contain a hint of helplessness and sourness, after all, this is the environment, who do not want to let the fish comfortably throughout the year?

　　The good thing is that koi is a cold water fish and wintering outside in the north is not too much of a problem as long as conditions are fair. As I said in one of my original posts, koi is still carp. Northern carp have their own wintering methods. If you have the conditions and a sunroom, you can solve all the problems naturally. Unfortunately, the sunroom in our neighborhood is an unauthorized building, so we can't use it. The heating method is not environmentally friendly, but also against the laws of nature, the water temperature is not good control, I do not advocate, unless in the digging of the pool happened to be built on the heat pipe, that is a crooked thing.

　　The more commonly used approach is to cover the fish ponds, and as long as the ponds are kept free of ice, there will be no problem over the winter.

　　Here are the steps I have taken and I hope to share them with you. So far it looks like it's running well, but winter is not over yet and spring is still far away, so I'll keep you posted on how the final results are. The following is mainly recorded in pictures, pictures more explanation, there is no need to say more, we look at the picture will know. Of course there is another key measure, that is to keep the fish pond circulation pump and air pump running continuously!

When the temperature breaks freezing, turn off the main water inlet switch indoors (called backwater in the north) so that the outdoor water pipes don't freeze. Turn it back on when you change the water for the fish pool. That's why it's necessary to install an indoor main water inlet switch when building a pool.

Northern outdoor fish pond wintering, digging deep is basic, generally speaking, the pool depth in the ground1.5meters or more, it is safe to winterize. Beijing's permafrost is generally60-80centimeters, and with climate change and frequent warm winters, it is expected that the permafrost will get shallower. But in general, deeper than the permafrost, at least fish ponds are less likely to freeze.

　　I dug underground.2meters, and with the above ground portion, the water depth2.5Meters. Should be a safe depth.

Pool walls in the pouring before the pool body insulation, is also a secondary measure. This year from late fall has been and Beijing fish friends (no insulation board) to compare the water temperature, almost the depth of the pool, my water temperature has been higher than his water temperature about2-3degrees, the effects of the winter are yet to be tested by time.

The principles of my covering idea are: effective insulation; neat and uncluttered; easy for one person to disassemble; and easy to put away materials. Since my pool poolside is neat, I thought of a simple way to build stainless steel shelves and put sunlight panels on top.

There may be friends questioned so that the cover will not lack of oxygen, in fact, there is no need to worry: the cover is not absolute, just like the winter indoor doors and windows closed, the car doors and windows closed will not be lack of oxygen, as the same exchange area of the body of water and air. Fish live in a body of water, and it depends mainly on the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. My air pump is running non-stop and is the main source of oxygen for the water body. A live board is reserved for ventilation in good weather.

With the probe of the water thermometer placed in about a meter of water, the lower part of the pool should be a bit warmer, so the fish are basically moving around on the bottom.