Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2019 17:49:28 GMT -6
Temperatures for Rainbowfish has come up a lot lately. I had an incident with a heater a few days ago, and thought I'd share. It happened with my c.alleni Siriwo tank.
Rainbows tolerate a wide range of temperatures. Tolerate vs thrive? Well, seems I keep finding new limits to that temperature range and c.alleni Siriwo have just blown my mind this past year.
For a long time, I've been told and have recommended keeping bows at about 24C/75F. There are some exceptions, usually for breeding purposes; like g.wanamensis enjoy warmer temps for spawning while c.alleni Siriwo seem to prefer it a bit cooler for spawning. Wanas for me produce best at about 28-29C/82-84F for short periods while c.alleni Siriwo produce the best eggs around 22C/72F.
Last spring, I put some c.alleni Siriwo eggs outside to hatch. There were a bunch of fry within 2 weeks and then there was a cold snap. The temp in the fry tub got down about 11C/52F for several days. After a couple days I didn't see any fry, and the water didn't get above 16C/60F for a couple weeks. I figured they were a loss. Three weeks later, I went to reset the tub for new eggs, and low and behold, there were about 15 Very hungry fry in there!! 🤩😎 What?! Thank goodness for green water, because that's all they ate for those 3 weeks.
Fast forward to this week.....the adult fish looked a bit stressed the other day, they were all at the bottom of their tank, hanging out by the substrate. I opened the lid to feed them and was hit with HOT, wet air......grabbed a thermometer and holy crap the tank water was 38C/100F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🥵🤬😲 For Real!!!! It had been that way for probably 24-48 hours as I'd changed heaters and then skipped feeding them the next day--TOTALLY FORGOT to check the new heater. We all make mistakes, but man I'd have been pissed if those fish were cooked because of my mistake.
I grabbed the hose and a siphon and simultaneously drained the hot water out as I refilled with cool water. After 10 mins the tank temp was down to about 27C/80F and I decided that was good for now. In the winter, I set their heater to their preferred spawning temp of 22C/72F. I plugged their old heater back in and allowed the temp to naturally go down over the next several hours til the heater kicked on to keep them from getting too cold.
While these guys prefer cooler water for spawning, and their fry do well raised around 24C/75F, I have little control over just how hot the water gets in the fishroom in the summer. In August, the temps hang out at about 30C/85F and the fish are alright, just need a bit more to eat to account for their higher metabolism, and I do my best to keep up on water changes while also not giving myself heat stroke. 😉 In the winter, I add heaters to the tanks, and keep most of them set so the water doesn't get colder than 22C/72F. The room usually heats up during the day, and the temp fluctuates between 22C/72F to 27C/80F depending on the weather. I'm currently keeping over 20 species of Australia and New Guinea Native species, so hopefully that helps some people understand a bit more about temperature and Rainbows. So long as your fish are healthy overall, they can endure quite extreme circumstances. I don't recommend testing the limits of their comfort zone, but I just wanted to say not to worry so much about little things--a few degrees up or down should not be a problem short or long term.
Here's a couple pics of them a while back(don't feel like getting out the canon to take new pics right now, and cell phone pics have turned out pretty sucky)
c.alleni Siriwo males by Rainbow Bratt, on Flickr
c.alleni Siriwo male 1 by Rainbow Bratt, on Flickr
Rainbows tolerate a wide range of temperatures. Tolerate vs thrive? Well, seems I keep finding new limits to that temperature range and c.alleni Siriwo have just blown my mind this past year.
For a long time, I've been told and have recommended keeping bows at about 24C/75F. There are some exceptions, usually for breeding purposes; like g.wanamensis enjoy warmer temps for spawning while c.alleni Siriwo seem to prefer it a bit cooler for spawning. Wanas for me produce best at about 28-29C/82-84F for short periods while c.alleni Siriwo produce the best eggs around 22C/72F.
Last spring, I put some c.alleni Siriwo eggs outside to hatch. There were a bunch of fry within 2 weeks and then there was a cold snap. The temp in the fry tub got down about 11C/52F for several days. After a couple days I didn't see any fry, and the water didn't get above 16C/60F for a couple weeks. I figured they were a loss. Three weeks later, I went to reset the tub for new eggs, and low and behold, there were about 15 Very hungry fry in there!! 🤩😎 What?! Thank goodness for green water, because that's all they ate for those 3 weeks.
Fast forward to this week.....the adult fish looked a bit stressed the other day, they were all at the bottom of their tank, hanging out by the substrate. I opened the lid to feed them and was hit with HOT, wet air......grabbed a thermometer and holy crap the tank water was 38C/100F!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🥵🤬😲 For Real!!!! It had been that way for probably 24-48 hours as I'd changed heaters and then skipped feeding them the next day--TOTALLY FORGOT to check the new heater. We all make mistakes, but man I'd have been pissed if those fish were cooked because of my mistake.
I grabbed the hose and a siphon and simultaneously drained the hot water out as I refilled with cool water. After 10 mins the tank temp was down to about 27C/80F and I decided that was good for now. In the winter, I set their heater to their preferred spawning temp of 22C/72F. I plugged their old heater back in and allowed the temp to naturally go down over the next several hours til the heater kicked on to keep them from getting too cold.
While these guys prefer cooler water for spawning, and their fry do well raised around 24C/75F, I have little control over just how hot the water gets in the fishroom in the summer. In August, the temps hang out at about 30C/85F and the fish are alright, just need a bit more to eat to account for their higher metabolism, and I do my best to keep up on water changes while also not giving myself heat stroke. 😉 In the winter, I add heaters to the tanks, and keep most of them set so the water doesn't get colder than 22C/72F. The room usually heats up during the day, and the temp fluctuates between 22C/72F to 27C/80F depending on the weather. I'm currently keeping over 20 species of Australia and New Guinea Native species, so hopefully that helps some people understand a bit more about temperature and Rainbows. So long as your fish are healthy overall, they can endure quite extreme circumstances. I don't recommend testing the limits of their comfort zone, but I just wanted to say not to worry so much about little things--a few degrees up or down should not be a problem short or long term.
Here's a couple pics of them a while back(don't feel like getting out the canon to take new pics right now, and cell phone pics have turned out pretty sucky)
c.alleni Siriwo males by Rainbow Bratt, on Flickrc.alleni Siriwo male 1 by Rainbow Bratt, on Flickr
