Boston Aquarium Society Message Board

These are coldwater fish but has anyone kept them at 78-80 degrees for a couple months? They have done fine for about a month at that temp- the 30g there in has plenty of surface aggitation.
I was told they are difficult to feed but my 2 eat mostly FD "mini krill" and frozen brine, mysis, daphnia, bloodworms and tubifex.
There a really nice looking fish, seem to be hardy and quite active
Hopefully they survive the summer.
thanks Scott

Well, if you leave the tank unheated, it should be fine. The problem is that even if the temps are in the 100's here, because the fish live in large ponds and lakes in the wild, the ponds and lakes don't heat up very much whereas in a 30 gallon tank, the water would heat up very fast.

Got a cool basement?

Elevating the tank will also help. I switched my coldwater and tropical tanks in my room. The tropical tanks are on the ground, where the ground heats them up from below to 78-82F and the elevated coldwater tanks stay around 72. This is because the heat from downstairs is radiating up through the floor and into the tanks.

A couple days to a week might be ok for the sunfish, but a couple months is a risk.

I don't know about blackbanded sunfish, but larger sunfish such as bluegill and redbreasts can tolerate higher temperatures at the expense of their life span (higher metabolism = lower life span)

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Eric - Secretary/Bowl Show Chairman

Are the ones Ned had ? Were there any more left ?

Offhand - I would treat the tank like a goldfish tank.
Extra aeration, and use a fan for evaporative cooling.
(have a fan blow across the top of the water - the water will evaporate and cool at least a few degrees)

_________________
Rich
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Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

Thanks Rich and diburning
I was at Neds last sunday i saw probably 5 of the bluespot ( i believe thats what there called) and maybe 2 of the blackbandeds
I did get them at Neds about 2 months ago. They were around $15

(unrelated) I was in a worldwide fish forum and came across a ? about keeping Rams in very hard, basic water (+8.0) . I said you should get some rift lake or CA cichlids but dont put a Ram in there. I got many responses saying Ph and GH are very overrated and once they are acclimated there will be no differance in lifespan, color or breeding. I dont even think they can breed under those parameters. Am I wrong. Ive always kept fish in water that is close to there indigenous waters-am I wasting my time?

I'm a big fan of keeping fish at similar values to what they're used to.
It doesn't mean that there aren't fish farms in Florida breeding neons in liquid rock but having seen Florida neons vs wild neons

I know when I worked in a particular chain store where the pH ran about 7.8 -- we always had an awful time keeping neon tetras, black neon tetras, glowlight tetras, rams, and other truly soft water fish alive.
(basically - when I came in on Sunday, I was always shocked if any of the soft-water fish that had arrived on Tues were still alive)

I've got "tissue soft" water now -- and I have an awful time keeping livebearers happy (other than in the tanks that I put lots of crushed coral in).

I think that fish can be aclimated - lots of breeders breed discus at pH's above 7, including Jack Wattley, and "Discus Hans" recomends his discus be kept at 7.0 BUT I wouldn't keep a random discus in 7.0 water -- only one that had been bred/raised in 7.0

I would agree with you 100% on the rams unless I knew for a fact that they had been hatched/raised in water with a high pH.


Having said all that - this probably won't get as much attention down in the Coldwater fish area.
How would you feel about starting a similar thread up in the water treatment area, hopefully it will get more attention up there.

_________________
Rich
-- ---------------------------------------
Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !

ps
I also feel that keeping fish is like making cookies.
If the cookies come out well and you like them -- who's to tell you that you made them "wrong" ?
Now if you burn them and need to throw out 10 for every keeper - well then you probably need to go back to the recipe.

BUT - even if I might play with the recipe or "break the rules" in my tanks once in a while, my advice to others will ALWAYS be to follow the recipe / "rules" - I'm not going to be the person to tell them to keep mbuna at a pH of 6.5 (or 6 golfish in a 10g tank) and then feel guilty when their fish die !

_________________
Rich
-- ---------------------------------------
Its new, its improved (its still a work-in-progress)
its http://redpaulhus.com !