Temperature and tropicals

[Imp]

Bear with a newbie, but the discussion of temperature and tropical fish has come up between myself and others a number of times and I'm trying to flesh out the situation to better understand it.
I know that different species have a different tolerance of a range of temperatures, and that the variation is something you want to avoid (or rather, fluctuation). but what is the general temperature you want to keep tropicals at? I've always claimed 78, but I've heard a number of people argue for temperatures higher (80-84) and a few argue for lower temperatures (72-74). I understand the concepts of oxygenation and dissolved oxygen at different temps, but what role does temperature play on overall health and disease prevention?

Imp

 

[wayne at home]

Remember tropicals come from more than one country, and there is no single right temperature. Some fish prefer or need warmer water than others. Discus tend to do very poorly in water less than 82,84 whilst peppered cories will suffer at temperatures that high. Typical effects of too high water temps are reduced life spans, sickliness.
One thing to beware of is stuff like 'cories like it a little cooler'. Well they come from all over south americas E watershef, and that's a big place, so obviously the weather varies a bit.

 

[Imp]

How well would this relate to a mixed species tank, though? What would be the common ground? If the species in question are from different environments and different ideal temperatures, how do you choose the temperature for the tank? Course, I know it would be better simply to house only similar species with similar species for these requirements...

Imp

 

[colesea]

You're asking at the retail level again yes?

The key is to keep fish that require similar temperature ranges on the same unit.

You won't put discus in the refigerated goldfish unit would you? Just the same as you wouldn't put goldfish on the 80oF discus unit.

Most of your typical common tropical fish (tetras, barbs, cories, danios, etc) will handle temps within the range of 70oF-82oF. So the ideal would be to pick one unit and make it all barbs and put the temps in a comfortable range for barbs (mostly all barbs are Asian), then make one unit all tetras and make the temp range comfortable for tetras (most of these are all S. American).

That's ideal, it rarely happens in retail. Making individual tanks warmer can be adjusted by adding a heater to that tank specifically (Ie if you want to have a tank of discus) and one ten gallon tank at 80oF shouldn't over-heat the entire 200 gallon unit to 80oF. But there is no way to isolate a tank and make it cooler than the unit. Of course you still wouldn't try to put a heater in a 68oF goldfish unit's tank if you are trying to achieve discus temps. most likely I would use a heater in a unit that was 74oF.

Physiologically, fish body temps are their environmenta temps (tuna and large billfish excluded from discussion, they generate their own stable body temps). Fish in excessively warm temperatures have very high metabolisms, which make them aggressive, need to eat more, and "hyper" all around. Fish at excessively lower temperatures will go into a hibernative like stupor, be stiff, not require as much food, and be very slow. Fish at medium temperatures just, well, seem relaxed and behave normally.

You just have to play around and find out what temps work for your fish. If you are going to do highly temp sensitive fish, such as discus, you might have to create an independant tank just for those fish outside of the main units. But most fish really are not temp dependant within the range of 70oF to 78oF.

Keeping the temps stable is more important. Doesn't really matter what the temp is, the fish will acclimate to it, it just really has to be stable somewhere between 70oF and 78oF for most tropical community fish. The stability is really the most important factor. The optimum conditions on my units were 72oF to 74oF when I was in retail.


~~Colesea

 

[fishaddict]

I seem to be having the same problem and after a little experimentation i figured that everything tha i have does best at 75.

Large irridescent shark
Gouramis
tiger barbs
rosy barb
danios

 

[YZFR1rider]

Well I agree partly with Colesea but I keep my 100 gallon tank with discus, Silver Dollars, Tiger Barbs and a few other species at 86 degrees and they do very well granted though their metabolism is raised so that means you have to feed them more and you have to do more cleaning but if you love your tank as well as I do then that wouldn't matter. I actually do a 10% water change every other day. One bad thing about higher temps is that scaleless fish like bala sharks can get their slime coat burned at the high temps. With Balas I never keep the temp over 84 degrees. I also have some other tanks with different cichlids and tiger babs in it and I keep the temps at 82 degrees always and they do fine I have even raised several different species of baby fish in this temp also. Well this is just my opinion and experience.

Matt

 

[Aquaman]

That's something I did not know - Bala Sharks have no scales?

 

[YZFR1rider]

Yes Bala sharks are scaleless fish and it's funny because they look like they have scales too.

Matt

 

[Imp]

See, I just keep my tanks at 78 and have never had any problems. My africans run maybe a degree or two warmer, but otherwise they all stay around 78. The only problems I've had have been at work, and that's usually when the system was brought up to 81 or 82.

 

[cgoodloe]

I keep my tank at 79 and I have 1 angelfish, 1 pleco, 3 corys, 3 mollies, 1 guppy, and a new addition of a silvertip shark catfish. I have a hard time keeping the pictus catfish alive so I imagine I'll lose my silvertip too. He's already acting funny because I have high nitrites.