Water temp question

[Ketso]

Saw this on another forum and thought it was a good question for us beginners.

I am planning my first aquarium and I am in the fish selection stage.

How critical is the water temperature?

Reason for asking:
2 of the fish I have selected are the Leopard Cory and the Neon Tetra. The recommended water temp for the cories is 77-82F. The recommended temp for the tetras is 68-74F. Should I select a different cory with a tolerence to lower temps? Or will they be OK with the 74F temp that I planning to have my tank set at?

All the others, 74F falls into their recommended temp range. Although 74 is the low temp for the Cherry Barbs.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

Now this seems like a very good question. Not just for two fish in the example, but in general.

Is it critical?

If not, how far out of a particular fishes range can one go when combining multiple species in the same tank? (I would assume that this would vary a bit from one species to another). Is it better to be too warm for one species as opposed to being too cold for the other? Or vice versa?

 

[YoFishboy]

For the most part, it is good to have fish together that fall within the same general range of temperature requirements, or at least have some intersect on the range. By the way, the temperature quoted for Neons on the post is wrong....neons are more like 72-78.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

i agree i try to keep fish around the same range.

 

[Rbishop]

I think you will see better natural characteristics if you can keep the mix in the same temp range. Though I do wonder at times what the breeders temps are in relation to a wild caught in the natural habitat....

There probably is more flexibility than we realize.

 

[Daudzegier]

As far as going too low or too high from thier normal temperature range. Making them too hot or too cold will speed up thier metabolism, increased if its too cold to make them warm, and increased if its too hot, just because its hot and that is the natural reaction. Faster metabolisms make fish more suscetable to desiese, increase thier breathing rate, thier hart rate, ect. All in, it just makes the natural systems of the fish work harder than it should. Sometimes this can be a good thing - like when the fish needs to quickly metabolize some medicine that you have put in the tank ect. Mostly however, this is a bad thing.

 

[liv2padl]

Making them too hot or too cold will speed up thier metabolism, increased if its too cold to make them warm

actually, fish are coldblooded ... they do not "speed up" their metabolism to "make themselves warmer".

it IS however, a good idea to keep fish within their preferred range. in the wild, some fish have a pretty narrow range of plus or minus 2°, while others have a pretty wide range of as much as 8 degrees.

the vast majority of 'tropical' fish in the hobby today however, are not wild caught and generally are best maintained at about 78°. constancy/stability is more important than what the 'exact' temperature. fish are not well adapted to handling fluctuating temperatures.

 

[Ketso]

Thanks everyone.

The consensous is to stay inside the range of all your fish. So, I will make sure that the temp. range of any fish that I decide to keep falls within the ranges of those I would have at the time (none yet).

The more I thought about it, the more I thought the answer was pretty much a "common sense" one. However, being new to all this, I havent the experience or knowledge to be 100% confident in my "common sense" answers.

Thank goodness for forums like this and for folks, such as yourselves, that are willing to help us "new kids on the block" (term used loosely, I'm nearly 40. LOL). Without this, I am sure, a huge number of fish would needlessly go belly up.

Thanks again!