yep varanio is spot on , they are sub-tropical , saying that if your only interested in keeping one ,they are pretty good at mixing with others and are pretty robust fish and seam to tolerate tropical temps ok , saying that i have noticed the higher the temps the less active aurantis become so i would say if you where to do it keep the tank on the lower side of the tropical range , floating plant cover is a must for theese ,when they feel secure they will be on show most of the time , also some sort of cave to retrete to is also a must , without a cave they try and burrow in the substrate, obviously a sub-tropical tank would be the best way to go
personally i like to keep all my channa in species tanks , but i realise this is not for everyone and a auranti species tank is a very hard tank to do as they are super aggresive with each other , my first auranti was in a mixed tropical tank and i must say that he done very well and never bothered anyone but stuck up for himself , he was a lot quiter than the ones i keep now at room temp , and when i did a water change with cold water he would seem to come to life , mine was raised all its life at tropical temps by previous keeper and he was very healthy ,in fact the guy that raised him has now got him back again and he is still doing very well , he was around 14" when i sold him back , there are also a few other guys on here that have kept aurantis in mixed tropical settings .
the choice is yours bruce ,but be warned you might catch the bug and the next thing you know you will have a sub-trop tank of them
