Weather Loaches In A Tropical Community

[DaveA76]

got 2 weather loaches of a friend of mine that was changing his tropical tank to cichlids, he had them from been about 1.5 inch in water about 25oC, ive had them in my tank now for about a month and they are about 5 inch, will the have any bad effects on a tropical community as they are supposed to be coldwater fish? because all the seem to do at the min is dig in the sand all day looking for food

 

[Carlovel1]

25 degrees is def the highest these loach can handle. If kept in higher temps, basically these guys aren't as active as they are in cold water and they live much shorter lives. And they are more prone to diseases. TBH , he would be better off in a fish shop

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

My eight are in my 540l, 22C with ~3500lph water turnover. Burrowing in fine sand is a very natural thing for them, mine often just have their head popping out above the sand level.

What other fish have you got? You could really do with being able to lower the temp.

 

[DaveA76]

i cant really drop the temperature, because in that tank there are guppy's, molly's platy's, swordtails and a pair of kribensis

they have been kept in 25oC since they were 1.5 inch and they are very active to say the least at this temperature, i asked him about the temp when i got them and when he bought them they were in tropical temps at the fish shop, so this temp is all they know and they are in cracking condition, all i wondered is if they would be ok in with the other fish and not cause any long term problems in the tank

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Guppys appear to like 19-29C
Mollys 21-26C
Platys 18-26C
Swordtail 21-28C
Kribs 24-27C

So at the very least, you can reduce your heater thermostat to 24C. Less temp means more oxygen saturation, as well as a lowered metabolism. If those temps above hold true, you are going to drastically shorten the lives of everything except the Kribs, as you are keeping them at the higher end of the temp range, not to mention they will be needing larger portions of food and then bigger water changes.

 

[Carlovel1]

Guppys appear to like 19-29C
Mollys 21-26C
Platys 18-26C
Swordtail 21-28C
Kribs 24-27C

So at the very least, you can reduce your heater thermostat to 24C. Less temp means more oxygen saturation, as well as a lowered metabolism. If those temps above hold true, you are going to drastically shorten the lives of everything except the Kribs, as you are keeping them at the higher end of the temp range, not to mention they will be needing larger portions of food and then bigger water changes.

Agree on everything except:
Kribensis 22-26 ºC
The temp can be safely lowered to 22ºC.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Well that's even better news than if Kribs are "good" at 22C, this is the weakness of using the internet as a fish profile reference, anyone can tell you anything about any given subject with no verification!

 

[spidergravy]

Thank you for this information about weather loaches. I bought one this morning, from the tropical tank of a pet shop, and was told it was a tropical fish. I have danios (that came from a cold tank today), guppies, platies (or mollies - can't remember) and some neons, so I guess they can all tolerate a lower temperature, but whatabout Fishy William, my very large plec? I'd like to make Bill the Loach happy if I can, now that I've read up about him.