Every pond owner should be prepared for power outages before they occur.  Once your power goes out, it’s too late to figure out what to do.  Have a source of power ready when you may need it, your fish will be in danger of low oxygen levels quickly.  The larger your fish are, and the more fish you have, the quicker the oxygen supply will diminish.  It can be only a short period of time before your fish are gasping for air and struggling to survive.  

       The majority of power outages seem to occur during the summer months when storms are more prevalent, but other events like a car crashing into a telephone / power line pole can also knock out power.  You never know!  The summer months are the most dangerous times to loose power for your fish.  There are two main reasons why a quick solution is needed to provide oxygen in our ponds during power outages.  We need to understand that warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen than cold water, and therefore more oxygen is required to keep oxygen levels safe for our fish in this warmer water / weather.  And secondly in warmer water, our fishes metabolism is in full function, demanding more oxygen.  As opposed to winter, when the water temperatures are cold, the cold water holds more dissolved oxygen.  In this colder water, our fishes metabolism is slower and  therefore their oxygen demand is less.   But, no matter what time of year, we need to provide aeration into our ponds.  You may just have a little more time in the winter to provide that air before your fish are stressed.