David B. 

I cleaned up the nice balcony #medaka pond enough to move there the medaka that were in the nasty garden medaka ponds (as well as the big water lilly).

Now, I wonder if I did the right thing. All the medaka in the balcony pond died last winter (No idea why, the snails survived, and I even spotted a shrimp - I thought shrimps were not supposed to live through the winter), whereas at least five, maybe more (the water is nasty) survived in the garden ponds. 🤔

#LifeInJapan #Spring

Mar 24 at 7:32amWeb
Show threadCorey Snipes 🌱1d ago
@David Posibly the balcony pond gets colder than the garden pond. I assume the garden pond is in-ground and balcony pond is above ground? Just a guess. Very cool that you have medaka! I love small cold-water fish and have kept a few different goodeid species here in the USA at times.
Show threadDavid B. 1d ago

@coreysnipes Medaka are extremely common here (normal, they're local) and they hibernate in winter.

(all "ponds" are minipond and above ground, the difference of temperature between the balcony and the garden may be one or two degrees)

It's my third winter with this minipond, and it's the first time they all died. But a few died in autumn too, which never happened before, so... 🤔

(Usually, the fish mostly die in summer, probably because of the heat that they handle worse than the cold)

Show threadCorey Snipes 🌱1d ago
@David Ah, I see. That's probably not the issue then. It's great you have such easy access to medaka. Your ponds sound nice with plants, snails, fish and shrimp. A real ecosystem!
Show threadsmall cypress18h ago
@David I kept mine inside this winter (midatlantic US) in perfect conditions and lost a few, with the common wisdom saying they should have been outside. Moving them outside next week. For such easy fish mine have been fussy
Show threadDavid B. 18h ago

@small_cypress "midatlantic US"

Sorry, I don't know what that means in terms of climate. (nor location really, I don't think that the US is in the middle of the Altantic). 🤔 🤷‍♂️