3 small gold fishes in half barrel pond outdoor

60BOWENS

Hi

I have three small gold fishes (about 3 inch long) in half barrel water feature outdoors.

Can it be kept outdoor over the winter?

We are in south east UK.

Thanks

tacticalbanjo

You might get lucky but you're relying on it being a big enough volume of water not to freeze all the way through. Rule of thumb is usually a good three feet but if it's exposed on all sides then you might get ice developing on the sides of the barrel too reducing the available water too much.

It's probably worth pointing out that your small goldfish, like all goldfish, will grow to at least 6" long and anywhere up to 12" so a half barrel water feature is likely to be too small for them in the long term. Usually the rule of thumb is 100 litres per goldfish but that depends on how often you change the water, how much you change at a time, filtration levels, plants etc.

seven-day-weekend

I would put it somewhere it doesn't freeze, or move the goldfish into a tank indoors for the winter.

Ollie21

Just make sure also that they get oxygen when it freezes over - pop a tennis ball in the water and then take it out when it freeze as it leaves a nice hole in the ice.