By
eHow Home & Garden Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Fish vitamin and mineral supplements
- Plant clippers
- Net with an extendable handle
Step1
Pull as many leaves and branches out of the water as possible. You should wait until after all the trees have lost their leaves and then use a net to take out as many leaves as possible. Try to get leaves off of the bottom of the pond if you can.
Step2
Cut back dead foliage on the water plants. Most of these plants won't need any help lasting through the winter, but removing dead branches is important. Dead foliage will often fall into the pond, releasing gases as the leaves and branches decompose, which can make winter water toxic for fish.
Step3
Remove tropical water plants. Any plants that you bought and planted in the pond, like lilies, won't last past wintertime, so you could try and store some of these plants in your house and then put them back out in the spring. You can also let the plants die off during the winter and replant them again next year.
Step4
Give the fish some supplements and minerals mixed in with their food. You can help build up the fish's immune system and body fat for the winter with these supplements. Most fish that don't make it through the winter die from ammonia poising in the water.
Step5
Decide if you want to maintain the flow of water into your pond during the winter. If you don't want to perform maintenance on your pump during winter, take it out during the fall. There is not reason why the pond can't have water pumped into it during winter. If you use the pond for ice-skating, consider removing the pump so that more water will freeze.
