The winter pond has been frozen for a few weeks now. The ice has gotten four to five inches thick and the filtration system ended up freezing even though it was in a little greenhouse. This past weekend, the temperatures were up to the high forties (spring temperatures!) so we did a little work.  We changed out the water, let the ice melt and pulled pieces out of the pond and purchased some insulation. The insulation was cut into random pieces to cover some of the open water. The bio filter was reconfigured to pass water from the bottom and out of the top. Monday morning the entire pond was clear of 90% of the ice. Of course, living in Minnesota, one has to expect that these temperatures won’t last long. Single digit weather and a little snow moved in and we’re now back to a pond that is freezing up again. Our pyramid does keep water open under it so we need to think about adding some vertical sides next year so that we can view the water more easily.

We did lose one of our koi – Verdell the new midorigoi. He was looking mostly dead so we revived him in our koi sick bay. Since he appeared to be swimming normally, we placed him back into the pond. As I was adding some insulation to the pond I saw Verdell laying at the bottom. Hopefully all the other koi will remain healthy…

Verdell when he first came out of the pond and after 45 minutes in sick bay: