# Certain fish without heating??



## jack-rythm (4 Sep 2012)

Hi everyone!

Im looking into setting up a triptych nano scenario and was thinking about going for a non heated tank set up to reduce clutter and cost... I was wondering if people are aware of any fish that will survive happily in a nano tank in a lounge, so would be room temperature? I want ottos for sure so would anyone know any info they could share? I have danios in a walstad tank and they seem happy and fine....


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## hotweldfire (5 Sep 2012)

None of my tanks have heaters at the moment. Pulled them out a few weeks ago and am considering not putting them back in again for the winter so would also be interested in people's experiences of unheated tanks.


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## RoughIt (5 Sep 2012)

I've been running my lounge tank (144 litres) for 19 months now without a heater. It stays at about 24C which I've always assumed was assisted by my Tetratec EX1200 generating a small amount of heat at the pump.

In the summer it will occasionally rise to 28C during the hottest days so my problem is sometimes too much heat which no heater is ever going to cure.   

I've just checked and at the moment my room temperature is 20.4C with a tank temperature of 24.2C 

This level of stability may be relative to tank volume but I'd still suggest just setting them up without a heater and monitor them until you are comfortable they are warm enough and stable or find that a heater, or more tolerant fish, are required. White cloud mountain minnows spring to mind but would depend on how nano your tanks will be.

 :idea: Maybe it would be worth putting a bowl of water in the room and monitor it's temperature for a while, although if my theory of the pump adding heat is correct then this would give lower readings.

I too would like to know if others are using the no heater approach and are finding similar results.

I'll stop rambling on now before this post turns into an essay.   

Doug.


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## Stickleback (5 Sep 2012)

Why not try STICKLEBACKS!






Far more interesting than those tropical tarts (they build nests ffs).

I have kept them for years in indoor room temperature tanks.

Not only that, they have a great deal down your local stream at the moment, they are currently FREE*.

*Terms and conditions apply. Offer lasts until forever.

Stickleback.

P.S. (post stickleback)

The tank in my signature is a room temp tank with tropical plants.


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## hinch (5 Sep 2012)

my guppy breeding tanks are all unheated at the moment seem to be holding fine at about 22c just fine. on hot days they go upto about 26 ish.  they're only small tanks too 35 litre ish so not a massive volume of water. don't know what they drop to at night as i'm too busy asleep to check. but I don't have large die offs of the fish and they're breeding just fine.


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## jack-rythm (5 Sep 2012)

excellent replies guys, I know I just wanna create a minimalistic nano set up. its a 1ft cube and wanna go for 10mm lily pipes no c02 and no heater with external filter. so yeah just wanna see what people say.. does anyone know if you have to have a tank heated for crystal red shrimp? i know they will survive but will they breed.. Ill post some photos up when I get going .  my aim is to almost create a walstad tank. I have a walstad bowl with danios in and snails in and that is doing fine... here are some photos..


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## Gill (5 Sep 2012)

There are now a wide variety of cool,room temp fish available.
I have been keeping quite alot of fish in cooler temps.
Here is a list of some I know will do very well in cooler temps down to 15C:
Dwarf Honey Gouramis
Sparkling Gourami
Pearl Gourami
Guppies
Cherry Barbs
WCMM - Standard, Gold, Vietnamese
Gold Barbs
Most Platties are fine in cooler temps. Although breeding slows down under 15C
BN Plecs
Ottos
Cherry Shrimp
Amano Shrimp
Macro Shrimp
Rubber Nose plecs
Bulldog Plecs
Borneo Suckers
Albino/Bronze/Peppered Cories
Paradise Fish
Pygmy Cories - No Lower than 16C
Fighters - all varietes
Wild Bettas - Imbellis, Edithae, Rubra, Simplex
5 Banded Barb
Odessa Barb
Heterandria Formosa Gold/Wild - Will happily go down to 10C
NeoHeterandria Elegans
many of the Gambusia Species can go in lower temps
Shiners, Minnows,
Dace


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## jack-rythm (5 Sep 2012)

wow thanks!! im going to use this a lot!


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## hotweldfire (6 Sep 2012)

I think for a shrimp only tank you really don't have to worry about heating. I remember reading a paper (will try to find it again) which assayed the water conditions in the HK streams where the wild caridina species come from over the course of a year. I assume these are the shrimp that our CRS and tigers were originally bred from. 

Temps dropped to around 10c in the winter. I'm not suggesting people allow their tanks to get this low as our shrimp aren't as hardy but it's just to show that shrimps can tolerate quite low temps. Not so sure about fishes though.


