Wow!  My thin-skinned Georgia butt is freezing right off!  Oh well, never had much of one anyway... 

I forced myself out of bed this morning and, while making my first Coke Zero of the day, looked out my kitchen window and noticed my largest koi (named RinFinFin) motionless, looking as if he was suspended in mid air underneath a thin coating of ice.  It's not often we have weather this cold in Georgia and rarely does it get cold enough for a long enough time to freeze the surface of the pond.  With the weatherman predicting a low of 4 degrees on Monday I'm a little afraid that I haven't done enough to ensure my fish are going to be safe. 

This summer I had a tragedy befall the koi pond in my back yard.  I kept noticing fish missing.  I began with 40-something large koi (some 3 feet long).  I found one lying dead on the side with a huge bite taken out of his side.  Hmmmm.  Wasn't sure what kind of animal had a mouth that big.  Then I got the notice in my mailbox from the City of Dahlonega.  There was a black bear roaming free on Crown Mountain.  Yikes!  That's my mountain!  Then it hit me.  The bear had to be the predator of my koi.  I never was able to catch him in the act but every time I started counting my koi I was missing another one or two.  It was so sad! I lost my favorite, Smokey Jo, a 20 lb. GinRin Suragoi, and her daughter, a beautiful GinRin Ochiba.  I finally put a halt to the nishikigoi smorgasbord by lowering the water down a couple of feet so the bear couldn't simply fish off the top.  My koi were so friendly they ate out of my hand so all a bear had to do was stand beside the pond with a bucket of food and they'd come right up to him.

Almost immediately after I lowered the water the pond began leaking.  My pond is 5 feet deep.  I lowered it by 2 feet.  Overnight it was down another foot.  I am pretty sure he must have gone swimming and clawed the sides of the pond.  I tried to find the leak with no luck.  I was able to rule out leaking from the plumbing because it still lost water when I turned off the circulation.  I finally gave up and allowed it to leak down until it stopped.  There was nothing else I could do!  My 5 foot deep koi pond is now only 1 foot deep and I only have 5 koi left. 

So that brings me to the problem of ice forming on the top of my pond.  I'm worried my poor fishes will freeze.  The pond is too big for a de-icer to be affective and there is no possible way to heat the water so I am crossing my fingers that we'll have a normal Georgia cold snap.  Georgia natives know all too well how we can have snow one day then a balmy 78 degrees the next.  My solution for the long term is to, sadly, find homes for the few koi that are left and fill in the pond.  Let me know if any of you would like one of them but a warning - they are big fish and will not fit in a pond less than 5000 gallons... 

Once I tearfully tear down the beautiful pond that my late husband built I'll have to be content to get my "koi fix" at the store.  The ones we have for sale are as friendly as mine at home, giving you kisses when you stick your fingers into the water.  And because they are in an inside tank there's no way a black bear can get to them.

For those of you who have ponds and would like more information on how to winterize it, here's a link to an article on our website: http://www.ponddoc.com/Seasonal_Pond_Care.html.