Cold water aquariums

Velvetgun

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Does anyone have small, medium or large cold water aquariums?
Among the various cold water fish that are not huge pond fish, the ones I love are these:
Ciprinella lutrensis
Chlamydogoblus eremius (Desert goby)
Empire gudgeon
Tanichthys albonubes (White cloud minnows) in its original and gold varieties
Corydoras Weitzmani
Corydoras Panda
Guppy
Endler
Ancistrus sp (Bristlenose pleco)
Misgurnes anguillacaudatus (loach dajo)
Rosy barb
Gold barb
Odessa barb
Platy sunset
Macropodus opercularis
Macropodus spechti
Clown killifish
Asian stone catfish (hara Jerdoni)
Pygmy Sunfish
Rainbow shiner

Amano shrimp
Cherry shrimp

Every now and then I seriously think about an aquarium, both small (54 liters) and medium (at least 100 liters) for a group of cold water fish.
However, I exclude some of them from this list because they suffer from temperatures that are easy to have in our summer, while others are within limits, considering that the aquarium is in the house which is cooler.
For the 54 I had also thought of macropodus opercularis or spechti and Tanichthys as the main fish but some rejected it for its size.
Do you have any or would you like to have some?
Do you ever think about it?
 
my 4 -10 gallons, and 2 of my 55 gallon tanks have heaters, but are set at 71 degrees F.

small tanks are all shrimp tanks, with breeding pairs of mostly live bearers ( one has white cloud mountain minnows ), one 55 is my Hillstream tank, & one is my Barb tank
 
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My Himalayan foothills tank doesn’t have a heater. (See link in signature). Padamya barbs, choprae danios, reticulated hillstream loaches, Himalayan sand loaches, a scarlet badis, lots of inverts and a fire belly toad. Pardon the common names. Don’t have time look them up right now. Strong flow and lots and lots of plants. Currently my favorite tank. :cool:
 
All of my tanks are unheated. I only keep notice where to locate the tanks with fish that are in need of a higher temperature by putting them higher in those racks. For a room has temperature layers. Lower means colder and higher means warmer. And it has worked perfectly for decades...
 
I have heaters set to start at lowest bearable temperature for inhabitants and still have a few working some times during normal winter time...

But they are all there in case of power outage during the period and will prevent deadly temperatures drops... As long as the generator is running.
 
I keep killifish that thrive from 19-22 degrees. 90% of my tanks are unheated. I also have some fish from the rainforests of Central Africa, where the forest canopy keeps the water around 22 degrees.

The "central fish" idea is a very old one from ornamental tanks. I don't like that style, and set my tanks up with one species, most of the time. My goal is behavioural aquariums. The idea of a larger fish to draw the eye doesn't work with that.

I know we call them cold water tanks in the aquarium hobby, but here in Canada, they don't seem cold water to me!
 
As long as they're inside the house. loll. Don't put them too close to wood stoves too.
 
My Himalayan foothills tank doesn’t have a heater. (See link in signature). Padamya barbs, choprae danios, reticulated hillstream loaches, Himalayan sand loaches, a scarlet badis, lots of inverts and a fire belly toad. Pardon the common names. Don’t have time look them up right now. Strong flow and lots and lots of plants. Currently my favorite tank. :cool:
Sounds like a paradise
Plz post some photos of that tank if u don't mind
I'd love to see how it looks
 
I know we call them cold water tanks in the aquarium hobby,
I've always thought of/ described the tanks and species mentioned in post #1 and #5 as temperate. Some use the term subtropical.
For me, cold water would be those that thrive outdoors all year round, usually in ponds due to their size.
 
I kept really large comets, in hibernation in tanks in my garage and they where sleeping all the time.

With good prepared filtration, and right temperatures you could get away with a third of the tank in fish volume for a whole winter without too much hassle.

And they would not even notice you all along. Hovering 2 inches above the bottom or another fish... Mindless.

Until they get back in the pond. When water temperature crosses back over. and the garage is going hot.

You could feel the fishes knew what was going to happen. And they would jump in your face from container to the pond as soon as close enough, loll.
 
I keep killifish that thrive from 19-22 degrees. 90% of my tanks are unheated. I also have some fish from the rainforests of Central Africa, where the forest canopy keeps the water around 22 degrees.

The "central fish" idea is a very old one from ornamental tanks. I don't like that style, and set my tanks up with one species, most of the time. My goal is behavioural aquariums. The idea of a larger fish to draw the eye doesn't work with that.

I know we call them cold water tanks in the aquarium hobby, but here in Canada, they don't seem cold water to me!
As you likely know, when Innes considered a title for his now classic book, Exotic Aquarium Fishes, he purposefully avoided the word 'tropical' which was already in common usage to describe aquarium fishes. He did so because he felt it implied keeping them at temperatures that were too warm.

Now that the last of my Discus is gone, my heaters are presently in use only for extremes and when there are planned breedings. And one tank housing a betta. Most are unplugged and the others are set for 70F.

To me a coldwater aquarium implies temps lower than the preferred temps for most of those species listed by the OP.

As for a Macropodus opercularis or its cogeners in mixed company especially with smaller fishes, I wouldn't do it. They have a reputation for being 'bad actors' in those situations.
 
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