Weather Loach

[GOT FISH?]

Anybody have weather loaches in there ponds? I have read they are cold water fish,,,Would like to get some if they are available?

 

[chilledtim]

Ive wondered about this too, im about to get one for a tank im cycling at the moment to go with some white cloud mountain minnows.

However, from the reserch ive done when they say coldwater, they mean "unheated" indoor aquariums. in other words Room teperature. If the water in the outdoor pond is going to drop below say 9-10 C in the winter like they do in the uk then i dont think this loach will be able to handle that. but where you live it might be fine. Just depends on the winter water temp.

Im no expert on these fish tho, dont even own one yet so someone with more no-how on these loach may be along shortly

 

[mlawson]

Although Weather Loaches are stated as being Coldwater fish, they
will not survive long in a cold pond over winter. They come from Asia in
temperate climates and temperatures should not drop below 10C.

They require clean, well oxygenated water and some species can grow to
quite a large size. But the Japanese weatherfish Misgurnus anguillicaudatus
( the most commonly sold) will only grow upto about 10cm. In the aquarium keep
temperatures from about 16-20C.

 

[what a load of pollocks]

i have 5 loasches in my pond and god know how they are doing, only seen them on pond shelf few time, so i dont know abt now as one day soon i be cleanin out the bottam muck next month or so and then wait for the water to be crystal clear and look underwater again with my camera, but who know.................

 

[mlawson]

i have 5 loasches in my pond and god know how they are doing, only seen them on pond shelf few time, so i dont know abt now as one day soon i be cleanin out the bottam muck next month or so and then wait for the water to be crystal clear and look underwater again with my camera, but who know.................

You may have one of the species which can be kept in outdoor ponds for most
of the year, but they probably won't survive extreme cold when ice is spread over.
You may be lucky though.

You may have a larger species such as Misgurnus mizolepis . These can attain
sizes of about 20cm/8"in.

 

[GOT FISH?]

I have seen a couple of sites that state it as "cold water",,,,Temp range from 41-68 degrees,,,,,I am in california and we are having a bad winter now(bad for california) and my present pond is about 50 degrees now......The problem that I may encounter is when it is summer here and the outside temp is well over 100 degrees for weeks.....

 

[samyboy]

i saw some in the lfs the other day quite liked them but they were a good 10-15cm long so wasnt keen on gettin one for my tropical tank incase they got any bigger, then i noticed it said "coldwater fish"

would they cope in an outdoor pond over summer then come inside for winter

 

[NatKing]

I had one in my cold water tank and when we went over to tropical, it went into the pond with the goldfish. At this point it was about 4" long. A few years later we had to empty the pond as the liner had developed a leak. I was suprised to find the loach in the silt at the bottom, by this time a foot long. He'd survived several freezing winters...

 

[chilledtim]

Thanks for the info Natking

 

[what a load of pollocks]

hmmmmmmm interesting wonder how my 5 doing lol hoping to see them this summer when warmer when planting on 2 pond shelf

I had one in my cold water tank and when we went over to tropical, it went into the pond with the goldfish. At this point it was about 4" long. A few years later we had to empty the pond as the liner had developed a leak. I was suprised to find the loach in the silt at the bottom, by this time a foot long. He'd survived several freezing winters...

 

[aquaticadmirer]

I used to have 2 that were about 6 or 7 inches long. My dad had them in his office tank and then I took them for several years, and they lived to be about 10 years old. They lived in tropical community tanks their whole lives (about 78 degrees) and did very well. It was weird because they seemed to be good friends and when one of them died the other died about a week later...maybe he was depressed?

These fish are also pretty interesting because they get their name from the fact that they sometimes exhibit strange behavior when the weather changes, and they certainly did. They normally hung out on the bottom under rocks, but whenever it was raining or stormy out they would stand up vertically in the corner of the aquarium. Pretty interesting!

 

[mlawson]

I used to have 2 that were about 6 or 7 inches long. My dad had them in his office tank and then I took them for several years, and they lived to be about 10 years old. They lived in tropical community tanks their whole lives (about 78 degrees) and did very well. It was weird because they seemed to be good friends and when one of them died the other died about a week later...maybe he was depressed?

These fish are also pretty interesting because they get their name from the fact that they sometimes exhibit strange behavior when the weather changes, and they certainly did. They normally hung out on the bottom under rocks, but whenever it was raining or stormy out they would stand up vertically in the corner of the aquarium. Pretty interesting!

Yes, this is because they have a special sense that detects barometric pressure.
When this becomes low, because of rainfall or storms it makes them become more active.
Hence the name Weather Loach. In the wild they use this sense to know when to come out to
feed.