CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Are loaches afraid of the cold in winter?

1. Are loaches afraid of the cold in winter?

If the temperature is below 0 degrees Celsius, loaches will freeze to death; the living water temperature is 10-30 degrees Celsius, and the optimum water temperature is 25-27 degrees Celsius, so they should be warm-water fish. When the water temperature rises to 30 degrees Celsius, loaches will dive into the mud to spend the summer. When the water temperature drops below 5 degrees Celsius in winter, they will burrow into the mud 20-30cm deep to hibernate.

In China, except for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Linzhi area in Tibet, it is distributed in natural freshwater bodies such as rivers, ditches, paddy fields, ponds, lakes and reservoirs throughout the country. It is especially widely distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins. The population in the Ili River in western China is also constantly expanding.

As the market demand for loach continues to increase, the scale of artificial breeding is also expanding, and this trend is also generally seen across the country. Loach has a large population and is a small freshwater economic fish.

2. Do loaches eat in winter?

1. Increase the water level: The water level is crucial. During the winter, the water level should be controlled at more than 1 meter. Winter is cold, and deepening the water level is conducive to the safe wintering of loaches. Appropriate addition of new water ensures the freshness of the water quality in the pond. The north is prone to ice formation, so break the ice in time to prevent loaches from dying from lack of oxygen. For us in the south, there is no need to worry about the occurrence of ice formation, but the water level must be deepened to allow loaches to survive the winter smoothly.

Add new water

2. Adjustment of pond bottom: For ponds that are preparing to overwinter, use some bottom improvement products to comprehensively improve the pond bottom one month before winter comes to ensure the effective decomposition of toxic substances such as feed residues, fish feces, etc. in the bottom mud, reduce the residue of toxic substances, and reduce the damage of these toxic substances to fish during the winter.

3. Water regulation: In view of the current high yield of pond aquaculture, the water body must still be kept "rich, active, tender and refreshing" during the winter, and the water should be changed; choose a sunny day to use photosynthetic bacteria or EM original solution for regulation.

4. Feeding: Around mid-November, the loach and the silver loach enter hibernation. Most farmers stop feeding them and will not start feeding them again until around mid-March of the following year. During these months, the loach has to rely on its own energy to survive the long winter. In the process, some of its energy will be lost, and the loach will also lose weight. In fact, winter is sometimes abnormal. On sunny days, you can see loaches in the pond rushing up. You can feed them in small amounts to ensure that the loach does not lose weight and may even grow. However, you should pay attention to choosing high-quality feed to reduce the burden on the fish's digestive organs. Especially for the Taiwan loach, as long as the loach is active, you should also pay attention to feeding it moderately.

5. To avoid injuring the loach, do not use traps to catch loaches in ponds that are not for sale. Add water to the pond slowly and do not increase the water level too much suddenly. Also, do not put the caught loaches back into the pond, otherwise the loach's body surface will be injured and infected with fungi, causing diseases such as water mold and skin rot.

3. How to keep loaches warm in winter

If you are raising them in mud ponds, you don't need to raise them in cages, so put the cages lower.

4. If the water surface freezes in winter, will loaches die from lack of oxygen?

No, because they have adapted to the changes of nature for generations, otherwise they would have been extinct long ago. Water itself also contains oxygen, so even if there is less, they will not suffocate to death.