Loaches Online Forum

Hi all. It'd be nice if I could keep some clowns, I did some extra research and found that clowns like water up to 30C (86 fahrenheit).

On the other hand, guys like Kubotais and Yoyos (which I have at the moment), like their water 24-28C (75.2-82.4).

So s'pose the water is about 30C, the clowns would do fine, but importantly: How would the Kubotais and Yoyos fair?

thanks

-Directorate

some help here would be appreciated thx

Is your water always 30C?

In nature temperature fluctuation's are the norm. Seasonal variations are expected. Yoyos should be fine with the same parameters as clowns.

what is your natural watertemperature in the room where the clowns would be in? Without cooling or heating the water?

Let's just say that I killed one of my kubotais when the water temp accidentally spiked to 30 degrees C. They do fine at 28, though, as do clowns. I find that going much lower than 26 makes clowns (and perhaps other botiine loaches?) susceptible to ich, so 27-28 degrees seems to work for me, anyway.

The Seasonal temperature changes in the wild would be equivilant to the water changes in the tank sanctuary

The temperature is usally about 30C, maybe 29.5C, because of discus. But after water changes, the temperature drops down to no lower than 28.5, so there are usually around 1 degree fluctuaions. Is that ok with the non-clown (kubotais and yoyos) loaches? The last thing I'd want are killing loaches.

ps The water has an interesting mildly "gold" color to it now.

the nat. temp. would be around 22c

High temperature is a real problem here at Rio de Janeiro. If I do nothing room temperature ranges from 24-25°C (deep winter) up to 38+°C (summer). My heater is adjusted to 27.5°C but it´s very rare to see it on. I recently developed a DIY refrigeration system to my loaches tank as I cannot afford a chiller. By using it I have been able to hold temperature below 32°C but even so, I sometimes use some PET bottles filled with water-ice to drop it a bit lower.
The goal temperature here is 28-30°C

Marcos Mataratzis wrote:High temperature is a real problem here at Rio de Janeiro. If I do nothing room temperature ranges from 24-25°C (deep winter) up to 38+°C (summer). My heater is adjusted to 27.5°C but it´s very rare to see it on. I recently developed a DIY refrigeration system to my loaches tank as I cannot afford a chiller. By using it I have been able to hold temperature below 32°C but even so, I sometimes use some PET bottles filled with water-ice to drop it a bit lower.
The goal temperature here is 28-30°C

ok I see ty

Remember that the higher the temperature, the less available oxygen there is for the fish. Botiid loaches come from highly oxygenated, fast flowing rivers and require the same conditions in the home aquarium. It is often lack of oxygen that is a killer, rather than the temperature itself.

Emma

Hi,

I was asking for your room temperature, as it does not make sense to recommend lower temp´s when hard to achieve. Like in Marco´s case, he makes the best of it. In my case – I have also a kind of paludarium tank – I get mold in the air-box about the water, in the winter, as my rooms are low temp. Therefore I keep all my fish at 24.5/25°C, that avoids that issue. Historically I kept loaches at 24.5/25°C which may be wrong in many cases – however, in my youth I already did it that way. That does not make it good – but once I never had trouble (except when avoiding quarantine), why should I change my habit, My clowns grow normal (show tubercles), faster than Y. Nigrolineata (which are rather recommended for cooler temps). Y. caudipunctata grow exceptionally fast, all behave agile and normal, and I bred successfully Betta Spl. In that water…So I keep it like that. During August the temperature goes higher anyway (occasionally close to 30°C), that’s the time of even more waterchanges due to higher evaporation and I´m allowing a good airflow in the lightbox.

Even though, I do respect and recommend the “species index” provided here as the one and only guideline. I´m just reporting my “case” as an exception.

According what I´ve “studied”, for loaches and many other common fish, temps. Over 28°C may be a burden. Even Ich. starts slowing down again at temps higher than 28°C. Forgive me, I have a rather “cool” attitude towards water (and room) temp.

The 2nd issue may be keeping discuss with loaches like clowns, more to be found around here in recent threads …

Plants also are not too happy about high temps.

I guess this hobby is not plain math. There is always the entire picture to be considered, to come to the most appropriate individual parameters. Some of them, of course, are not variable (please consult species index).

At the other end of the exteme, I normally keep my tanks in the upper 70's, but I have accidentally allowed my poor clowns (and catfish) to get down near 60F for days at a time in winter months when I forgot to plug the heaters back in after cleaning. My home stays on the cool side in winter and the fish room is cooler yet, as you can see. In any event, it never seemed to harm my loaches, or cats althought they weren't very active or hungry, (duh!!)which is what clued me to the temperature problem. Even with their possibly deserved reputation for getting Ich, my loaches have only been sick once in 10 years and it had nothing to do with temperature. I did some major tank-scaping that stirred up a lot of crud in the gravel and I think it stressed them pretty badly....lesson learned. My experience with loaches and catfish has been that while they certainly have their individual comfort zones, they can tolerate much wider swings if the change is gradual enough........point taken concerning DO and high temps though.