What happens to the fish when a lake freezes?
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M$2 Answers
It's linked to a physics problem I heard in school. What is the temperature at the bottom of the lake in the coldest winter in the coldest place in the world? The answer: 2 F. As I recall, because of the density of water, it will only get to 2 F at the bottom of the lake. Only water exposed to freezing air will freeze because of the difference in density. (Again... as I recall.)
So, if the lake is, at a minimum, a few feet deep... there will always be water available for fish.
Now... Fish DO need air... so there needs to be a way for the water to continue to be oxygenated. There might be enough in the water, but (as with home ponds), you sometimes need a breathing hole to be cut into the ice to allow the fish to "breathe".
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M$
So normally nothing will happen to a fish in a lake when it freezes, unless the entire lake is frozen to ice which is almost impossible.
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M$
I did not know that.
We don't get a lot of ice in Texas, so I often wondered what happened.
Ah, thanks. That's exactly what I was thinking - because I just watched a scene in The Assassination of Jesse James in which he looks into the frozen lake and shoots at the fish below. Also I think I read about it somewhere in The Catcher in the Rye.