Hi Deb, you are in Kazoo right? I remember your first post about how you were supprised to find a pond when the snow melted. I dont worry about winterizing until November. Your pond is pretty small though so you may want to keep a good eye on the weather by late October. You will need to quit feeding them around then or earlier depending on when our cold temps decide to show up. My fish have never eaten the babies over the winter. We have a "tent" type thing we put over our 600 gal pond and keep a bubbler going all winter. I will let the experts help you with winterizing instructions. You are not to far from me (Muskegon area)so I am just trying to help with the time frame. Those fish made it through last winter un attended so I am sure they will be fine (last winter was very cold with below average temps and above average snow fall). Watch for the Dark Eyed Juncos (birds) to arrive, they always show up within 2 days of our frist snowfall.

Hi Lisa,
yes, I'm in Kazoo...I've ventured out to Battle Creek/South Haven/Saugatuck/PawPaw but haven't been to Muskegon yet. Thanks for the advice. One question... why do I need to watch for Dark Eyed Junkos?

You should move your catfish inside to an aquarium very soon. They will die if the water temperature goes below about 60 degrees F. A 100 gallon pond is pretty small. It may freeze solid unless you use some kind of heater. Think about moving everyone inside sometime in November.

Because when the Juncos show up you know it's going to snow so you better get everything done in the pond you need to ASAP! In the 5 years I have lived here they havent been wrong yet!

First of all, according to various people, you may want to reconsider keeping your catfish and pond fish together. I posted a link below - or you can do a search yourself on the subject.

In our pond in Upstate NY (similar in zone to you), I remove all my tropical plants in early October. We cut back our hardy water lilies which are planted directly in the pond and drop to the bottom the other hardy plants. Our pond is 3 feet deep and approx. 3,000 gallons so the fish overwinter in the pond. I don't know what you should do with a pond that small. We purchased a plastic 100 gallon tub at Country Max for our tropical plants, and I think that would work well for your fish if you decide to bring them indoors. You would have to add a pump or air stone for aeration and something for filtration. My husband altered the "plug" with a faucet and we can drain it pretty easily with a garden hose into our basement sewer come spring.

Here is a link that might be useful: catfish in a pond

Nancyd...thanks for the link on catfish, I sure did get a whole lot of mis-information from the local PetSmart.

Kalevi...The waterfall pond froze solid last year but the bigger pond was ok even when the temps dipped way lower than normal here last winter. I am going to add a bubbler like Lisa11310 suggested and maybe rig up some sort of tarp to keep the big snow off too.

I don't know what I'm going to do with all of the babies but they all seem happy enough for the time being.