Acceptable Temperature For Hogchoker & Archers Being Kept Together

[Dave Legacy]

Hi guys,

I have a slight dilema. My Hogchoker Sole (Trinectes Maculatus) came in the mail today and I just finished drip acclimating it into my mangrove swamp tank that contains three 2-3" T. Jaculatrix Archers. When I first got him home my wife introduced him into a 2.5G holding tank at a temp of 71F which he seemed very comfortable in. In fact he was comfortable enough to eat a live black worm.

My question is... if my archers like a temperature range of 78-82F and the Hogchoker, being a Semi-Tropical fish that like temps below 75F, where can I set my tank temperature at that will be suitible enough for the both of them. When I picked out T. Maculatus I didn't think temperature would be a big deal but now I wonder.

The tank is now set somewhere between 78.5-79.5F. How low will the archers go and how high will the hogchoker go?

Thanks,
David

 

[nmonks]

Yep, not an ideal combination. According to Fishbase:

Trinectes maculatus = 5 – 22°C
Toxotes jaculatrix = 25 – 30°C

I'd tend to keep the tank at around 22-23?C, and then see how things go. Archers do like a warm aquarium, so you might find them prone to whitespot or something, but keep an eye on them. I'd guess lack of oxygen for the sole in too-warm water is more critical that lack of heat for an archer.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[AMS]

I'd tend to keep the tank at around 22-23?C, and then see how things go. Archers do like a warm aquarium, so you might find them prone to whitespot or something, but keep an eye on them. I'd guess lack of oxygen for the sole in too-warm water is more critical that lack of heat for an archer.

Exactly. Keep the oxygen levels up via surface agitation and hope for the best. IMHO the sole will probably be fine about the temperature (a little too warm though) but I would be more worried about the Archer. They like higher temperatures similar to Discus and Piranhas. Coldwater fish and warm-water fish arent the best option for a single aquarium.

 

[nmonks]

Indeed. The hobby totally overlooks subtropicals. The list of fish that need middling temperatures is very long, and runs from obvious things like WCMMs, hillstream loaches, and paradisefish, through to more surprising species such as peppered and bearded corydoras, blind cave tetras, gelius and rosy barbs, variatus platies, red phantom tetras, etc., etc...

This surprises me. I'd imagine there's quite a good market for aquaria based around room-temperature tanks that need little or no heating but have the stocking density of tropicals instead of that of coldwater things like goldfish. There's certainly bags of colour and variety.

Cheers,

Neale

Coldwater fish and warm-water fish arent the best option for a single aquarium.

 

[Dave Legacy]

After I posted this I started looking at the facts:

- Soles are sensitive to low-oxygen levels
- High temperatures mean lower oxygen levels

So what I did was I turned the temperature down to 78.0F, which I imagine wont be too low for archers, and hid a fairly large airstone behind a huge piece of driftwood. My 500gph HOB filter creates a "waterfall" into my tank that creates a large amount of surface disturbance. I figure that this should probably be sufficent and make up for the warmer conditions.

The hogchoker is currently feeding on live blackworms. I've been feeding it 1 per day, I don't know if I should be feeding him less because he's really not that active. He's only 2" in length, pretty small.