Hello all. First time out side pond owner and always had indoor fish. My problem is that I live in the north eastern part of Pa. This winter has been, to say the least, missing in action except for a few ice overs and a little snow fall. Temperatures have been too darn warm as far as I am concerned and have not stayed in the thirties for very long. I have winterized my pond and removed the the pump and so forth. Now, the ice is gone temps are in the forties leaves have blowen in onto the pond. What was frozen in ice is now at the bottom of my once clean pond:madrant . Now I am afraid my six gold fish, 4 comets of different colors, 3 shubunkins, one common goldfish, all at least 8" or more long, will become too active thinking spring is here. I check on them and they look and seem ok. Haven't fed them since the beginning of december and water temps dropped to the stop feeding stage. I hate to see those leaves in there and I don't want to try to remove them then I'll be stirring up stuff from the bottom and my filter and pump have been removed. Oh yes there is one sunfish in there with them from the start. My fish were only 3-4 inches when I purchased them over the summer from various places. They have grown so well and are healthy:r030:. I don't want to lose them. I am worried . Should I just leave mother nature alone or intervien. I am a leave mother nature to her own workings. Sugestions please.

In general, the weather, though unusual, is still "winter". There are loads of information and articles out there to help you out in knowing how to deal with different situations.

Here is a source of information that I am familiar with:

http://www.mpks.org/articles/winter.html

This site is wonderful for information:

http://www.koivet.com/

I have scads of articles that I am organizing for a club, but have yet to look through them all. There are many involving the winter pond and unusual weather. I shall dig through them. I am not a ponder so I do not know the answer offhand.

They should not become too active, though, in 40 degree temps. That is still too cold. And a spring cleaning of winter waste is SOP.

I will move this over to the pond section where our "pond experts" will take a look for you.

Hi colortwister.
Just to let you know i have moved some of your posts as they were either doubles or in the wrong section but saying the same thing.

If you would like to introduce yourself in the welcome section then that would be great.

welcome to the forum.

LOL no kidding, sorry, I just had to add. Its been 80 out here in TX the last week or so. Today I decided to put on the bathing suit, sit out on my lawn chair with a wine cooler and get some sun! Getting a jump start of my tan this year! haahhaha. This winter has been insane. I have never seen such a warm winter.

Maybe that is not such a good thing...global warming and all.

Anyway, sorry for going off topic! I just thought that was funny, Im sitting here typing in my bathing suit right now in FEBRUARY!

How big is your pond?

If you scoop out the leaves you'll stir things up a little but it will all settle shortly so I wouldn't worry about that. If you have a small pond I would be more concerned about the leaves decaying and hurting the water quality than I would be about stirring up the bottom. With very large ponds like mine mother nature takes care of everything and needs no help from me. But smaller ponds need attention just like large aquariums.

I read someplace that one should leave fish alone in winter, not stir them up or basically get them swimming around. It causes stress. I don't know really what to tell you to do about these new leaves getting in your pond now but here is what I'd do:

Wait until spring, or when the weather generally starts warming in your area. Clean the pond out totally. Next fall clean your pond totally again and put a net over it after the cleaning. I don't use the nets that are sold specifically as pond netting. I use what the nursery's use as shade cloth in their greenhouses. It's more expensive but will last longer (forever?) and is easier to store and clean. I use pvc pipe to make a skeleton for the shade cloth to rest on so it is not in the pond but over the pond. This keeps 90% of the leaves out, a few will get in but it's not that big of deal. Spring cleaning is always improtant so I do a thorough cleaning in the spring.

Remember, aeromonis and psuedomonis love non oxygenated water and dead leaves. If I were you I would buy a water troff or something to put the fish in in the spring while cleaning out the pond. This may stress them a little moving them out then back in, but most likely will keep them away from those bad guys while you clean and get all the gunk out. This troff could be your hospital tank/qt tank as well. Your fish will be fine for a few days while you get their pond sparkly clean again.

Scott