When to pack up for winter

[OldMan]

I am looking at my weather forecast and the 2 week look ahead has highs from 70F to the mid 80s and lows from the high 60s to 50. I am new to summer tubbing and wondering when would be the last safe time to close down for the winter and move my stock to their winter home. My tub is a fairly good size at 150 gallons but I put 2 heaters in it last week when I found the temperature quite low during some routine maintenance. At the time I estimate it was down to about 65F in the tub. Since I have tropicals in it, swordtails, they were certainly being stressed when I noticed it but the heaters have the water back into the 70s for now. I assume that I could leave the setup longer if I was keeping goodeids or goldfish in there but in my home these guys would be kept at 75F or a little higher.

[Soggybottom]

Well I've never kept swordtails but I'm looking at my forecast too and if we break 75 for more than a few hours next week I'll be surprised :no:. I'll bet your heaters will be running pretty much constantly from now on...

At my power rate of 7 cents a kilowatt hour, it would cost me 50 cents to run a 300w heater all day.

.3kw x 24h x $.07/kwh = $.504

[blainep]

Most Swordtails are happy in the low 70's, so if the water temp stays up, they should be fine.

[OldMan]

My electric rates are a little higher but $.60 would be within reach if that's all it takes. What I am concerned about is when the heaters can no longer keep up. It gets to about 5 F in the winter here and I know they can't handle it that low. My objective is to get them indoors before the heaters need to be on full time.

[CACAdmin]

That's a good plan. The heaters will allow you time to arrange (or rearrange) things to accomodate them indoors.

[OldMan]

I have an empty, yes it has water, tank that is waiting for the decision. The heater, filter and fish will all go into it together so I should have no problems with cycling or the like. What I am trying to avoid is being out at my tub trying to rescue some fish at the last minute on a work night. Meanwhile I have a similar filter, one that came with the fountain, that I will be using to clean up the tank's water and get the sand settled and the power head adjusted. This way the transition should be just remove the power head from the uncycled filter and install it in the one from the pond, plop in the fish after a little drip acclimation and start treating them as if they had been in the house all along. The hardest part will be chasing down some X Helleri that have had lots of swimming room all summer.

[Pamelajo]

I was thinking about when I should bring mine in too so good question. Mine are goldfish and can survive winters here if the pond is more than 3 1/2 feet. But the pond is no where near that deep unfortunately. When mine starts to get below 68 I will probably bring them in cause that is what their tank will roughly be at throughout the winter in the basement.

[Melody]

Were it me, I'd float a thermometer and watch the night temperatures in the forecast. 150G's should be reasonably stable this time of year, depending on the sun it receives. Smaller tubs should probably go in now as the temp's will fluctuate easily...

Unless you're in BC, where they're calling for 30+C weather and high temp's for at least another week. Finally we're getting a Summer. It still cools down more at night than it would in the Summer though.

No captive fish will survive Canadian Winters unless it's a deep pond. Swordtails do prefer things on the cooler side and will be fine at 65, but I'd be very surprised if they made it through a Winter here, even in a deep pond. Heaters in ponds are meant to keep the ice back for the most part.

I would start catching fish in a larger pond now, simply to avoid that frantic last minute thing. Net a few here and there when you feel like it. If you use a big pond net, you should be able to get them all, with the exception of small fry.

I'll look forward to pictures of these pond fish once they're inside!

[OldMan]

Well I caught a look at the storm forecast on a weather site and it looks like Ike will be coming my way tomorrow as some good thunderstorms. When I looked further ahead, the overnight temperatures were lower than I wanted to deal with soon. Result, my tub fish and plants are now in a 5 gallon bucket with a drip going and the pond filter is set up in the tank where the drip water is coming from. I may push it a little more next year by using goodeids insead of swords but for me the pond/tub is done for its first year. I still don't know what I have but will in a few hours when the acclimation is complete. I do know what I started with because I couldn't catch one of the fish that I intended to put out this year. It is my "control" to judge the pond results with.

[CACAdmin]

So you managed to net them all did you? It should be interesting to see the end results of breeding, etc. over the summer (how many fry were consumed in the pond).

[OldMan]

I had put 6 juveniles into the tub and retrieved 5 adults with nice color. There was also something small that I noticed while draining because it ended up in my drain bucket. The purpose of the bucket was to avoid losing fish by not noticing them. I guess it worked for one fry. Colors and size on these grown out juveniles are quite good for only about 8 weeks in the tub. The one that I failed to catch to place into the tub is only about 2/3 the size of the ones I retrieved today. Catching became quite easy once I had drained almost all the water and had tipped the tub up at an angle to keep it draining. When there was about a gallon left in the tub, I scooped through the gallon of water with a good sized net and came up with all the fish in 2 passes. I let the silt settle back for an hour and looked carefully before dumping the last gallon of water but the missing fish just wasn't there. I must assume I lost it some time over the summer.

[CACAdmin]

Glad to hear it wasn't as difficult as anticipated. Sounds like most fry simply became tastey snacks in the tub pond. As I say, it's the quick and the smart that survive. Kudos to the little'un who didn't get munched. As for the missing fish, it may have become a snack for a passing bird.

[OldMan]

Glad to hear it wasn't as difficult as anticipated. Sounds like most fry simply became tastey snacks in the tub pond. As I say, it's the quick and the smart that survive. Kudos to the little'un who didn't get munched. As for the missing fish, it may have become a snack for a passing bird.
It could have become a snack but I ran the water level such that no bird would be able to perch on the edge and reach the water. The dogs in the back yard would have discouraged most other predators so I believe the missing one must have had some other issue. No idea what it might have been but predation seems unlikely to me.

[CACAdmin]

It could have become a snack but I ran the water level such that no bird would be able to perch on the edge and reach the water. The dogs in the back yard would have discouraged most other predators so I believe the missing one must have had some other issue. No idea what it might have been but predation seems unlikely to me.

It sounds like you anticipated the potential of predators. The loss could be due to just about anything, which I guess you'll never know. We all lose fish at one time or another but the cause sometimes is easier to see if the fish is in a tank...virtually impossible to detect in a pond. I'm just glad to hear the pond was an overall success.

[OldMan]

I like the results so well that I'm already making plans to put my ameca splendens out in the spring. Because they tolerate much colder water I hope to get a full 6 months of pond time for them next year.

[Melody]

That's a good idea. I'm sure they'll enjoy the algae & mosquito larvae too.