Temperature question on Tanganyikans

[UKSouth]

My heater has packed up in my Tang set up, luckily I spotted it while doing a water change, the temp had only dropped to around 21 C.

I will not be able to replace the heater until the weekend but have a small 50 watt heater I use in my quarantine tank which is managing to keep the temp in my main tank at 23 C, will this be ok until the weekend, normally I keep it around 26 C ?The fish seem happy enough.

 

[TaffyFish]

I would have thought 23oC would be fine until the weekend, it shouldn't drop any lower - if you're worried turn up the heating in that room perhaps? My coldwater tank was up at 27 over the last weekend ut that was quite a warm spell.

Lucky that your heater failed off instead of sticking on like mine did. :-( You might find less aggression if the water is cooler, the fish might also be less active and less hungry.

In January, we had a power cut at work and the temp in my multi tank dropped below 19 for something like 18 hours. All but the very very youngest multi fry survived it, there were 2 x 2" juvie synos in there too and some cyprichromis fry only a couple of weeks old. I thought their hardiness was quite amazing particularly as we're told that Tangs are sensitive to water temp fluctuations as the lake temp is so constant.

 

[wayne]

I would have thought Cyprichromis would be a bit more resistant to temp change as they are semi pelagic and I believe they moved up and down in the water column quite a bit where I would have asumed there would be temp differences. You'll note there's a lot of assumptions in that statement though. What about Fronts?

 

[TaffyFish]

Wouldn't argue that Wayne but remember these were fry only a few weeks old, I wouldn't have thought that they're semi-pelagic until they're a lot bigger. I didn't think they had the body mass to cope with such a chill - just goes to show!

What about fronts? They in habit deeper waters so I would have thought a constant but lower temp would suit them. I've never kept them - do they come up the water column to spawn, or do juveniles spend time higher up?

 

[wayne]

I'm simply speculating. I don't know differnet temps for different depths though it would be interesting. I Also am not sure about the natural behaviour of cyps though I had a feeling these were amongst the genera that moved up and down at night

 

[UKSouth]

Thanks for the info, all seems ok and my little 50 watt heater is doing a great job.

Taffy how is your breeding going, any Occelatus survivors. I am going to have another go at breeding Leptosoma, I wish I hadn't given my last batch of fry away to be honest. How long do they take to grow?

By the way my wife had a little girl on 31st March, its great being a dad myself, look forward to introducing her to the hobby one day.

cheers

 

[TaffyFish]

I have only 2 male occies left after my disaster in that tank, they were moved in from another tank. I am considering buying 2 or 3 females and setting them up again in my main tank. Trouble is they were being harrassed by the tret and leleupi - might be best to trade them in for the boulengeri I am waiting for. Cyps are fairly slow growing, one of my offspring is just now colouring up to replace the male which I lost through bloat. He must be about 10 months old and 2"

*celebrate

Congrats on the birth of your daughter, man, that is great! Do you think you might name her Neolamprologus or Cyprichromis after the fish?

*celebrate

You know why it happened of course......? You're

amongst the genera that moved up and down at night

*laughingc

 

[UKSouth]

I suppose I could have named her Leptosoma Pink Flash 'Royal Bournemouth Hospital'.

 

[TaffyFish]

there you go....she sounds like one of Geldof's kids now!