Rosie minnow swarm

[Shdwdrgn]

My water temps are finally creeping into the 60's, and I've been thinking about this all Winter, so yesterday I bought 100 rosie minnows for my pond. In the past I've had bad luck with survival of new ones... I have about 20 which are 3-4 years old. I know the weather loaches were responsible for eating all the eggs the rosies have been laying each year, but I wonder if they weren't also eating the new rosies that I kept trying to add?

Well I think all the loaches are out of the pond now, so this year maybe I'll start to see some surviving babies from all the fish, including the rosies. And if the new guys survive, there will be even more breeding next year. I already love the look when a dozen rosies school together and go swimming up and down the river, so a hundred of them schooling should be impressive!

 

[j.w]

Now lookout you may end up w/ millions of Rosie's breeding like crazy...............back in go the Loaches

 

[Fishylove]

Lol JW I have had the same problem with rosies. I've bought 10's of dozens of rosies over the years and have maybe a dozen again.
Truthfully, I think its the bull frogs eating mine.

 

[Shdwdrgn]

I checked on the new guys this evening after work, and it looks like I still have all of them. Crossing my fingers, but so far there's no sign of any problems. Typically when I get a batch, within the first day half of them have white tails that appear to be rotting off -- not so this time around!

 

[Priscilla]

Good luck to you!

 

[addy1]

I put in a bunch a few years back, count maybe 4, they might be marginal for here.

Maybe the heron ate some, that is the one pond they can reach, the lotus tub

 

[Shdwdrgn]

Rosies are native to rivers and streams in Iowa... I doubt they would have any trouble surviving in your region, addy

This new batch of mine are doing exceptionally well, so I'm going to have to stick with my earlier reasoning that they were probably getting eaten by the weather loaches. So they will probably be about half grown by the end of this season, and might even start spawning next year. That is going to be quite a sight, seeing over 100 minnows trying to compete for caves in the large rocks!