Summer feeds winter. It's hard to disagree with this proverb. For this harsh time of the year, all living things prepare in advance. A person stocks up on fuel, insulates his home, prepares food for future use. Animals, insects and fish are getting ready for winter. At the same time, everyone does it in different ways. Animals fatten up, and with the onset of cold weather they change their summer coat for a winter one. Insects and reptiles huddle in shelters and fall asleep, fish become lethargic, burrow into silt, fall into suspended animation, or look for deep bottom holes in which you can wait out the winter.

Winter is a real challenge for river dwellers. The surface of the reservoir is covered with ice, which prevents the water from being saturated with oxygen. Sunlight is also becoming a big shortage. Not only is the winter day incredibly short, but the ice, covered with a thick layer of snow, prevents light from penetrating into the reservoir. The water becomes cold, which significantly reduces the activity of river inhabitants. Their movements become sluggish and slow.

In such conditions, most fish cannot lead active image life. They sink to the bottom, bury themselves in the silt, and fall into suspended animation. Life processes in their bodies slow down. They exist only at the expense of those reserves that they were able to accumulate in the summer.

However, not all fish hibernate. Some of their species look for deep places (wintering pits), huddle in flocks, and in such a sedentary state they wait out the winter. Only predators, fish that spawn in winter, and those species that make seasonal migrations remain active.

But back to those river inhabitants who hibernate in their waters. Let's see what happens to water when its temperature drops. The answer is quite simple - its density is growing. It becomes maximum at four degrees. The denser layers go down, and the less dense ones go up. Natural convection of water takes place. Only its upper layers freeze. In order for the reservoir to be frozen to the bottom, all the water needs to be cooled to four degrees. But this happens quite rarely, and only applies to small and small bodies of water.

With a decrease in temperature, all life processes in the reservoir slow down. Stop growing aquatic plants, plankton does not multiply. At the same time, the amount of food consumed by fish decreases. This makes fish of the same type and size look for deep holes, congregate in them, and so winter. Their life processes slow down, the body becomes covered with mucus.According to the prevailing opinion, it performs a protective function, which boils down to scaring away predators. At least until the onset of warmth, they do not touch them.

This is how all heat-loving fish winter, such as tench, carp, bream, crucian carp. In winter, they practically do not consume food, but exist only due to summer reserves, which are quite enough for three winter months. The fish are practically motionless, as evidenced by the bedsores on their abdomens.

Winter has practically no effect on predatory fish. They practically do not react to a drop in water temperature. Perch and pike continue to actively hunt, which is what ice fishermen use. At the same time, the pike prefers deep and dark places, in which, as a rule, roach, bleak and ruff winter. Active in winter time there is also a pike perch that hunts at great depths, in dark places, far from the coast.

With the onset of winter, the catfish leaves deep holes and rises closer to the surface, trying to choose places with fast flow... This is due to the fact that it is here that the water is maximally saturated with oxygen. Burbot does the same. It is not called a winter fish for nothing. He is very active at this time of the year. Burbot does not tolerate warm water well. At 27 degrees, he dies. In summer, this fish is sluggish and inactive. It sinks to the bottom and gets hammered under the driftwood. It becomes more active only in autumn, when the water temperature drops to 15 degrees. Fishermen say that it is at this time that burbot begins to eat. Spawning in this fish also coincides with the winter period. Females select rocky areas of the bottom and lay eggs.

Whitefish is found in fresh water bodies of the northern part of Russia, including the Far East. It is also considered to be winter. Its spawning period coincides with the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. Whitefish feeds on organisms that live on the bottom, as well as eggs of spawning fish.

Seasonal migratory fish can live in both salt and fresh water. These include, for example, sturgeon living in the Azov and Caspian Seas. With the beginning of winter, they enter the rivers, and in huge flocks swim to the spawning grounds.

The Azov hamsa behaves somewhat differently. With the onset of winter, it migrates to the warmer waters of the Black Sea. Other fish make similar migrations. Caspian herring moves closer to the south. The Far Eastern flounder does the same. Arctic fish simply sink to depths of up to 300 meters and practically cease to consume food.

