Aestivation habits of loach

For fish, amphibians, reptiles and other animals, in winter, when the temperature drops below the living temperature that they can adapt to, they will hide in caves and soil and enter hibernation. When the next spring comes, the temperature will rise. When the temperature is suitable for life, they emerge from the caves and soil and resume normal life.

In addition to hibernation, some animals will undergo aestivation in summer when conditions are harsh and unsuitable for survival. Aestivation of lungfish has been known to many people, and in fact some fish also have the habit of aestivation. Such examples are not uncommon in freshwater in the equatorial region. Since the swamps in the equatorial region often dry up for weeks or months without water in the summer, many fish with accessory respiratory organs, such as climbing perch, silk-footed perch, Snakeheads and other snakeheads spend the dry summer by burrowing into the mud in a state of numbness. When the rainy season comes, the ponds and rivers are filled with water, and they resume their normal life again.

The loach that lives in the waters along the Danube River, when the river dries up in summer, it digs into the mud without eating or drinking, entering a state of aestivation, relying only on its special intestines to breathe air and maintain its life.

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