Stupid Question, Please Help Anyway!

[pumh]

Hello everyone,

I know this is a stupid question, but just out of curiousity, what would happen if like swordtails were kept in water around 70-74*f?



any and all help is great!!!
thanks, pumh

 

[I Keep Fish]

They would be less active, maybe refuse food, and possibly die, don't do it!

 

[hughessomefish]

yes not goot they need a temp of a minimum of 76 degrees anything less is dangerous to the life of the swordtail.

 

[pumh]

sorry to alarm everyone, but i wasn't planning on it i was just curious. what about guppies as again i'm not going to do it just wondering what effects putting them in cold(er) water would do.

thanks, pumh

 

[helterskelter]

Their is nothing to worry about. In the wild they come from some very cold mountainous area's in central Mexico and Belize. Friends often report that their is often a frost in some of these area's, in the morning's.

Ok shop fish have a slightly easier life then wild fish and are usually kept in the mid 70's but it's ok to drop down to 68f for a short period of time. They will be less active but should feed fine still.
However I would not allow then to drop any lower then 64f suddenly, as this would be lethal.

 

[fish48]

sorry to alarm everyone, but i wasn't planning on it i was just curious. what about guppies as again i'm not going to do it just wondering what effects putting them in cold(er) water would do.

thanks, pumh

its not a stupid question swordtails and guppies can be kept at 70f-74f
They will not become less active refuse food or die,


they don't need a minimum temp of 76 degrees anything less then 68f can become dangerous if kept long term .

 

[hughessomefish]

well yes but, I feel you should give your fish the best temp possible for them so then they will have a more active life in your tanks.

 

[helterskelter]

So living in the wild is not the best place for them?

This what they come from.

 

[fish48]

well yes but, I feel you should give your fish the best temp possible for them so then they will have a more active life in your tanks.

if you want to give your guppies and swordtails the best temp possible then keep them between 72f-76f

 

[helterskelter]

Sorry i did not hean to sound harsh in my last post, on Rereading.

I love my wild fish as well as cultivated lines. Just we try to do good jobs in our home aquaria's but these fish are temperate and not tropical. I'm not saying that you all have to stop using heaters, but they do fine with out. I have 12 tanks and only one has a heater.

 

[hughessomefish]

Don't worry no affence taken at all, I enjoy taking others oppinions, thats what I think the whole point of the fourm should be.

 

[OldMan47]

If you keep pet shop swordtails in water around 70F to 74F, you will have happy healthy swordtails. In the old days, when heaters did not exist for the F average hobbyist, I always kept swords, platies, guppies and mollies without heaters. They all did just fine in the typical room temperatures around 70F to 72F. When we started seeing heaters as a need in our tanks, I found people advising 78F or thereabout and fish at those temperatures also seemed to do just fine.
Please be aware that I specify pet shop swords for a reason. I keep mostly wild type livebearers these days and each wild species seems to have its own best temperature. What you find in a pet shop is the result of crossing various platy and swordtail species to develop particular color or fin shape characteristics and tend to be almost a universally adaptable fish in terms of temperatures anywhere close to reasonable. Do not try simply dumping a wild type into the wrong temperature. Even though they are tougher than pet shop swords in many ways, they really do have a "best" temperature.