In an earlier thread I enquired as to the cold-tolerance of Rainbow shiners, Notropis chrosomus. I think I can now answer that question from direct experience.
My group of 4 rainbow shiners are kept completely unheated in an outbuilding and share a tank with a shoal of European minnows, Phoxinus phoxius. In England we have just experienced our worst winter for 30 years and for a 4 week spell over Christmas and New Year air temperatures in my part of England fell to -12C and frequently did not better -4C by day. The shiners were fuly exposed to this. My tanks developed a substantial layer of ice but the bulk of the water stayed liquid due to turbulance from the filters. The water temperature fell below the minimum level on my thermometer (-5C)but I reckon at night it easily must have fallen to -9C.
The result? Good news! The shiners tolerated this without apparent difficulty and remain in fine health. Things have warmed up a little now (+5C by day)and they are now starting to feed.
So, I think I can conclude Rainbow shiners are fully hardy by anybody's standards. Does anyone else have similar experiences - particularly as to whether juveniles have the same cold-tolerance?
Cold-hardiness of Rainbow shiners
Started by
Guest_reebok_*
, Feb 18 2010 07:26 AM
4 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_fundulus_*
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Posted 18 February 2010 - 09:32 AM
I'm not surprised. Their home streams in places like DeKalb County, Alabama, have had ice on them this winter and experienced extended winter conditions. The rainbows are probably perfectly fine. As long as an individual fish isn't frozen in a block of ice it should be fine.
#3
Guest_MAZUREL_*
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Posted 22 January 2011 - 06:54 AM
Dear All,
Reading this topic from a year ago;
I do have a group of 42 N. chrosomus in the netherlands, who survived last very cold period 2010-2011,which started in november, and ended some weeks ago; my rainbowshiners also survived unheated this period in my tankshed and water temps were were 0 Celsius, I had some iceforming in the tank, but when I restored the flow, the ice disappeared.
Regards, Casper
Reading this topic from a year ago;
I do have a group of 42 N. chrosomus in the netherlands, who survived last very cold period 2010-2011,which started in november, and ended some weeks ago; my rainbowshiners also survived unheated this period in my tankshed and water temps were were 0 Celsius, I had some iceforming in the tank, but when I restored the flow, the ice disappeared.
Regards, Casper
#5
Michael Wolfe
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Posted 22 January 2011 - 12:09 PM
Not exactly N. chrosomus, but I am trying an experiment this winter with N. lutipinnis (a Hydroplox relative) outside in an above ground pond. We have had a harsher than normal winter recently, with inch thick ice collecting on the surface of the pond. I have broken through for them a few times, but they were under it for several days in a row (just a dozen or so in 100 gallons with some plants that are normally emergents, but dunked for the winter). The experiment is really two parts; winter survival and pond lifestyle. They have no current in there at all. Seemed to be OK in the fall, but I am hoping for not just surviving but thriving... but that sill take some time to prove.
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