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Sat, Nov 21, 09 at 11:49
| Spouse has a 450 gallon tank outside with 14 three year old goldfish.
Water temperatures are such that some stray guppies died so they water temperature is probably in the low 40s. Air temperatures drop into the low 20s about sunrise but quickly get into the 30s so there has not yet been never any noticeable freezing. Here is the interesting thing to me. When the sun hits the water surface each day about mid morning the goldfish slowly come from under their shelf and hover near the surface as if they were sunbathing. Are they really trying to pick up some rays, for vitamin D or something? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Interesting question. Probably just rising to warmer water temperatures. |
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- Posted by hawkiefriend (My Page) on Sat, Nov 21, 09 at 22:54
| Ours do this every day now too. Last night it was colder, and this morning I saw more fish than I knew we had. They seem to like the warmth of the sunny surface. (They still are near the plants though for protection.) |
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| Fish are cold-blooded animals and I doubt they are necessarily drawn to a heat source. We tend to anthropomorphize - to attribute human characteristics - to our fish when that may be not the case. Here’s an experiment you can do if you have two water heaters: place each heater in different parts of the pond and at the same depth. Wait a few hours then turn one on but don’t disturb the other. After an hour or so check to see if the fish have migrated towards the "on" heater. At some point turn that heater off and then turn the other one on. Do they migrate to the other "on" heater? Are they rushing to the "on" heater with their fins extended? LOL! If not then they’re not being drawn towards a heat source. As far as I am aware fish do not manufacture vitamin D from sunlight - the amount of actual sun energy passing through even 6 inches of water is pretty minimal. An example, obviously not necessarily relevant to our ponds, would be what fish are doing at depths of 200-400 feet where sunlight essentially no longer exists. I suspect that most of the type of behavior you describe is predator-prey based. At moderate temperatures the fish will go were their food (fish are the "predator" and the food source is now the "prey") is most available - which probably is where it is warmest (the short period of on/off with the heaters should probably not change available food to any significant extent). Your pond probably has taken most of the day to warm up. Given the size of your tank you might see that the afternoon temperatures in the water on a very bright sunny day approaching the mid-fifties if the air temperature isn’t too cold. However, when the water temperature is way down in the thirties the fish slow down. At this point most fish I’ve ever seen head for deeper water - to avoid predators such as herons, hawks, eagles — anything outside the pond environment since now the fish become the "prey". This behavior has probably been genetically encoded over the tens of thousands of years: you stay near the surface, you’ll get eaten! Dive and you survive. Just a few different thoughts on the subject. —David |
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| I'm guessing that goldfish like those sunny warmer temps near the surface for the same reason snakes like to lay on pavement or a turtle climbs onto a sunny log. Temperature speeds up metabolism/digestion. |
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- Posted by runningonempty Z6/MO (My Page) on Thu, Dec 17, 09 at 21:26
| Some time ago, I repurposed our plastic mailbox by putting it in the pond. We took both front and rear doors off which made it look like an old fashioned covered bridge. We sunk it and watched the fish go in and out, in and out, they really seemed to have fun with it. One day I went out to feed them and could not believe what I saw. There were at least 5 goldfish, side by side, all with their noses to the sidewall of the bridge. They were perfectly "parked" like cars! It was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen them do. We also had one particular goldfish that loved to jump out and back into the water. I think if we had put hoops just above the water it would have jumped right through them. Animals do the funniest things and sometimes it's without any reason at all. I think the goldfish are catching the rays. No special reason for thinking that way but almost all animals love to catch the warmth of the sun...and snooze. ;-) Nance |
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