Garden ponds: I swear the fish in the pond at church were frozen

[hedgehog]

solid this winter, but they're fine now. This pond is only about 12" deep. Anybody here know anything about overwintering gold fish and/or koi?

[amerikat]

1. My neighbor had a Koi pond.

It was about 3 feet deep. He said the fish burrowed into the mud
and slept through the winter. I did a google search about fish being
frozen and coming back life. Most said it was not possible for a frozen fish
to come back to life, other swear they have seen it. But science says no.
Get a stick and see how deep it is. Water sometimes created optical
illusions.

[Autumn]

2. We keep goldfish in our watering trough

all year long, it freezes over in the winter and we break the ice. They do fine, we have had the same 4 fish for 2 years now.

[trud]

3. my neighbor has a koi pond

Several times i have thought the fish were doomed, but they're okay.

[madokie]

4. Water is at its densest at 4 degree centigrade

so at the bottom where that fish is is still liquid although at 4 degree c. the fish metabolism slows way down so they don't consume much energy nor oxygen. The fish is fine. It would take an extended long period of time at sub freezing temperatures to freeze water in a koi pond solid and if it did I'd suspect the fish died. chances of that happening is pretty slim though due to that fact water is its densest at 4 degrees centigrade.