Peacock bass question

[BassSteve]

So I live in Florida, and we have peacock bass here. They are really fun to fish, they put up a nice fight. I saw something I never witnessed before. Late December/early January this year I noticed all the peacock bass seemed to die off in the lake I fish at occasionally. They were floating everywhere. Do they dump chemicals in these lakes to kill off peacock bass, or is this some kind of weather related phenomenon where they cant handle cold fronts like largemouth bass? Any insight would be appreciated

[roadwarrior]

 

 

 

 

Peacocks, which are native to tropical fresh waters of South America, have a genetic intolerance to cold. Their populations will not tolerate sustained water temps below 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

[BassSteve]

22 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

 

 

 

 

Peacocks, which are native to tropical fresh waters of South America, have a genetic intolerance to cold. Their populations will not tolerate sustained water temps below 66 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ah ok so it's a weather thing, that's a shame.

[Dwight Hottle]

Some of the ocean fish suffer the same problem like snook & tarpon when an extended nasty cold front hits the state & gulf waters. 

[BassSteve]

24 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Some of the ocean fish suffer the same problem like snook & tarpon when an extended nasty cold front hits the state & gulf waters. 

It's a shame because peacock bass are fun to fight with lol. So by April or May they should be back in action right?

[Deleted account]

21 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

It's a shame because peacock bass are fun to fight with lol. So by April or May they should be back in action right?

It's good now, I just got pictures texted to me yesterday from around Miami of some decent sized fish, but warmer is usually better.

[bigbassin']

18 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

It's a shame because peacock bass are fun to fight with lol. So by April or May they should be back in action right?

Warmer months have always been better for me, May seems to be the best where it’s warm but hasn’t started raining everyday yet.

 

If you live in the northern end of their range you may have lost a good number with the cold snaps we had this year. A big part of why FWC stocked them and promotes them as a game fish is because they can’t tolerate anything north of about Lake Ida consistently, so they’ll never be a threat to largemouth in the famous lakes like the Big O or the Kissimmee chain. They’ll expand north of Ida during warm years but seems that once a decade or so we get enough cold to knock the range back down.

[BassSteve]

20 minutes ago, bigbassin' said:

Warmer months have always been better for me, May seems to be the best where it’s warm but hasn’t started raining everyday yet.

Lol could have fooled me...I went running this morning and it's about 84° out and pretty humid ? it is very cloudy and windy today too. But yes, I am North of Lake Ida so I'm probably not going to see much peacock action until a couple more months 

[bigbassin']

31 minutes ago, BassSteve said:

Lol could have fooled me...I went running this morning and it's about 84° out and pretty humid ? it is very cloudy and windy today too. But yes, I am North of Lake Ida so I'm probably not going to see much peacock action until a couple more months 

Ya today was not a great example.
 

Not sure how much cold y’all got last weekend but a little north of Tampa my truck was reading 29 before sunrise, frost on the ground.

[Seaworthy81]

Same happened to my favorite canals around me. Water got too cold and killed a lot of the peacocks, some made it some didn’t although I’m not really sure what the difference is since they were all in the same canal. Somehow the snakehead survived though. I also haven’t seen a Mayan since the cold snaps either although I didn’t see any dead ones. 

[BassSteve]

13 minutes ago, Seaworthy81 said:

Same happened to my favorite canals around me. Water got too cold and killed a lot of the peacocks, some made it some didn’t although I’m not really sure what the difference is since they were all in the same canal. Somehow the snakehead survived though. I also haven’t seen a Mayan since the cold snaps either although I didn’t see any dead ones. 

Me either, no sign of any Mayan cichlids yet

[SamTheHam]

The water temperatures differ depending on the depth. Several years ago the same thing happened and it took some time for the population up north (broward) to get back to normal.