Suspended animation?

[mouseams]

First winter with fish and back in January we had a reprieve from solid ice on the pond and I could see my friends all swimming around including all the newborn survivors from the first year's spawn. Then I spotted three goldfish/comet/shubunkin babies- not sure of the exact mix on these fellas were on their sides at the bottom. The netting was still iced in around the sides, so I will have to wait til spring to remove them. After more and more cold and snow, I couldn't see until yesterday. I could only find two of the three casualties. Today is the second sunny warm day- around 50 F. One of the two began fluttering on his side and as of my last check he is now a good eight inches from where he started and I could see the other ones mouth move and now he is in a different place. Is it possible that these fish that I thought were dead are now coming back to life? I am going to go look again, the sun is an a bad spot right now, I might have to take my night vision binocs out tonight.

I would love to hear if anyone else has seen this before.

 

[oldmarine]

About thirty years ago I a had a above gorund cement fish pond with a half dozen feeder gold fish in it. During that winter, the pond froze almost solid. There was a spot in the center that was not frozen, and the fish appeared to be suspended with no movent. Not knowing much about ponds and outdoor fish I gave them up for dead. After the pond water had thawed out a month or so later, the fish were just fine. My conclusion is that gold fish (carp) are hardy little buggers.

Happy ponding,

Rich :banana:

 

[mouseams]

Thanks Oldmarine. Will see what happens tomorrow. The only thing is they are on their sides.