They’re lovely, graceful and delicate, well-adapted to their own natural environments. But when you remove fish, reptiles and plant life from nature and into your backyard pond, you’ll need to do for them what they can no longer do for themselves; provide food, shelter, and a dependable pond heater.
Freshwater life – plants, fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, and even microscopic organisms- adapted over eons to live and reproduce in either flowing water such as streams, or still water ponds. A large variety of living creatures can live and flourish in your backyard pond. However, this is an artificial environment for them. In their natural environment, these creatures would be able to freely move about to regulate their body temperatures. Since, as your “guests,” they can no longer fend for themselves, a pond heater is the only way to insure their survival during cold weather.
Using Your Pond Heater: Who Benefits?
Life in your backyard pond is regulated by temperature and oxygen. In cold weather, fish grow lethargic and turtles hibernate for weeks at a time. Your pond heater shouldn’t create bathwater-warm conditions; this isn’t a normal environment for freshwater aquatic life. So, assuming you’re not attempting to raise tropical warm-water fish in your backyard, it’s safe for you to simulate a natural environment by setting your pond heater to a temperature of about forty degrees in the winter. If you live in a cold climate and don’t have a pond heater, all your aquatic life will freeze to death. Pond heaters save the lives of the creatures for which you assumed responsibility, and you’ll learn an expensive lesson.
Just as you use your pond heater to ward off frigid temperatures, setting the temperature too high can be just as disastrous. Freshwater dwellers will invariably escape from pools of water that’s too hot for them to find food and reproduce. If you’re recreating a natural environment, what you don’t want to see are tendrils of steam rising from your pond in January. This is a sure sign that you’ve cooked all your aquatic life.
Many high-quality pond heaters cost a bit more, but they automatically regulate the pond’s temperature to simulate the change in seasons and water temperature. Rather than maintain a constant temperature, which is unnatural to aquatic life, these pond heaters simulate the cool of winter and the warmth of summer without going to extremes that endanger the lives of your backyard friends. Since these pond heaters that sell for about $300 on the Internet provide normal temperature changes, your freshwater fish, plants and reptiles can live, feed, and reproduce just as they would in nature. Your pond will flourish, as will your enjoyment of your backyard slice of nature.
