How deep

[Mugwump]

How deep should a pond be , with an aeration pump, to let your fish stay for the winter??...or isn't it done?

[Barb]

I have always heard that fish can stay in a frozen pond, hibernating at the bottom, as long as there is at least 12" of unfrozen water at the bottom of it.  If it freezes solid then you can't do it.  I think a pond in a cold climate should be at least 3' deep or more.
Barb

[BallAquatics]

That's what I've heard too, you would want to go a bit below the local frost line.

Dennis

[BillT]

I have a 4 foot deep pond at the deep point in Oregon. Where it does not get very cold for very long. The (gold)fish do fine in there.

When I was a kid in Maryland, we had a small pond about two feet deep. It would freeze solid down 8-12". Some fish would survive under the ice until the spring, but not all.

I now like the idea of keeping some water cleared of ice but water movement, but it doesn't get the cold where I live now.

[Frank The Plumber]

42" Deep.

[LizStreithorst]

All I know about ponds is how to raise tree frogs in things that hold water, but I'll tell you a funny story about a gold fish that a close freind told me years ago.  It might hold true for gold fish in ponds.  It might not.

She and her husband were moving house.  They had their pet gold fish in a gallon jar.  Their car broke down.  It was  the dead of winter.  They hiked to a motel up the road.  The next moring they got the car running and moved on, but the gold fish was frozen solid in the jar.  My friend showed me with her eyes, face, arms and hands what the fish looked like frozen in a block of ice.  They were going to wait until the ice in the jar thawed before they desposed of the fish.  When the ice thawed, the fish was swimming around as though nothing bad had happened.

[Frank The Plumber]

Is the lady who told you this story Irish?

[Mugwump]

There's a guy in a neighboring town that has two ponds connected to each other by a 'man made' stream. He pumps one pond to the other, and it returns via a few small water falls. It has a nice little veiwing bridge over the stream where one of the water falls pools, and then flows out back to the other pond. It's really unique. He has it running year round and I believe each pond is about six foot deep. It has underwater lighting, and torches burning along the stream, in the evening.