Spring is close enough to at least mention. I was wondering what the appropriate time to do a spring pond cleaning was. Does the water temp have to be at a certain temp to do this? I have koi in this pond up to 13"'s in length. I am worried about stressing them. I need to know if there is a better time to stress them than others. Do you do it when they are barely moving or wait until they are moving about and eating good?
We are having a heat wave as we speak. By heat wave we are in the 60's and all the ice and snow has melted. I can see the bottom of my 5 1/2' deep pond. I wish the water was this clear in the summer. By some of the tips I have learned on here I hope to keep it this way. When I walked out today I noticed one of my 13" koi had parrished. As I have read on here it normally happens to your favorite and it held true for me too. I called him Blue. He/She was a butterfly.( I don't know the exact species, But beautiful with huge fins.) I noticed I have a build up of leaves on the bottom and am worried that the warmer temps coming will cause problems with rotting soon. Would it be too much of a stress to my fish if I try to skim net the leaves from the bottom today? (I don't have a vacuum) The fish are sluggish and barely moving while the water temp is around the high 30's. I didn't realize I had that many leaves in my pond due to the water clarity or lack thereof in the fall. We had a couple of storms come through that wreaked havoc on the trees in the area as well as my pond.
I have been running an aerator all winter about 1' above the bottom of the pond. I shut my falls down for the winter also.
I don't know the cause of the death but would like to try to nip any more in the bud.
I have an 8' round hard sided pool. The pool is 2 1/2 foot high. I used this as a temp home for my fish when I cleaned the pond in the later part of the summer. Is it safe to move the fish to this now or wait till it warms up? I am asking these questions because I have no clue. I should have researched these questions earlier, as this is my first cold weather pond but I failed to do this. I hope I can still catch up on some required items for cold weather ponds before its too late.
What are your professional or semi professional opinions on timing of a spring cleanup?
Thanks for any help you might have.
Jim