Pond life following the January freeze

[heliart]

It was really sad towards the end of Jan once the pond thawed a little.
Looks like all my fish (I only had 5), plus about 10 frogs died.
I assume due to lack of oxygen, but my pond is deep (1M at it's deepest).

With such cold weather it's been really difficult to keep the surface ice free, in fact, almost impossible.

Then, on Snowwatch the other week, there was mention that thinking regarding pond's covered in ice had changed, and that you don't necessarily have to keep the surface clear during cold weather.

Anyhow, my question to you folks is whether you also had any wildlife die in you pond?

Cheers,

Steve

[Dogghound]

All the wildlife in my pond has been fine as far as I know. Although I dont have fish which reduce the oxygen in the pond. Do you have plenty of plants? and do you have large amounts of bottom debris like silt and dead leaves?

[Paul mabbott]

Our pond (or hole in the ground as we call it) has recently lost its ice and there's now activity of some kind below the surface: I'm not putting my hands in there to find out; still too cold!
I don't have fish - they don't belong in semi-natural ponds - but amphibians survive year after year without any protection or treatment from me.

[Malcolm Banks]

I have had (as far as I can see) only a couple of deaths, great pond snails, over the winter. This morning, once the ice had melted, I spent some time peering into my pond. There were good numbers of daphnia, damselfly larvae and caddis fly larvae (with their spiky vege-houses) and tiny wormy things (midge larvae?) moving around. Also snails, corixids, backswmimmers and even a couple of large female frogs moving about on the bottom.
It is wonderful just how resilient the pondlife can be, even less than a couple of weeks from appearing like a frozen, lifeless tomb.
Now wishing my life away for the frogspawn (6 portions so far) to hatch out - some eggs appear to have a slight grey cast - probably these were affected by the freezing (down to -3 for last 2 nights) and may no longer be viable.
M

[Kayleigh]

My pond has been frozen for about 3 months on and off so I went looking into it, I saw what I thought was a dead frog so fished it out with a net only to find it clutching onto what looked like a dead tench..
Both were alive so we managed to prize them apart..the fish swam off I out the frog in my half barrel.
I put 2 adult tench in the pond 4 years ago and was going to get them out..
but there is nowhere to put them anyway and you cant see them to catch them so I gave up.
I was hoping they were dead but looks like they are breeding now as the young fish the frog was clinging to was about 2 or 3 yrs old..
So I have decided to leave them in there, the pond is natural as in no filter or pump..
So look like the frost didn't do mine any damage as I have not seen any casualties..
I have never seen any fry there are lots of places to hid between the plants..

[Malcolm Banks]

[quote=Kayleigh;599911]My pond has been frozen for about 3 months on and off so I went looking into it, I saw what I thought was a dead frog so fished it out with a net only to find it clutching onto what looked like a dead tench..
Both were alive so we managed to prize them apart..the fish swam off I out the frog in my half barrel.
QUOTE]

Hi Kayleigh, maybe they were clingng together to keep warm
M

[posie]

[quote=Malcolm Banks;600030]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

My pond has been frozen for about 3 months on and off so I went looking into it, I saw what I thought was a dead frog so fished it out with a net only to find it clutching onto what looked like a dead tench..
Both were alive so we managed to prize them apart..the fish swam off I out the frog in my half barrel.
QUOTE]

Hi Kayleigh, maybe they were clingng together to keep warm
M

Maybe they were trying to produce a Hybrid, either a French..or a Tenog....Also I can't see what's under the water in my pond 'cos the water is murky. should I do anything about this...(there seems to be lots of live wildlife in it.)......Posie..

[Kayleigh]

Ha ha..very funny lol..


There was a frog under the ice today so I broke the ice for it..

Murky water is ok get a testing kit to test the water for nitrites and nitrates ammonia ect..
My local pond centre test water for free if you take in a sample.
Plants such as yellow flag iris help filter the water naturally.

[posie]

Thanks kayleigh, you told me before about the testing and I didn't do it. Will do it this time..Got loads of yellow Flag Iris, but a big lot of vegetation lies dead below the surface, maybe it's too much,(Bullrushes and Iris mostly.)...Posie...

[Pogo]

Not really seen much of the pond over the winter and it had become so murky that I couldn't see much when I tried. I decided to give it a bit of an early spring clean after the thaw, got rid of the dead leaves and other autumn debris that the net failed to catch. We found lots of frogs and five fish, all still healthy but it is about 4 feet deep, so plenty of protection from the surface ice. I have now created a wildlife pond on the other side of the garden which is less deep due to the roots of a long since chopped leylandii and I'm now concerned that the fish pond may be better for widlife over the winter than it's wildlife sister 10 yards away. I'm hoping the wildlife has the ability to sense where and when they're better off.