Aquarium Co-Op said:
hobbyorobsession said:
I think its good to remember that fish and plants can be kept in a lot of different situation, but in what way are they kept where they are thriving and not just surviving.
While I agree with theres a difference between thriving and surviving. I think we'd have to establish what thriving is for each species. As one of the article author states. Keeping temperatures at breeding temps year round can exhaust some fish like angels etc.
I'm thinking that if I could keep a fish in a tank year round, and they get a breeding season and a more dormant season that would be much closer to wild habitats.
Whether this pans out or not. I'll have to experiment.
I too have read articles that allude to the fact that having breeding temps year round in your tanks will accelerate the life of your fish (i.e. age them prematurely) as well as cause more health problems through weakened immune responses because the fish are always in a heightened spawning mode.
I am going to get to see some of this cooler water experimentation in effect this year because of our indoor "pond" which has some unplanned tropical fry in it along with some cooler water fish. Trying to figure out how to handle this situation is difficult. My plan was for the cooler weather fish to be the only occupants of this unheated garage tank but having had a mom apparently spit her babies when we moved her out of this tank has left us with a quandry.
Ambient temps in the garage are dropping but so far the tropical fry seem to be doing OK. We have not put a heater in the tank yet but after today the pond tank will be the only tank left in the garage and we will unplug the small plug in heater that provides some additional heat to the garage area (which has been keeping the garage at a modest 68-70 degrees with outside temps being in the low 40s at night and 50 during the day).
Our garage has one large vent that comes from the main heating system which keeps the room from ever reaching freezing temps as well as being totally insulated. But, I know our temps out there can reach 40 degrees or so in the dead of winter. Our house temps are 69-70 during the day and 65 at night.
Our true coldwater experiment begins tonight when the pond tank becomes the lone tank in the garage. Our plan is to put a small heater into the tank that is used for heating stock tanks (we had it left over from our living in the country days) . It will be the only heat for the tank overwinter. It will be interesting (although it is scary too...the thought that I may lose some if not all of fish) to see how things fair.