I am truly amazed

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So I've mentioned before that I am "testing the waters" with weather loaches... I've read various accounts of them surviving just fine when the pond was completely iced over, although those accounts were in coastal regions. My experience with them in aquariums and reading online suggests that they are great scavengers, and like to root around through sand and small gravel. So last year I put three weather loaches and four golden dojos (same species, bred for albino coloration) into the pond.

Unfortunately I found one of the goldens dead in the water within the first month, and never saw any sign of the others, even before Winter hit, so I assumed they were not tolerant of the climate here. On the other hand, I have occasionally seen the weather loaches one or two at a time last year and again this year. They do not show themselves very often, which is unfortunate because everything I read said they were very social fish which would actually come up into people's hands, and mine have looked very healthy and grown a lot since their original release. Because they seemed to be doing well, I acquired four more earlier this year and released them into the pond. I keep hoping that if there are more in there, they would be less skittish and show themselves more often, but so far my plan has failed.

So imagine my surprise tonight when, while I'm throwing out the evening food, a see a very large golden dojo come to the surface grabbing food!!! We have goldens in two aquariums, and in one tank, they have all grown pretty well (we think because the other fish are egg-layers, and the dojos love fresh eggs) - but it wouldn't surprise me if the guy I saw in the pond tonight was twice as large. Of course there is no way of knowing if any more of the goldens have survived, unless I happen to spot more than one at a time, but I am very excited by the fact that any of them survived, and seem to be growing just as well as the weather loaches. I'll be crossing my fingers that his appearance is a sign that more of them may start to come out during feeding time. It just amazes me that this guy has been in the pond for over a year, and this is the first time I've seen one of them.
 

fishin4cars

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Great news to hear. I have wondered myself how that experiment went. So glad to hear that the Golden has survived that's really good news as I have considered adding a few but really wondered if they would survive or not.
 
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Well you are also a lot further South than I am. I think the only thing you would have to consider is if your pond might get too *hot* for them? I've never looked into what their upper limits are because my pond rarely gets warmer than mid-70's.

As I mentioned before, I've dropped about 150 pounds of sand into the bottom of my pond, which makes a great home for the weather loaches. I also have large river rocks piled up all around the edges, which are inhabited by both the loaches and the rosy-red minnows. I see the loaches come out to grab food from the rocks every now and then, so they seem to like the rocks during the Summer, but will most likely bury into the sand over the Winter.
 

fishin4cars

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Yea, no sand in the bottom of mine. I do have some rock along the edges of the pond, lots of babies hang out in them until they are big enough to hand to the out skirts of the herd. Temps here have made it to the lower 90's a few days but not many, average water temps are staying closer to the mid 80's. The two plecos are having a great time. they keep everything all scrubbed down. If you can ever get a pic of one of the big ones or the golden i would love to see them.
 

JohnHuff

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Ya, my son has thinking about putting some loaches into our pond too! Glad to see that they survived.
 

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