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Although it is still late summer, it is time to start thinking about winterizing your Koi fishpond. Think of Winter as a down period for your fishpond, as less events happen during Winter than any other time. Nonetheless, there are special precautions that you need to take before Winter arrives, to guarantee that your pond and fish survive.

Clean Up- Take about a weekend to completely go over your pond. Clean up any unwanted bulk material in and around your pond. Inside your fishpond, clean up all leaves, silt, and other material from the bottom. If there are any plants or flowers in your fishpond that will not survive the winter months, you need to remove them. Cleaned up all of the debris that is around your fishpond which could end up blowing into it, as this is most likely going to be looked over during the winter months and won't be noticed again until spring. Taking the time to do this now will help to remove some of the possibilities of getting bacteria and parasites in your fishpond.

Stop Feeding- You must remember to stop feeding your Koi during the winter. When fall begins and the temperatures hover around fifty five to 60 degrees, only give food to once a day. When the outside air temperature reaches the 50° mark, you need to entirely stop feeding your Koi. Be careful of this, even if the temperature rises again above 50°, do not feed your fish. The majority of Koi, when healthy and the temperature is above 50 degrees, take at least four days to fully digest food. If you mistakenly give food to your fish to late the food will not digest and will end up killing your fish. You also need to realize that when a Koi is opening its mouth to you it doesn't necessarily mean that it is hungry. This is more of a learned reflex than hunger. If you are concerned about not feeding them, remember that fish eat other things besides the food you provide them, chiefly if your fishpond contains a large amount of natural plant life. Your Koi will fill up on this other stuff if they get hungry and you're not feeding them.

Check Up- Doing a regular check up on your fishpond equipment is vital.This includes everything from your filtration system to your store of preventable medications. During those lengthy winter months it can be a little more difficult to come up with these pond supplies as a lot of carriers don't keep them on their shelves during this time. Make sure your emergency kit is ready and up to date, which should include medications, bags, nets, and your water testing kits.

Be Prepared for the Cold Weather- You need to make sure that you are ready for the cold weather, by investing in the required items while it is still summer. It is not unheard of for Koi to withstand temperatures down as far as 39° and maybe even a slight bit lower for small periods of time. When buying a heater, remember to research what size you will need to adequately heat your pond during the winter, otherwise ice will still form, causing potentially dangerous amounts of gas in the water, due to it being trapped under the ice. In areas where it gets extremely cold, it might be a really good idea to have an crisis tank inside available.

Turn Off All Water Sources- In temperatures that are extremely cold, your heater will have to labor extremely hard to sustain the water temperature that will keep your fish alive. If you have things like a waterfall or a stream that move through your fishpond, you need to make sure that you turn these off during those cold winter months. Having these things turned on will just distribute all of the extremely cold water through the fishpond that you are trying to keep warm. With these switched off, the only water that your heater will be responsible for is the standing water in your pond.

I hope you can see how important it is to prepare your small garden fish pond for those lengthy winter months. Koi are an extremely expensive investment at times, and it is highly important for you to protect them. You can learn a lot more information about taking care of a Koi fish pond, and other garden fishpond tips by visiting gardenpondtips.com.

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