Question
Hi,

I inherited a fish pond when I bought a house recently and have no experience whatsoever with how to take care of fishes and fish ponds.  The fish (koi, I think) were doing well but tonight, I came home to find that the hose connected to the pump had dislodged itself from the pond somehow (part of me still thinks it's sabotage!) and had pumped water out of the pond!  There was barely a foot of water left (i.e. probably 15% of the water left) and the 8 fishes where at the very bottom of this nearly dry pond.  Still alive but barely...  Desperate and traumatized, I dechlorinated about 50 gallons of water (by my boyfriend's calculations) tried to warm up the water with the de-icer but I don't think it worked...anyway, I cleaned the pump and filter and pumped the dechlorinated water in...I'm afraid my fish won't survive.  Did I do the right thing?  Is there any hope of them surviving?  I'm near tears.  Was there anything else I could've done?

Answer
Hello Cam!
Koi are very susceptible to sudden temperature changes, so your thought to warm the water was the right one, but it is doubtful the de-icer is enough to help if the water is much colder.
It is good to have something like "Stress Coat" or "Koi TLC" for these type of situations on hand (this or something similar happens to everyone at one point of another).
The thing to do is to religiously (always) de-chlorinate and let the water fill VERY slowly to give the fish plenty of time to adjust to any temperature changes.
I gather that you are not so sure if the fish are Koi or not.
Here are some things to look for:
If there are any yellow marking on them, they are Koi (Goldfish are not available in yellow)
If they are larger than 10 inches or so, they are Koi (Goldfish only get that large in big lakes)
Here is the definite distinction:
Koi have "Barbs" an the right and left side of their mouth, Goldfish do not.
Also, you are welcome to go to our website at www.pondmarket.com, there are several free ebooks about pondcare to download (we are in the process of updating them, so on some that are not yet finished the links might not work - the information is still good though) and there are many page of information about caring for ponds.
Regards
Brigitte
www.pondmarket.com