Originally Posted by
Gangly
there is an article concerning this. when the ponds, in particular small ponds, ice over, little to no light gets down to the vegetation and therefore the oxygen levels decrease dramatically. Many fish suffocate during winter if they stay in ponds becasue there is no incoming water, and the ice has blocked the sun from penetrating into the water where the vegetation can create oxygen. Break the ice, or clean the snow off the ice and throw a bucket of water on it so that the ice stays clear. With a clean portion of ice, the sun can atleast make it through a little and create some oxygen.
Okay thanks, I asked around on a couple other sites and got the same response..
What gets me is that a few years back we had just as bad of a winter and we never once had a floating fish through the winter. Our pond is roughly 12 years old and the only dead fish we have had out of it are the ones that we killed trying to get the hooks out and those were few and far between.