THE FREEZING COLD AND KOI
It is December now, and the Koi pond has become cold and it is freezing outside… The Koi are slow and their metabolism has clearly slowed down. What was once a place full of life and abundance has slowed down and the pond is showing the effect of winter upon us.
The fall was an event to be witnessed. The leaves were endless, and the weekend activities in raking and collecting the leaves in bunches were fun yet exhausting…. The pile of leaves was about 6 feet tall !!!! I was worried that the leaves would eventually become toxic for the beautiful Koi. The pond was covered on a daily basis… But we persevered and like a pool, we cleaned it and removed the leaves.
One thing I noticed was that the Koi became beautiful!!! Their colors really became bright, and contrasted beautifully with the environment. They also grew and looked a bit ‘fat’. This is ideal as they were all prepped for winter, full of reserves for ‘hibernation’.
As the temperature became colder, the Koi became less and less active, and stopped feeding. Some mornings I noticed a small sheet of ice covering some parts of the pond. There is no ice over the area where the filter is and where the spout from the fountain is, and the thin sheet usually melts by noon. Now that the days are shorter and there is more darkness, I also noticed that the plants and the algae have died back. The water is very clear. The pumps were put on their lowest flow rate, and water circulation was put at a minimum.
As a physician, I cannot stop doing my routine checkups… I count them, I look at their behavior and fins… Every morning when I come to greet the Koi, I have noticed that they are all hanging out together, at the bottom of the pond, almost motionless. They rarely move, and on occasion I have seen them searching for food if the temperature is a bit warmer than usual. According to the books I have read, I am not supposed to feed them unless the water temperature is greater than 8 degrees Celsius that means the temperature of the water should be greater than 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The water temperature of my pond has not been greater than 40 degrees Fahrenheit for a while now. It has been hard for me not to feed them. How do they survive??? Another thing is that I am not supposed to ‘disturb’ them…. What? This means that I need to approach the pond slowly, quietly and gently look at them. So now I am being very careful not to upset them, as if I do, I would make them use invaluable resources and use up their well-built food reserves.
We are ready to crack open our pond heater…
Margarita Ochoa-Maya, MD
