Gymnogeophagus balzanii in temperature below 40 f

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marpol

Exodon
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2020
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Hello all

I wanted to share my experience with keeping 1x G.Balzanii and 15x peppered corys in pond during winter in Poland where temperature drops to -5 during night and around 0 to 4 during day( january and february). I can compare our climate to New York region : cold winters and hot summer - around 20-30 celsius in june ,july and august. I introduced Balzani and 15 corydoras paleatus to pond last summer and i knew that corys will survive winter coz many people in germany or netherlands keeps peppered corydoras in ponds whole year and they are able to survive under ice during winter but i wasnt sure about Balzanii.
There is also 4x koi in pond and i feed all fish with koi food pallet. Tommorow i will share pond pics. Pond is around 6000 liters ( 1600 gallons) and 120cm (3.9 ft ) in deepest place. I think depth is most important thing when it comes to keep fish during winter. When temperature is -5 celsius outside then water temperature can be around 3 or 4 celsius (40 f ) on the bottom of pond.
 
yes , all fish are ok. I noticed that Balzanii colours are ,,deeper'' when water temp is around 10 celsius than durring summer when is very hot here. I will share pond photos in morning . Its night here now ;)
 
Not a huge surprise. Seems like fish from the south are more accustomed to a temperate climate. The few cichlids form Uruguay I've kept were very tolerant of temps ranging from 4-35*
 
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Balzanii actually needs a seasonal cool down period from where the specie originates from but to survive under ice is amazing. Tbh didn't know the Peppered Corydora could survive that temperature range.
 
Well , there was not a lot of ice on my pond this winter but to be honest , ice is no problem for fish as long as pond is deep enough to keep warm water temperature at botton of pond. Winters are much warmer for last 5 or 10 years in Poland or Germany. 15 or 20 years ago -20 celsius during night wasnt something special but not now. Peppered cory are able to survive in colder temperature outside than -5 so there is no surprise that they are ok.

some examples , look at comments below


 
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