With the onset of winter, great changes occur in reservoirs that affect the behavior of underwater inhabitants. The water temperature drops. The daylight period gradually decreases. Then the reservoirs are covered with an ice cover, snow falls on top of it - the illumination drops even more. For a long 4 months, underwater inhabitants exist in conditions of cold, oxygen deficiency and semi-darkness. During the wintering period, fish activity sharply decreases, food consumption almost completely stops, growth processes slow down, heart rate decreases, reactions to stimuli slow down, metabolic rate in the body slows down and is maintained due to fat reserves accumulated in summer.

Winter pits

Different types fish outlive this difficult period unequally. Many types of heat-loving fish such as bream, carp, tench, already in October-November they gather in huge flocks and go to wintering pits. Here they spend about 3 months practically without movement, like herring in a barrel! In those fish that are at the very bottom, bedsores are even formed on the belly.

At the same time, fish of the same species and age hibernate together and in large concentrations. If the pit is small, then absolutely identical individuals are arranged in it! Scientists-ichthyologists explain this mystery of nature by the fact that the mass accumulation of fish of the same species and age provides them with optimal conditions for wintering, because the metabolic processes in the fish body are less intense than it would be if the fish were wintering alone. In addition, it makes more rational use of mucus, which fish secrete as an insulating agent.

And here catfish they are attached higher, near wintering pits - at the outlets from the depths, at the boundaries of pits and bottom rises. This is due to the fact that in the pit itself, already a month after the formation of the ice cover, the oxygen regime changes sharply for the worse, which the catfish cannot tolerate.

How predatory fish winter

Predatory fish do not hide in wintering pits. But for some reason, the inhabitants of such pits are not touched either, although they could thus ensure a well-fed existence for the whole winter. For the most part, pike, perch and pike perch hunt for those fish for which the ice shell over their heads does not care and they do not leave their usual habitats for the winter - this is perch, roach, bleak, verhovka and ruff.

With the appearance of ice cover, the behavior of predatory fish changes. Predatory fish share in relation to light: for example, perch is a crepuscular-daytime predator, pike is crepuscular, pike perch is deeply twilight.

At the beginning of winter, semi-darkness is created under the ice, which plays into the hands of twilight predators. And then they, in the first days of the establishment of the ice cover, arrange a bloody massacre for their victims. This predator's rye is called "first ice".

But for burbot it is winter that is favorable time of the year. Warm summer water oppresses him. At temperatures above 15-16 ° C, burbot stops feeding and goes into hibernation, hiding in coastal burrows, under large stones or driftwood, and at a temperature of 27 ° C it dies. Only in autumn, when the water in the rivers cools down noticeably, does it wake up and begin to intensively feed itself. Burbots prefer to hunt at night. Young burbots feed on zooplankton, and yearlings switch to a "fish diet". When crackling frosts break out and the rivers are covered with a thick layer of ice (in November-December in the north or in December-February in the temperate zone), burbot becomes even more active and begins to reproduce, spawning its eggs on rocky areas of the bottom.

Fish migration

Some fish of temperate and arctic latitudes do not want to change their usual way of life in winter. They prefer to move to warmer waters. Hamsa, which lives in the Sea of ​​Azov, feeds intensively in summer, accumulating fat. With the cooling of the water, it migrates through the Kerch Strait to the Black Sea and hibernates there, sinking to a depth of 100-150 m. It is during the wintering migration of the Azov anchovy that fishing for this fish begins. Caspian herring migrate to the south in winter, where the water is warmer.

"Frozen fish"

And if the reservoir is shallow, stagnant and freezes through in winter? There are such lakes in the Arctic. Their inhabitants are common carp and black fish dallia with the onset of winter they burrow into silt. When such bodies of water freeze to the very bottom, fish often find themselves frozen into the ice. But their resistance to low temperatures is amazing. Even being in ice captivity, fish do not die - unless the gills and body fluids freeze. In the spring, when the reservoirs thaw, dallia comes to life and in the short polar summer manages to fatten and leave offspring.

Sometimes it happens...

In equatorial waters, where there is never winter, fish can be active during all year round... However, some of them also have problems during the winter months. Only they are connected, of course, not with a cold snap, but, on the contrary, with unbearable heat and drought. Some tropical fish burrow into silt and fall asleep. This helps them cope with heat and the associated lack of oxygen.

