# Cichlids in the Pond...In Canada - Update Sept 4 / 2013



## notho2000 (Dec 8, 2012)

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous. Even though the cichlids that I put in the 1100G pond in early June look like they are doing well, the night time temperatures the last few days have dipped below 10C (50F) and even the daytime highs are low to mid 20s. Today the maximum air temperature reached 19C (~66F) and the water temperature registered 21C (~70F). It went down to 6C (~41F) last night. I can see the first frost arriving in a couple of weeks. My 100G 'Little Giant' stock trough which contains some young Cichlasoma dimerus (Uruguay) registered 15C (59F) today, so I'll be most likely shutting it down within the next week. To say that the 'dimerus' were not moving very fast, is a huge understatement. I'm going to keep the big pond going until the water temperature hits ~15C (~60F). A couple of years ago, I pulled out a foot long pleco, several Gymnogeophagus gymnogenys "Arroyo Yerbalito', some Red Ceibals and Lepomis megalotis on November 2nd. The air temperature was 1 C (~34 F) and the water temperature 4 C (~39F).Amazingly enough, everything made it inside okay.BTW, I don't normally make a practice of doing this so late. Here's a short video I took this afternoon. You can see the Green Terror pair (presently with a new spawn tucked away somewhere - the female keeps rushing back to a sheltered spot inside a cinder block) along with a male Australoheros sp. 'Red Ceibal' and several exCichlasoma beani cruising about amongst the five Red Comet goldfish that are left (lost three).


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Some guys do it in the UK. I realy dunno why. We have far warmer winters than you Canada guys. Yep it works well for a while but then a bad winter one in 5 here about 1 in 2 in Canada I guess you lose the lot.

Wish you well but there is kind of a reason no cichlid lives in our waters. :-?


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## notho2000 (Dec 8, 2012)

24Tropheus said:


> Some guys do it in the UK. I realy dunno why. We have far warmer winters than you Canada guys. Yep it works well for a while but then a bad winter one in 5 here about 1 in 2 in Canada I guess you lose the lot.
> 
> Wish you well but there is kind of a reason no cichlid lives in our waters. :-?


You're right, our winters are 'brutal'. But from end of May to end of September it is quite good. I've left the fish in the pond until the beginning of November a couple of years ago and even though we had had several frosts and the water temperature had dropped to the mid-30s, I had no losses. To be sure the cichlids were Uruguayan and they can withstand the cold (somewhat), but I did have a 12" pleco in there that survived it all. Actually, I've not had losses due to the cold, because the change in temperature tend to be very gradual. The fish stop feeding and go dormant...probably followed by death shortly after  . This year, with the Green Terrors, the 'beani', and some 'breidohri' and 'dimerus' in there, I'm going to err on the side of caution and pull them out sooner than later.


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