I think the cichlids from lake Barombi take the cake, very hot water with lots of sediment and almost no oxygen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Barombi_Mbo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Barombi_Mbo
Hardiest cichlid species ever?
- Thread starter ccichc
- Start date
I had some Gymnogophagus yerbalito fry that I missed when draining out a fry tank. The ones I missed remained in the tank in an inch of water, on my basement floor, in Milwaukee, for in an entire winter.
The floor temp easily dropped to 50'F, and since I didn't know they were there, they were never fed, and had no circulation. I found them in spring when I noticed movement in the water, out of the corner of my eye, they were now an inch long and over summer grew into nice adults in my out door pond until October, where water temps hit highs in the 80s in Aug, and dipped into the high 40'sF in fall.
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I was going to say convicts, but no. You win.
Might have to look into those. I love eartheaters.
The hardiest fish I've ever had hands down is the weather loach, often called the dojo loach. They're raised as food fish in Asia, though they have such intelligence and personality that the thought depresses me.
They love cool water, right down into the 50s. They can live at tropical temperatures but it reduces their life spans. They are playful, goofy, interactive eel-like fish with barbels around their mouths that make them look like dust mops as they snuffle through the substrate looking for goodies. They're sociable with each other and pretty much everything that won't hurt them. They will swim up to you and tickle your arms with their barbels as you work in the tank.
They can also breathe air and secrete a mucus that keeps them from drying out. This is fortunate because they are adept at jumping out of your tank if there are any openings. We found one of ours lying on the floor one morning, shriveled up and apparently very dead. He looked like jerky. He was probably on the floor for several hours, possibly overnight. But we dropped him into the hospital tank and I'll be a purple kangaroo if he didn't slowly start to reconstitute and begin moving. Over the course of a few weeks he slowly plumped up and became more active. He began eating wafers again. His skin sloughed off, which looked painful, but he regrew it. When he was fully healed he went back into the subtropical community tank. Now you would never guess that he was a zombie fish!
Many Gymnogeophagus come from Southern Uruguguay where waters ice over a little in winter.
In fact most Uruguayan cichlids need a winter cool down to look there best.
There are also cichlids of the genus Australoheros from the small area, I raised without heaters
all easily take cold temps that would kill any tropical cichlid like convicts, or oscars, even uropthalmus and most Tilapines.
Some Tilapines come from countries as far north as Israel and Styria, and handle cool winter temps in nature.
In fact most Uruguayan cichlids need a winter cool down to look there best.
There are also cichlids of the genus Australoheros from the small area, I raised without heaters
all easily take cold temps that would kill any tropical cichlid like convicts, or oscars, even uropthalmus and most Tilapines.
Some Tilapines come from countries as far north as Israel and Styria, and handle cool winter temps in nature.
Snowflake eels are pretty bulletproof. I once removed a castle from a saltwater tank i had and placed it in my garage. The folowing day my wife called me at work about it beeing on the floor in there. He went a good 18hrs out there inside the castle decoration lol. That same eel was the lone survivor of a puffer poisoning the tank a few years later. By far the most hardy fish ive kept