If crucian carp and dallia are the most frost-resistant freshwater fish, then a small fish from the genus karpozubik - Cyprinodon macularius (cyprinodon macularis), living in the south North America, - the record holder for withstanding the highest water temperature. She lives and manages not to cook in the hot springs of California, the water temperature of which is 52 ° C! For reference: it is impossible to hold a hand for any length of time in water with such a temperature.

I wonder how different fish spend the winter? Indeed, in the northern regions, many lakes and swamps freeze to the very bottom.

S. Mikhailova (Stavropol).

Wintering is such a seasonal period in the life of fish, when their activity sharply decreases, food consumption almost completely stops, and metabolism in the body is maintained due to fat reserves accumulated in summer. Not all fish living in temperate and arctic latitudes change their way of life in winter. For example, in our Far Eastern seas, flounders of Arctic origin in winter fatten up in the coastal zone, while thermophilic flounders living in the same seas move away from the coast to depths of up to 300 m for the winter, where they form accumulations and, almost without feeding, spend the entire winter. Hamsa, inhabiting the Sea of ​​Azov, feeds intensively in summer, accumulating fat. With the cooling of the water, it migrates through the Kerch Strait to the Black Sea, where it hibernates, sinking to a depth of 100-150 m.

Some representatives of the sturgeon family (beluga, Russian sturgeon, stellate sturgeon, thorn) from the Azov and Caspian Seas enter rivers in autumn and while away the winter at the bottom of deep sections of the channel. Many river fish spend the winter in pits at the bottom of the river, uniting in large groups.

The hardest of all is for the fish that constantly live in the small, stagnant lakes of the Arctic region - the common crucian carp and the black fish - dallia. With the onset of winter, they burrow into silt. But in the extremely harsh conditions of the north, such reservoirs freeze to the very bottom, and fish often find themselves frozen into the ice. Their resistance to low temperatures is simply amazing. Even being in ice captivity, the fish remain alive, of course, provided that their cavity fluids and blood in the vessels do not turn into a solid state. There is a known case when a hungry dog ​​swallowed dallia covered with ice shell, and then vomited it. The fish thawed in the dog's stomach turned out to be alive.

If for the majority of our freshwater fish the most fertile season is summer, then for the burbot, which is widespread in the rivers of Russia, a favorable period is winter. Warm summer water oppresses him. At temperatures above 15-16 o, burbot stops feeding and hibernates, huddled in coastal burrows, under large stones or driftwood. Only in autumn, when the water in the rivers cools down noticeably, does it wake up and begin to intensively feed itself. And when the crackling frosts break out and the rivers are covered with a thick layer of ice, the burbot becomes even more active and begins to reproduce, spawning its eggs on the rocky areas of the bottom. They do not like warm water and whitefish, which are widespread in our northern regions of European territory, in Siberia and the Far East. They spawn in late autumn or early winter, under the ice, and live an active life all winter.

In the water bodies of the equatorial zone, where there is never winter, fish can be active throughout the year. However, some of them also have problems during the winter months of the calendar, connected, of course, not with a cold snap, but with unbearable heat and drought. Thus, the protopterus living in the fresh waters of tropical Africa, due to the complete drying out of water bodies, is forced to "winter", buried in the silt for several months.

If crucian carp and dallia are the most frost-resistant freshwater fish, then the small fish cyprinodon macularis, which lives in the south of the North American continent, holds the record for withstanding the highest water temperatures. After all, she has to constantly live in water with a temperature above 50 o, coming from hot underground springs.

In the warm season, a decorative pond on a personal plot does not require special care. Only on very hot days do you have to deal with water bloom. However, with the onset of cold weather, you need to make a lot of efforts so that the reservoir and its inhabitants winter safely and with the arrival of spring they again become the center of attention in the country.

Prepare the pond for winter long before the onset of cold weather. Before the beginning of leaf fall, cover it with a net so that foliage does not get into the water. If this is not done, then in the spring the leaves will begin to rot under water, and all beauty will be ruined. But with the onset of the first night frost, it must be removed so that it does not freeze into the ice.

If leaves do get into the pond, catch them with a net or with a water vacuum cleaner (skimmer - surface suction pump).

