dead frogs + fish in the garden pond

[pusskin]

on arriving back from spain 2 weeks ago, we cracked open the ice to find 2 large lovely frogs, bloated and dead + 2 of our new bought small fish.
Today, my hubbie has scooped up 2 more dead frogs that have been in there since the ice froze over before xmas. flipping shame and upset me lots.
Has it happened to any one else with a pond?

[redman41]

You could do with a Water Pump to Oxygenate the water as the lack of Oxygen has killed off your Fish and Frogs. It has happened elsewhere here in the UK and in USA.

[pusskin]

its obviously our own fault then. We have a good pump , but turned it off while in spain, seeing as the fish were so slow and we thought it wouldnt be needed.
We keep it on most of the time luckily for us.

[pusskin]

maybe because the pond was so frozen , that we/he decided to not run the pump while away. thanks for your welcome answer redman

[redman41]

Is it Frogs Legs and Battered Fish for Dinner tonight pusskin ? :-)))

[pusskin]

ha ha ha i shouldnt laugh really, but its done me good to read your witty reply lol.
i feel awfull because i love my frogs, and tread them like my ole buddies. we've got quite a few of the old blighters in the pond ---or did have!

think I'll leave out the battered fish + frogs legs for din dins tonight. i dont feel like puking up so early in the new year x

[redman41]

Your Pond will soon be back in good nick pusskin ! You can re-stock with new fish and the Frogs will spawn. Your Garden Birds will also be able to drink from it......just keep the Pump running just incase.........

[pusskin]

ah thanks redman. have turned on the pump and it wont be switched off now till the spring.? I know theres loads of small frogs in there , so will keep my fingers crossed that they all survive.
cheers red

[rowanwitch]

How deep is your pond? sounds like it wasn't deep enough and froze to bottom.... usual recommendation is to remove pump in winter and put a plastic ball or two to float on the surface of the pond to keep a small area free of ice or if you can afford it a small pond heater....

[pusskin]

hi rowan, sorry for delaying in replying.
our pond is roughly 7' x 6 ' 2 ft at deepest end (middle)
its always been a very health pond, loads of frogs and couple of toads

[ttfn]

After a particularly severe rain/thunderstorm one night I walked my dog to the park in the morning. Several people surrounded the large pond where a council employee was netting dead fish from it. Not one fish had survived the storm. He told me that the force of the rainfall was so fierce it had de-oxygenated the pond.

[tastymorsel]

ttfn that has answered a puzzle that has worried me for ages.Two years ago all our fish died in the pond and we had no idea why but we had experienced some pretty severe weather previously.Thank you for that.

[NazNomad]

ttfn, I'd never heard anything like that before ... very interesting. Made me look into it a bit more, although my fish are very used to weathering the worst, errm, weather.

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/ponds/storm.htm

[ttfn]

You are very welcome tasty. This event happened decades ago when I was staying with relatives in Sutton Coldfield. Pipe Hayes Park was always a favourite place to let the dogs have their run about and i often had admired the fish in this huge pond. The sight of them all floating on the surface has stayed with me ever since.

[regulo]

Another reason to keep a bit of your surface ice-free, is that decaying matter at the bottom of your pond will be releasing toxins and gases into the water. These are usually dispersed at the surface, but can build to levels fatal to fish and amphibians under ice, especially over an extended period. Also, frogs and toads are air breathers, and if they hadn't entered their dormant winter state before the ice formed could simply have drowned.

[ttfn]

Good link Naz

[pusskin]

very interesting link! thanks for that. i should have said that the deph of our pond was 3' in the middle, not 2' i got that wrong. We've never put a ball or such into the pond, so that is something we will always do in the future. When we cracked the ice , it was on one corner and that was a fairly gentle type of tap, even though we knew it may do some harm. So we have learnt from it. We had to get the dead fish and frogs out.
thank you for all your replies x

[horselady]

We scooped out 4 dead frogs and 1 fish. We had the floating ball, but the ice was so thick it didn't make as much difference as it should have done. We left the pump running but that froze up too!

[pusskin]

we wont forget Billandhiscat. We'll try anything to not let that happen again, fingers crossed.
We dragged another dead frog out of the pond this morning. We didnt spot it earlier on.
Thanks for all your replies x pusskins