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## Ady34 (6 Sep 2012)

Hi there,
i run my crs shrimp tank heaterless as they prefer around 22 degrees c which my room temp maintains.
Ive thought about going heaterless on the studio tank but im apprehensive about it. Im concerned about any long term issues with lower temps as many of the fish we desire like 75-77 degrees c, sometimes more. Although i know Mark Evans doesnt run heaters on any of his tanks (which sit at around 22 degrees c if i remember correctly) and he seems to do ok   
Danios tend to fare ok, and are now sold as temperate fish in some retailers, white clouds as mentioned already, some barbs (but research which types).....id like to know more opinion on this point too really as the benefits of running heaterless are obvious, not only cost related but aesthetically and infact probably c02 and 02 wise also.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## hotweldfire (6 Sep 2012)

Here is the title and abstract of that paper:



> YAM, R. S. W. and DUDGEON, D. (2005), Inter- and intraspecific differences in the life history and growth of Caridina spp. (Decapoda: Atyidae) in Hong Kong streams. Freshwater Biology, 50: 2114–2128. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2427.2005.01464.x
> 
> Keywords:
> Caridina cantonensis;Caridina serrata;population dynamics;reproduction;shrimp
> ...



Water temp dropped to about 12c in the coldest of the four streams at New Year and went as high as 32c in the hottest in the summer. Of course colony size varied over the year so temperature might have had an impact on that but I haven't read it closely enough to know.


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## jack-rythm (6 Sep 2012)

wow thats brilliant. looking forward to gathering all my equipment and then starting. I have another question... In my 3ft tank that im currently breaking down I have 9L of ada aquasoil Amazonia. can I mix my ada soil with  my EBI gold shrimp substrate to enlarge the quantity or do you think this may have an effect on my ph levels?


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## Danny (6 Sep 2012)

I have cardinal tetras in an unheated tank and they are fine, also had malawi's in an unheated.


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## daza.141 (13 Oct 2012)

some very helpful posts here


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## zozo (5 Aug 2015)

Stickleback said:


> Why not try STICKLEBACKS!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Gasterosteus aculeatus had them too and they are realy, realy lovely fish. They are territorial and predatory and like tiny pikes. I kept together with gold fish in the pond and winter tank in side. Funny is if you see how they distroy a relative big earthwurm. Only thing is, not that they are expensive, ask the age maybe they tell you the truth if they don't know, stickelbacks live 1 maybe 2 years at the most in captivety. The warmer the water the sooner they die. Than there is an other member of the family Pungitius pungitius, also and even more suitable for aquarium, but harder to find.

with cold water species, the temperature is the crucks.. In nature they have commonly seasons and cooler temps most time of the year. Indoor the temps are  always room temp with a minimum of 10 to 15 degrees celcius, depending where you live and how you burn your stove and this wil shorten their life sicnificantly if you don't cool the tank.

If you like the fish to have a long happpy life, thus you need a cooler instead of a heater. Back to square one? Or take the down side and by/find new fish every year.

The common minnow could be a nice cold water school fish for a tank (reproduces easily also).

Hara Jerdoni can do from 16 celcius.

Goldfish of course, tend to get to big for aquarium, but when also depends a little on how much you feed them and the genes they got from grandpa, some stay smaller than others. But if properly taken care for all can grow very old.

For the rest i haven't found any other realy suitable cold water aquarium fish, the Hara Jerdoni is so far the only Exotic fish i found handling temps not lower then 16 celcius.

ps..
Oh yes  i have seen these around in our waters, Lepomis gibbosus, nice colored fish introduced from USA. But no idea for suitability in the tank, but i guess that's how they became introduced in the first place.


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## mattb180 (6 Aug 2015)

Celestial Pearl Danio's actually prefer a temp of 20-22 degrees and do well in unheated tanks.

Mine are out in the garden at the moment and thriving!!


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## sciencefiction (6 Aug 2015)

hotweldfire said:


> I think for a shrimp only tank you really don't have to worry about heating. I remember reading a paper (will try to find it again) which assayed the water conditions in the HK streams where the wild caridina species come from over the course of a year. I assume these are the shrimp that our CRS and tigers were originally bred from.
> 
> Temps dropped to around 10c in the winter. I'm not suggesting people allow their tanks to get this low as our shrimp aren't as hardy but it's just to show that shrimps can tolerate quite low temps. Not so sure about fishes though.



Cherry shrimp also do perfectly fine in unheated tanks. The few I had in a plastic pot at the window survived 12C and it could have been lower during the winter but I never knew I had shrimp in it so never measured. I only checked the temp when I saw a berried large shrimp and a few others in the spring. So they've been there all winter breeding. They probably hitchhiked as babies when I planted it last summer.
  My small cherry shrimp tank near the window has also been unheated for the last year and the shrimp do just fine, was down to around 20C in the winter but not lower, perhaps because it has a lid, also filter and light and the tank is small.


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## PARAGUAY (6 Aug 2015)

White Cloud Minnows or Golden Barbs look stunning in a group.Not to be  confused with Gold Tiger Barbs


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