who keeps cooler water tanks???

[Magnum Man]

I'll admit I think the hobby has been slowly increasing tank temperatures... my motivation there was because of a couple tanks with Ich outbreaks , but in all fairness these tanks had fish added with out a quarantine... but I rather doubt heating up the tanks a few extra degrees would prevent an Ich outbreak if you had that parasite in your tanks...

knock on the top of my head, no Ich outbreaks for probably at least 2 years... but I now have several temperate water tanks... my 4 - 10 gallon colored shrimp tanks, that each contains live bearers, and 2 - 55 gallon tanks one, including my Hillstream tank...

but I also had a heater go out on a 30 gallon Cichlid / Silver Dollar tank, with my worm line pleco... I had enough other expenses, that I put off replacing that heater for a few months during the summer... the new heater is going in this weekend as summer is definitely over... anyway this tank went from it's normal setting of 78 degree F. to just over 70, for the last couple months... no real ill effect noticed, except the worm line has been less active... but nothing noticed with the Cichlid or Dollar...

maybe the hobby is trying to mimic climate change... but I suspect the water temperatures in the wild aren't that simple... heavy rains could actually cool some water sources because of the clouds and rain, and I'd guess the fish are not actually liking areas where the water temps are rising...

my typical tropical temps are around 78 degrees F. ( that's the year I graduated, and that how my mind works ) my temperate tanks are set at 71 or 72 degrees...

I know that there are pickier fish that require a specific temp, and breeding offers it's own set of temperature challenges...

how do you determine the temperatures you keep fish at in this changing world???

 

[GaryE]

So far, there hasn't been a lot of reported temperature change in the waters of the tropics. I think there has been in the temperatures of our tanks though.

Rainfall patterns are another story.

The best way to decide is to find the scientific papers that name the species. Barring that, find the same sort of papers for species that occur with them.
You can't just go with air temperature in the region of capture. In Gabon, the temperature every day was 26c/79f. But the water temperature was a consistent 22c/71.6f. The sunlight didn't get through the canopy, and the water was coming through huge distances in heavy shade, moving downhill.
A lot of fish from that region, right on the toasty equator, die at standard heated tank temps.
You can't trust online sources. My go to with new species is the old, dog eared Baensch Atlas series, which featured serious scholarship, consultation with advanced hobbyists and fish catching explorers, and meticulous research. It may be 40 years old, and some taxonomy has changed, but the hobby level info is the best. I then look at sites like fishbase, and seriously fish (which is a hobbyist site that works with seriously).
Talking to breeders also helps. Hobby experiments have shown that West African dwarf Cichlids are most likely to give even sex ratios at 26c. What does that reflect? I'm looking forward to measuring temperatures when I get there someday.

Don't go with most sellers. They can be great people, but they are always in a hurry. My local guy sold me a Cory type fish with the wrong name. I asked him about it, not as a complaint but to see if he planned to get the super similar fish I'd ordered, and he started talking about varieties. If you can't be bothered to learn the difference between varieties and species, then you are maybe a great source of fish, but not a great source of info about them. Other than the real experts in the trade (this guy is young and new at it) , dealers will be sellers and not necessarily experts.

 

[simonas]

I don't as yet as my Zebra plecs, fly river turtle and stingrays require a certain minimum temp however when my 6ft is free in the new year my plan is to set up a Channa Auranti tank with no heater potentially reducing my stupid energy bill and reduce tank maintenance time.

 

[GaryE]

I should have added - my fishroom somehow sits at 22c to 24c once it gets cold outside. Insulation, ambient heat, lots of tanks and a dehumidifier. The lowest racks are at 21. I rarely use any heaters outside of breeding tanks. But I choose fish with energy costs in mind.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My fish were mostly broken into two groups. I started with planted communities and then divided my interests between breeding mostly Hypancistrus from warmer waters and the planted communities. These are mostly kept in the 77 -78F range. The pleco tanks tend to be 82-86F range most pf the time. However, when I have needed to run a dry/rainy season the temp levels change drastically. Over almost a 3 month period the temp gets raised into the low 90sF.

When the time comes to simulated the onset of the rainy season I do two massive water changes within 36 hours or so of each other. Heaters ae turned off and I do a 50%+ change using water in the 74-75F range. This tend to drop the temp into the low 80s. Part f this is due to not turning the heating back on until a few hours after the wc. I set it to 80F.

I repeat this with the second change which drops the water temp into the mid 70s. But when I turn the thermometer bacj in I mat raise it a degree or two. I prefer to have the fish in that range.

In my planted communities I tend to keep the temp level. This is all petty easy for me to do for two reasons. I have really decent well water and I do not use dechlor. I pump both out and in from most tanks. I also use buckets of tank water to rinse media. So, for smaller tanks the emptying is usually with a few buckets but all returns are pumped back in at temperature. I mix water in larger Rubbermaid garbage cans and pump it into tanks from there. This makes is very easy to control water temps. The only hiccups come from crappy water heaters.

I have yet to find any brand which is free from failing or from not exerting decent temperature control. In critical tanks I use controllers as well as heaters. I do this because I have had two heater failures in which they stuck full on. Interestingly enough the one where the water hit 104F it killed the discus and the rummy nose bleheri tetras but all the L450 Hypancistrus survived and gave me their first spawn about 6 weeks later.

I am more inclined to keep warmer water fish as I dislike working in tanks with colder water. My preferred pool water temperature is high 80s - low 90sF

(edited to add the below)
p.s. I do the above in spite of the fact that we have the most expensive electric utitlity in a major metropolitan region- ConEd. The room with the plecos is so small that I have an AC installed and it will actually run at times in the winter. Tanks at 86F will definitely cause haet to build up in the room at times.

 

[emeraldking]

I don't use any heaters in all of my tanks. And most of you know that I'm keeping and breeding livebearers mainly. Those who prefer a bit higher temps are higher placed on higher shelves. And those which prefer lower temps are located on lower shelves. For heat will go upwards. That's a natural fact according to physics. But for sure not one tank will be at ridiculous high temperatures. For that would only decrease the lifespan of those fish.

I keep most of my fish at lower rates than most of you would do. Most of the time when I mention this, I do get a lot of negative response. But if I would compare my fish to the same fish of them, it seems that I hardly have weak or sick fish than they do. And mine live longer. But I try to do the same as much as possible as how it works in free nature for years now.

And people should stop thinking that when a fish (whatever type of fish) comes from a tropical country, that it doesn't always mean that these fish are also tropical by all means... The location within such a tropical country will tell whether such a fish is tropical, subtropical or even cold water fish. I also have to admit that the commercial world often call fish tropical only by looking at the country they naturally come from. An often made mistake... And one should also look at the tolerance of such a fish. They always have a margin in every single water parameter (this includes the water temperature). That will tell you how far we can play with the water temperature and other water parameters of course.

 

[Innesfan]

Now that I no longer have Discus or Rams, who prefer things steamy, my heaters are unplugged most of the time. If I see temps drop below 70-71F, I'll plug the heaters in temporarily. They are set for @74F.

As far as your concerns about ich, your assumption is correct that raising the temp does nothing to prevent it unless you raise it way up to 86F or more. Otherwise the increased warmth merely hastens the life cycle of the parasite.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Neither of my home tanks is heated at the moment. They stay right around 65-70F, just like my house. I keep the Rio Negro tank at the dentist's office around 76F, warm enough to keep the angels and tetras happy, and cool enough that the whiptails and cories actually live for a while.