Advice for any one with a frozen fish pond.

[rustic]

Well my pond is now covered in 2" of ice.

You must never strike the ice with a tool / hammer as it may kill the fish, so one solution to creating an air hole to allow gasses out is as follows:-

Fill a one gallon container with near to boiling water and then place on an area of the pond, place a cover over it and every 10 minutes shake the bottle once to even out the water temperature of the bottle, after 30 minutes it should have either cut through the ice, or become frozen in the hole and is now stuck..

I also put an aquarium heater 100 Watts in the hole near the surface, put some bubble wrap over it, so far this has kept an area of 9" diameter frost free.

The idea of placing a foot ball on the pond to do the same thing has never worked for me.

Never feed your fish when the water temperature is below 10 C
Now the water is 0 C just under the colder ice.

In fact the water at the bottom of the pond should be 4 C as this is when water has it's maximum density so will be at the bottom of the pond.

This is how fish are able to survive in frozen ponds and canals.

While you are at it, put some warm water in a container out for the birds.
Best regards,
Rustic