We clean the bottom

Bottom cleaning- This is a mandatory procedure, regardless of whether you have a wintering pond or not. Everything that accumulates at the bottom - silt, garbage, fish food - decomposes and forms disease-causing gases that can poison the inhabitants of the reservoir. Therefore, do not ignore cleaning. This can be done with a rake.

Remember to keep the pond clean for the winter.

We remove the equipment

Already from the beginning of autumn, start constantly monitoring the night air temperatures. At the moment when the night temperature approaches 5 ° C, turn off the pressure pumps (if any) and disconnect them from the filter. If the equipment is equipped with special protection against freezing, it can be safely left in the pond for the winter. But if there is no such protection, then all auxiliary elements are removed from the water, washed with a weak saline solution, dried and transferred to a warm and dry place, where they are stored until spring. Store pumps and hoses rolled up in a container filled with water.

Preparing the pond for wintering

To prepare the reservoir for winter, initially you need to assess the scale of the upcoming actions. This largely depends on its size. Let's figure it out.

Small bodies of water are not left for wintering at all. A pond with an area of ​​up to 20 square meters and a depth of up to 0.8 m in winter will freeze to the very bottom, regardless of its origin (artificial or natural). Therefore, you need to extract everything from it. plants and living creatures... Then the water is pumped out and the walls and bottom are manually cleaned.

After that, the pond is half or 2/3 full clean water so that in winter it does not accumulate a lot of snow, which will then melt for a very long time.

If the winter is very cold, don't be lazy - make a small hole in the pond. By creating a kind of air cushion under the ice, you will significantly speed up the process of melting and warming up the pond in spring.

Bodies of water an area of ​​over 20 square meters and a depth of more than 1 m can be left full for the winter. However, before that, they also clean the bottom and remove all equipment (filters, pumps, etc.).

Wintering aquatic plants

Before the cold weather sets in, you need to take care of the aquatic plants.

Swamp and shallow plants cut almost at the root. Those of them that are not frost-resistant are covered with burlap or leaves. And if possible, it is better to get such plants and send them for the winter to a room where there will always be a small (about 5 ° C) positive temperature and a minimum amount of light.

Only reeds are left to winter in their place. It will be a source of oxygen for wintering fish.

Water lily, yellow capsule, elodea, swamp, vodokras, duckweed, calamus, marigold, hostu, equilegia, sitnik left for the winter in a pond. However, it is advisable to cut off several buds and keep them warm. If the plants, for some reason, do not survive the winter, they can be grown from the buds left behind.

And heat-loving plants ( water hyacinth, pistia, nile papyrus, pontederia, marsh iris, tropical water lilies) is taken out of the reservoir and placed for the winter in a container with water, the temperature of which should be at least 10-15˚С. The water in the containers is changed every 2-3 weeks, while the lighting in the storage area should not be intense and bright.

The wintering pond should contain as many plants as possible. This will help maintain biological balance in it.

Wintering fish

Changing habitat is stressful for fish. And the best option for them would be to spend the winter in their familiar, familiar reservoir. But this is not always possible. In the case when the pond is less than 1.5 m deep, the fish will freeze.

The main step in preparing fish for winter is changing the diet. In autumn, feed can be given less than, for example, in summer. And with the onset of cold weather, the fish stop feeding altogether. Because in winter they have to get used to getting food on their own.

To leave the fish to winter in their permanent place, you can purchase special equipment (pond heaters and aerators) that will help maintain the water temperature within normal limits.

If it is not possible to use all this equipment, you can make a small hole and spill it with boiling water. But remember, you cannot make an ice hole with an ax, since the shock wave can harm health and physical condition inhabitants of the reservoir.

Heat-loving ornamental fish ( cold water trout, carp koi, gold fish, verkhovka, minnow) do not leave to winter in the reservoir. A large aquarium is usually prepared for them in advance. The conditions in it should be comfortable enough for the fish so that they do not hibernate, but at the same time a little harsh so that in the spring, when they are launched into an open pond, they do not die.

The wintering place should be spacious enough. For each fish up to 10 cm long, you need at least 10 liters of water. The aquarium should be equipped with a water filter and an oxygenation system. The water temperature should be at the level of 10-12˚С.

