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  • Results 1 to 6 of 6

    Thread: Golden Orfe - Winter Feeding

    1. #1
      ademink's Avatar
      ademink is offline Senior Member~~Moderator
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      Golden Orfe - Winter Feeding

      I'm on year 3 with my golden orfe and today I realized that despite the cold weather, they are still very active and snapping at anything that resembles food. The koi are completely comatose. lol

      Should I be feeding these little buddies? For some reason, it never occurred to me that they may need food.

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    2. #2
      ademink's Avatar
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      No orfe folks? I need to start a new forum....Orphen. LOL

    3. #3
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      Kept more in Europe than here. From what I've read you can feed them right up until the pond freezes over, but they are the first to suffer from low oxygen so make sure there's lots of air in winter if you ice up.

      clm
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    4. #4
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      Do you have any pictures? Unfortunately I can't help with your question, but I have often wondered about them and didn't think they'd make the winters here.

    5. #5
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      Nope, don't feed the orfes, let them pick at what live food they take a shine to.

      Orfes are more cold tolerant, predatory fish that will be first to snap at anything that moves. Some folk put one on a pond to cull excess tiddlers...

      Yups they are vulnerable to lower oxygen levels, you might say they are more of a river fish.

      Regards, andy
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    6. #6
      ademink's Avatar
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      I don't have any photos but if you google them...that's what they look like! They actually prefer cooler water and are in year 3 in my pond. I LOVE THEM. A LPS has a pond w/ some that are over a foot - just gorgeous. They need a big pond to do well or they'll jump (sometimes they jump out anyway...so far so good on mine). They are fast and sparkly...super cute! I keep a high oxygen level in my pond - I have even kept a fast stream of water returning to the top of the pond from the BD this year and I find the orfe swimming in that stream as I am typing. Happy fellas. lol

      Andrew - thanks for the info! They have done well so far but I wanted to make sure my ignorance wouldn't kill them. I've found them to be extremely hardy. They've survived some mass casualties from equipment malfunction, disease, parasites and medications (Oh, what a year and a half I've had...lol) .

      Oh, wanted to add that they DO make great cullers. I don't want babies to make it in my pond and they have eradicated any issues w/ overstocking from breeding. I used to use bluegill for that purpose but bluegill breed like.....I'd say rabbits but I'll say "bluegill"...b/c I think they are even more prolific. lol I found that three bluegill made it through my mass killing last year but haven't repopulated due to the orfe.
      Last edited by ademink; 11-30-2013 at 10:13 AM.

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