My neighbour told me today all his pond fish are dead, they are frozen in the ice.

Would they by any chance survive if they were put in normal temp water? ie like people that survive after being frozen

Asking cos we used to have mice that froze stiff over night but thawed out in the warm

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RIP all my babies.
Monty LabxGSD 1972-1982
Jody Black Lab1982-1999
KizzyLabx Goldie 1983-1994
Larry Yellow Lab 1985-1993
Charlie Black Lab 1986 -1997
Ben Yellow Lab 1985-1999
Pud Choc Lab 1989-2003
Bridgit Black Lab 1991-2004
Floss Yellow Lab1992-2006
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My boy Ted, my first my last my everything.Golden Retriever 1/8/98-28/6/2011

Not really sure of the answer here and maybe depends on how long they have been frozen for??? I dont know.........

...........But a few years back I visited my sister and looked into her pond and in the ice was a goldfish.

The pond had frozen over night and we gently poured tepid water over the ice and eventually the fish was free and off it went.

Not sure if it survived or not but we felt good we had given it a chance

So maybe its worth a try.

Supose the question is "how does the fish survive without the oxygen"??? maybe an airlock????

I dunno but would think its worth giving it ago even if he saves just a few.

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Thanks for that, have told them to try, maybe there is a chance

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RIP all my babies.
Monty LabxGSD 1972-1982
Jody Black Lab1982-1999
KizzyLabx Goldie 1983-1994
Larry Yellow Lab 1985-1993
Charlie Black Lab 1986 -1997
Ben Yellow Lab 1985-1999
Pud Choc Lab 1989-2003
Bridgit Black Lab 1991-2004
Floss Yellow Lab1992-2006
Millie Yellow Lab1994-2010
My boy Ted, my first my last my everything.Golden Retriever 1/8/98-28/6/2011

be interested to know how he gets on. Fingers crossed.

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The pond must be quite shallow for the whole water column to freeze solid, what's the depth exactly? In lake stratification, the deepest part of a still body of water is warmest during the winter, and usually the reverse in summer. Fish will retreat to this warmer layer of water as their metabolism slows down.

Fish are very delicate organisms, the chances that they're still alive are tiny, and 'warming' them up with tepid water would mean instant death if they're not already dead. If the eyes appear glazed over and if there's no visible movement of the gills, then they're dead.

Real weird Chillinator. Totally agree with what you say about warming the fish up directly with tepid water, maybe I didnt word it right. We did the ice around it until it could swim free.

I dunno, maybe there was an air pocket? Its eyes were definatly not glazed, there was water underneath that wasn't frozen so it was able to swim away.

We were amazed and honestly we weren't on the wine when this happened
It really did.

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the safest way to help fish in a pond thats frozen over is to boil a saucepan of water and rest it on the ice until you have a hole

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Thankfully ours has thawed (finally) It isnt terribly deep but we have a small bridge over it and the water under the bridge doesnt freeze as severly

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"Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”

Same thing happened with our pond, though thankfully the fish aren't dead and we managed to get them out and into a tank in the house. Good luck!

The problem is, if the air is cold enough, the water that has previously thawed with the heat from the boiled water will freeze over again. Also, the boiled water would lose temperature very quickly. It's probably best to save this method for milder days.