What cichlid can handle 50-75F?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
druxboyz said:
As i am in southern california, my pond temp would vary between those temps. What cichlid can handle these temperatures or handle temperatures close enough to it?

As it is summer now, my tested temp at 2am is about 68F. I assume my winter 2am temp is 55? let me know if i am way off. thanks
Click to expand...

no tropical cichlid can handle anything below 75, anything below 75 and your playing with fire, errrrmm in this case ice :grinno: .

always put the fishes well being before anything else.

sandtiger said:
The cichlids with the most northern range is the Texas cichlid and I don't think they can handle temps that low. Why not just get sunfish? They are almost exactly the same.
Click to expand...

interesting how they are the only cichlid native to north america :woot:

i think if he where to keep a texas cichlid he might have to go down there and catch one or afew, those fish are adapted to that water, then again we dont know how cold it can get in the fishes native waters
 
Many cichlids can handle 55 degree temps. If its for only a few nights at a time. I've kept them outdoors in temps lower. The trick is to cover the pond/pool with a plastic sheet. The thin painters pastics sheets are ok. What this does is stop wind from stirring up the water and removing all the heat. When I did this the top 1-2 inches would be cold but below this it would be in the up 50s to low 60s. It helps if you have sun light every day to warm up the water. Do no remove the plastic sheet. If you have overcast skies for more than a
few days then you need to add heat. To do this stick a hose in to the water (after running it for a few minutes to warm up the hose) and let it run for 30-45 minutes (depending on the size of your pond). Where I live, central Florida, the ground water was a warm 68-72 degrees out of the ground. You could also pump warm water into the pond from a hot water tap or directly from a hot water heater. My ponds were above ground so it was difficult to keep them warm for long periods of time. Here we'd get temps into the low 30's. The fish survived ok. But again not for long periods of time. If you pond in an in ground pond them the surrounding land will retain heat. And a cover will work even better. This is how the Florida fish farmers do it in the winter. They have in ground ponds and cover them with (large) plastic sheets. Go here to check out the largest fish farm in the US.
http://www.ekkwill.com/phototour.html particularly this image: http://www.ekkwill.com/gibsontonfarm.html which show half the ponds covered. They also pump water into the ponds during the coldest nights.

Species I've had that are NOT cold hardy below 60 degrees for any length of time are: tropheus and aulonocara (peacocks).

Most Tanganyikans are probably not good candidates. My only experience was with duboisi.

If your pond is an in ground pond then you've got it made as long as you get sunlight most days of the week during the winter months and cover it on the coldest of nights.

Sorry to run on. I have experience doing this in central Florida with early spring cold spells. Ping me if you have more questions.

Para
 
the texas should be fine. i had mine in an outdoor pond this past winter and he did fine. i live in el paso and im sure that our winters are a lil colder than in so cal.
 
last year i saw a ton of convicts in a koi pond in St. Augustine, FL, which is northern FL. some of the convicts were definitely a few years old, so i figured the had been breeding there for a while.

i know for a fact jewls are breeding through out central FL which probably has a similar winter to Socal
 
possibly the texas but it might be risky going below the mid 60's for any great length of time but really even if it does live it would not be optimum conditions for the species and would most likely become very succeptible to disease
 
I agree with polo about the Gymnos, I have a couple Gy balzani in a 300gal rubbermaid at this time, air temp dropped to about 45F the other night, when I checked they spend across bottom.
A few years ago I kept Tilapia niloteca from May thru Oct, water temps ranged high 40s to mid 80s.
image001-58.jpg

image001-57.jpg

When I put them in the pond in May they were about 1".
On the down side, I've killed pearsei, bocourti, robertsoni and citrinelli by trying them in the pond.
 
yeah i would say your best bet is a texas
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom