Their Not Coldwater?

[adam98150]

A friend of mine has a couple of hillstream/butterfly plecs and wcmm's in his coldwater aquarium (50g).Are they coldwater or tropical?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Neither They're sub tropical.

 

[catxx]

i believe they are both cold water.
the minnows definately are.
google the hillstream!

edit: oohfeeshy posted before me.

i thought the minnows could cope with cold water?

ok not being "cold water" like goldfish are cold water, but don't mind cold temperatures.

 

[adam98150]

Or, ok.

 

[shrimply]

I bought a hillstream loach under a different name. Took me a while to find out what it was. I kept in my small 2ft tank with a weather loach and 2 WCMM. I think they are great fish but sadly it died when I was on holiday. I think the temp got too hot.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Hillstream loaches (not plecs) come from fast running streams; they need well oxygenated water. So this is why it may have died during a heatwave; hot water carries less oxygen. Ideal for cool tanks (22C is fine), not overstocked and with good aeration.

If your friend's house is centrally heated, adam, that may well be the temperature of his goldfish tank; after all, most people don't put cooling packs in their coldwater tanks, so they end up roughly the temperature of the surrounding air.

 

[shrimply]

I bought mine as borneo algea eater. And he was dong really well but my room gets hot so we think that it was the temps that were to blame. The water temp usually stays around 20-24 and there is a good current and plenty of areation.

 

[adam98150]

Yeah thanks.
So it wouldnt do well in a heated tank then?

 

[sylvia]

No, they should be in a sub-tropical tank. Neither is coldwater. Neither is tropical. Both WCMMs and hillstream loaches need to be kept in sub-tropical temps. to thrive - though WCMMs are very hardy and can survive other conditions. Hillstreams require very highly oxygenated water with a strong flow and plenty of rounded rocks and the like to graze algae off of. Don't put one in a tropical tank.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

They wouldn't live very long in comparsion to their natural life expectancy, and will most likely suffer health problems brought on by the stress of having their metabolism speeded up or down by the temp of the water no matter how well you look after them if you dont keep them in subtropical temps.
Some fish are far more hardy than others though and will not be affected so severely, the hillstream loaches for example may last just a couple of months max while fish like wcmms can last for years in tropical or coldwater temps as they are very tough fish.

Hillstream loaches, wcmm's(white cloud mountain minnows), pearl and zebra and leopard danios, weather loaches, albino/bronze corys, common plecs and bloodfin tetras are all examples of fish that preferred to be kept in sub tropical temps- sub tropical temps are usually in the range of 19-23 degrees .

The vast majority of subtropical fish prefer to be in strongly filtered and oxygenated water, like hillstream loaches and wcmm's, but fish like albino/bronze corys and common plecs prefer to be in just normaly filtered waters.

 

[adam98150]

Yeah thanks.
I was just wondering for the health of my friends fish.

 

[sylvia]

Can I just say that zebra/leopard danios (same species), the cories and plecs, are not sub-tropical and do best kept at tropical temps. Arguably, the same applies to the bloodfin tetras. BUT, these fish do fine in sub-tropical environments and certainly preffer the lower end of tropical temps.
Weather loaches, WCMMs and hillstream loaches are actualy sub-tropical.
Weather loaches could even be considered coldwater.

 

[adam98150]

Ok, thanks.

 

[fi$hys]

They are both coldwater and tropical.

 

[Chri$]

after research i have found that they are sub tropical