Anyone know if I could over winter native fish indoors? (I have a pond that is too shallow to leave the fish in.) Any ideas on which varieties over winter best indoors?,,,It's a very small pond!
I have a tank that hods I believe 20 gallons, anyone know if this would be gig enough for Brook Trout to be over wintered in?
Hey Larry.
I would not suggest trying to move your trout
indoors.They are wild by nature and very skitish.They will slam into the sides of the tank every time you come into the room.They also require moving water with quite a bit of oxygen.I would suggest either
goldfish or Koi.They are long lived and will
handle the stress of being moved indoors quite well. Good luck. Ken
Good morning Larry.
One nice thing about the Koi is that they will readily breed in the early spring,once you have a good biologic balance in your pond.You
will have no trouble selling them at any pond
supply store.The only downside you may encounter is that Blue herons can spot them easily from the sky.I used to have one that stopped by on its way south in the fall to gorge himself on them. Ken
Had a similar problem with my Koi disappearing in the spring, but in my case it turned out to be bears eating them... trout would need a very large, dark tank, and they need cold, highly-oxygenated water to survive. A 500 gallon pond in a cellar will do fairly good for trout, as long as there is not a lot of activity going on in the cellar....
Thanks Roy!
That tells me that trout would be out, I have a crawl space, and getting a 500 gallon tank in there would require lifting the house off of the foundation :exmark:
Hopefully when I eventually get more gravel sold and expand the pond by getting rid of the gravel, there will be a hole deep enough there to leave fish in the pond, there is one small hole deep enough that the water won't freeze clear to the bottom, but not big enough for fish to survive the winter in.
I don't get many bears near my place, I hope yours decide to leave the fish alone!