If there is no aquarium, for the winter the fish can be moved into a large barrel with a water temperature of 15 ° C, in which a recirculating filter is installed. Under these conditions, fish can be kept indoors until spring with little light.

The final stage of preparing the pond for wintering

To complete pond preparation on summer cottage you need one important event. To prevent the freezing water from damaging the walls of the pond in winter, several logs or rubber balls are lowered into it. During severe frosts, the reservoir is additionally covered with straw, boards or burlap. However, if fish hibernate in it, it is not recommended to leave such a shelter for a long time (fish need light to maintain life). Also in winter, you need to constantly clean the surface of the pond from snow and do not forget to monitor the presence of ice holes ..

If you take proper care of the decorative reservoir in the fall, then it will survive the winter without much hassle and loss. And in next year he will again delight you with a picturesque view and coolness.

Frosty winter is a special time in the life of river and lake inhabitants. Dense ice depletes atmospheric oxygen saturation in water. The snow cover reduces the access of sunlight to the under-ice space. Water lowers the temperature, which is why most cold-blooded animals become lethargic, inactive.

Some fish, like amphibians, go into winter hibernation (hibernation). In water bodies freezing to the bottom, crucian carp and small black fish Dallia, together with newts and frogs, burrow into silt until spring, suspending all life processes. Other fish, obeying natural instincts, implement their specific behavior patterns.

Wintering options for fish

Common options for wintering fish:

• gregarious sedentary existence in wintering pits;
• active twilight life (for predatory species);
• entry into the winter spawning phase;
• seasonal migrations;

The special physical properties of water help to transfer wintering favorably to the inhabitants of ice. Fresh water acquires its highest density at +4 degrees Celsius. Cooling down in the under-ice layer to this temperature, the water sinks down before reaching the critical freezing point. Convection rotation of warm and cooling layers does not stop until the entire reservoir has cooled to +4, which happens only in very shallow ponds and lakes.

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Winter pits and predators under the ice

Winter cooling is the time when the growth of aquatic vegetation and plankton stops. Fish, the food supply of which is scarce, reduce their vital activity, huddle in flocks, looking for suitable places for wintering. Individuals of the same age and size gather in wintering pits. So it is easier for them to endure the cold, densely huddling in flocks. Mucus plentifully excreted on the surface of the scales helps to withstand the cold, minimize energy consumption. Most likely, it is she who scares away predators, the population of fish waiting out the cold remains untouched throughout the winter.

This behavior is typical for thermophilic bream, carp, and tench. Fat reserves stored in summer allow you not to worry about nutrition. About three months fish spend inactively in wintering pits, so that in individuals closest to the bottom, bedsores form on the belly.

Twilight predatory fish feel good under the ice. Perch actively hunts both in the light and in areas shaded by ice, becoming a frequent prey of fishermen - ice fishing masters. The pike prefers darker deep spaces, keeping close to perch and roach flocks, catching ruffs, bleaks and verkhovki. The same fish, which do not change their usual places of existence in the cold season, are also hunted by the deepest twilight predator - pike perch. Winter fishing pike perch is possible only in dark depths at a considerable distance from the coast.

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Whitefish and burbot time

Catfish are somewhat more active, looking for places near the boundaries of wintering pits, on elevations of the bottom, near rapids, more saturated with oxygen. Significant body weight allows the catfish not to be afraid of rapid hypothermia. However, the most staunch fans of "winter swimming" are burbots.

Burbot - winter fish

The temperature regime in the under-ice world is favorable for burbot. This fish does not like warm water, warmed up in summer shallow water to a temperature of 27 ° C, it becomes fatal not only for juveniles, but also for adults. In summer, the fish leads an inactive lifestyle, hiding under driftwood, boulders and in holes. Zhor of burbot begins with an autumn cold snap, when the water cools down to temperatures below +15 degrees. The winter chills add activity. It is during severe frosts that burbot spawns on areas of the bottom covered with small stones.

Whitefish inhabiting the water bodies encircling the north of our country, from the European to the Far Eastern part, also enters the phase of active reproduction in autumn and early winter. Bottom organisms serve as food for whitefish, as well as caviar of spawning in winter period fish, he also eats his own.
Winter migrants