Christmas is coming. What happens to my pond in the southern hemisphere

The festive season is not very far away. For many of my readers this means traditional Christmas time with cold frosty weather and even snow and that just perfect setting for Father Christmas to arrive in.

To those people I say think of us here in South Africa ... Christmas means high temperatures, mostly sunny skies and barbecues on the beach or in the bush. Most of us leave our ponds behind, head for the coast or countryside because it is also summer holiday time ... yes mid-summer. Personally I'll hit the road and drive 10 hours down to a most beautiful part of South Africa called Kenton On Sea

For those people leaving their ponds behind my best bit of advice is DO NOT LET anyone feed your fish or if you do prepare the quantities in advance in small plastic bags and give strict instructions as to when the food should be fed (maybe every 2 or 3 days). What you do not want to do is give carte blanche to the neighbour by saying "will you please feed my fish" and hand over a 5 lb bag of fish food.

They will find it so much fun they will overfeed them and possibly create major biofilter problems ... and God forbid if the neighbour's kids get their hands on this "cookie jar" along with access to the pond.

If you have not changed your UV lamp for the last 12 months then do it now before holidaying. It's also a good idea to get rid of any accumulated sludge in the bottom of the biofilter. For those with lots of time on their hands and wanting something to do to keep themselves out of mischief then you study this website in deepth.

Do you remember that little tip about ensuring that if your biofilter overflows then make sure that the water can run back into the pond. Well if the filter overflows while you're away the pond will empty and the fish will die. So go and make sure that water can flow back into the pond even if it does become muddy.