minimum temp for apistos

[tjnelson44]

How low of temperatures can most apistos be kept at with out doing them harm? Would room temp (about 70 degrees) suffice just to maintain them, not to breed them? I ask because I will soon have a bit of a difficult fish keeping situation. I have just been offered a job at a fish hatchery in Arizona and barring some sort of unforseen disaster, I will likely be working and living there in about a month. Here is the interesting part, the place is so isolated that they generate their own electricity using water power. They tell me that electicity is somewhat limited and must be conserved. I get the feeling that if I plugged in the heaters that I currently have in my tanks, they might not be to happy. I plan to build a fish room with its own propane heater so this will not be a problem forever, just for a while. I figure that when I do build a fish room, I could get by with a bare minimum of electicity if I plan well.
Thanks,
Trevor

 

[Mike Wise]

Apistos are tough little beggars. I imagine that they can survive temperatures as low as 70ºF/21ºC for a week or 2 without much problem. Longer than that, some fish will have their metabolism low for so long that they might not be able to digest food properly & their immune system will slow down too. A. borellii, A. commbrae, A. trifasciata, & A. luelingi have a reputation for handling lower temperatures for extended periods of time.

 

[tjnelson44]

Mike,
Thanks for the reply. Based on your info, it looks like I will be able to maintain my apistos untill I can build a fish room. If it gets too chilly, I quess i could turn up the heater in the house. I rather be hot than not have apistos.
Trevor

 

[naggur]

hey trev!

I have one micropelius altispinosa and had him in extream low temp that is in my litle tank 2gal with out heater about 20°c he did just fine but when I got the new tank (14gal) he didn't cope with 2 much warmth but doin just ok now in 25°c.

 

[cootwarm]

Hi Trevor,

I live in Vermont and I have only 1 heated tank. In the summer the temps get up to 75F in my downstair tanks but get as high as 80F in my upstairs tanks. But in the winter my tanks are usually between 65F and 70F. I usually get more spawning activity in the winter than summer. I've spawned viejita, cacatuoides, borellii, maulbruter, panduro, and A. sp. "Blue" from Peru with tanks temps 70F to 72F. The sex ratios on my viejita seem to be like 90% males, but the borellii and cacatuoides are fairly even. My maulbruter, panduro, and "Blue" fry are still too small to determine sex yet.

I have pairs of viejita, cacatuoides and borellii that are over 2 years old. The others are over 1 year old. For 2 years now, I've had heaters in 3 tanks that I've never plugged in as well as 6 brand new heaters still in the packages. I thought I was going to need them in the winter, but so far there's been no problem. At some point I plan to try using heaters to achieve target sex ratios with certain species, such as my viejita, that seem to have loopsided sex ratios.

I've got some "Fresa" and "Inca" that haven't spawned for me yet, but I think it's more of a pH issue than temp. I'll find out later next week when I begin adding peat water to their tanks.

In Arizona, you might find keeping cool more of a problem than heating.

Michael

 

[Red Baron]

I have the list of apisto stated below in my fish room Apisto sp.morado , Iniridae , Cruzi , Norberti , Caca , Aga , Nijsseni , Atahualpa aka Sunset , Rotpunkt , Steindachneri , Inca , Bitaeniata , Borelli , Tri & whehimi .

They are house in different but the temperature is kept at a constant 22degrees celcious . They have no problem at all in their diet or activity and they all still do spawn. But maybe due to the lower temp the frys do have a slower growing rate. possibly due to lower matabolism rate .

 

[Mike Wise]

22º C/~72ºF is within the lower normal range of most apistos habitats during some seasons. Römer reports that parts of streams with cool temperatures are inhabited by juvenile & subdominant fish, while the areas in the 26ºC/79º are take for the more dominant & breeding fish. Lower temperatures tend to produce mostly female offspring, too.

 

[Tom C]

An extremity:
This A combrae might be the most southern apisto ever found. It was collected by Felipe Cantera in Salto, Uruguay.
I'm pretty sure that I've read that the watertemperatur in winter could fall to 6 º C in that river, but don't remember where I read that.
Could you confirm that, Mike ?

 

[Mike Wise]

This A combrae might be the most southern apisto ever found. It was collected by Felipe Cantera in Salto, Uruguay.
I'm pretty sure that I've read that the watertemperatur in winter could fall to 6 º C in that river, but don't remember where I read that.
Could you confirm that, Mike ?

I wouldn't be surprised. Dr. Staeck wrote about collecting A. borellii in waters with similar temperatures. At these temperatures the fish were not active, but surviving.

 

[P.W.]

Hi all!

Here´s a link to an old thread about this interesting subject!

http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=1051&highlight=uruguay

I have also had some discussions with pablo Laurino (Uruguay) two years ago about the Ap. Commbrae. Here´s what he kindly wrote about the conditions in the Commbrae habitat:

"The uruguayan population of commbraes must be certainly the
southernmost
one. They seem to come from the upper Río Uruguay in Brazil, and reach
Artigas and Salto in our country. We don´t know any location south from
Salto City by now, being fish from this one quite rare. The most
frequent
ones are from Villa Constitución, Departamento de Salto, and Bella
Unión,
Departamento de Artigas. Temperatures of the air in this places barely
get
bellow 10°C, and waters probably are never bellow 15°C, but some days
in
winter it may be as low as 5 – 7°C in the surface. This is a
subtropical
environment, with well established seasons. In spite of being a small
country (500 km. lenght), temperatures in Uruguay show a variation of
arround 5°C from north to the southern capital Montevideo. Most fishes
of
the north don´t live south from Negro River, that divides the country
in
two. In the summer, temperatures in the north climb to 45°C often, and
we
have meassured water at 38°C, with fish living ok, perhaps in lower
levels
where is cooler."


Best regards/ P.W.