PlanetCatfish.com

Hi Everyone, I'm new the community, and this site has been super helpful in determining the types of catfish that can work with our aquarium. If I could do a tank that was active and had only catfish in it, I would!!

So, we have a bit of a conundrum!

We are in the process of setting up a new tank and already had five peppered corys and a spotted raphael catfish. Long story short, we ended up with two plecos (L333 and L201) whose temperature range (79-86)and realize this is on the extreme high end for the corys (79) and raphael (78). We have cory's and raphael in a 40B and we have a 55T we are getting setup (primarily for the plecos) and are trying to figure out if we can house all the fish in the 55 or if we should put the diff temp ranges in diff tanks.

Any recommendations on what to do? All in one tank or split them up? Thanks!

TLDR: Should fish with temp ranges 69-79 be in a diff tank than fish that range from 79-86?

Obviously, a tank can not be both 75 and 85 F, so it would be better to seperate the fishes

In most cases a range such as 69 - 79 means that it is bad to have them under 69 or above 79. Keeping fish long term at either extreme is also a bad idea: it is what they can have, not where they would thrive.

However, sometimes temeratures in books are a bit peculiar. Swordtails live together with, for example, Trichromis salvini (formarly Cichlasoma salvini). The first are said to need 18 - 22 C, the latter 24 - 28 C. Obviously, this cannot be right.

But L nubers do require very warm water, for to warm for Corydoras

What species of Cory?

Jools

Thanks for the replies.

Jools, Corydoras paleatus(?) Peppered Cory's? We noticed Sterbas had a higher temp range after the fact.

Thanks

Potbelly,
The fundamental issue here is that the plecos and doradid are true tropical species from the Orinoco and Amazon while C. Paleatus is a subtropical fish from much further south. All these fish will live together just fine in the mid 70s but it will not be an ideal habitat for either group.
The above suggested temps, at least for L 201, are way too high. Ambient temps in that area are a pretty consistent 80f year round.
I am not sure why the suggested temps are so high when we have much cooler temps recommended for non-loricariids collected in the exact same places. C. Brevirostris is very common in the areas L 201 is collected and yet its range is listed as 68-75f while L 201's is 78-86f.
-Shane

Supposedly the doradid (spotted raphael) is also part of the lower temp group 72-78ish, atleats as far as i can find.

Does anyone have any experience keeping the l201's or l333's in 75-77 degreeish water? (if im interpreting the above post correctly)

Thanks

Yes, I have kept L201 in that range for years at a time. Higher temps will increase the likelihood of spawning (and I suspect that is why they are listed so high) but they are not at all necessary for day to day keeping and are possibly harmful if maintained for a long time.
It is well documented in the aquaculture literature that "cooking" some species in high temps speeds up appetite and activity resulting in increased gamete production and a greater likelihood of spawning.
However just because L 201 ban be cooked into spawning by raising temps to the mid 80s doesn't mean that those temps reflect their natural, or ideal, range.
-Shane

Just to be clear.. =)

You're saying we can keep an L201, L333, Spotted Raphael and the low range corys in the same tank @ 75- 77ish with no added stress to the fish?

Just want both groups to be as happy as they can be for as long as possible. We are not intending on breeding them.

Thanks again

Yes you can.

I am also pretty sure that after 50-75 years of being bred in ponds in Florida the strain of paleatus in the U.S. hobby is far more heat tolerant than its wild ancestors.
-Shane

Lol thanks a ton

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/whaddaya-mean-too-hot/

An eye-opening article to many fishkeepers, that I've had in my favourites for a few years. I have seven active tanks right now and the only one with a heater in it is my garage Rio 400, set at 20C over the winter (getting turned off soon for summer), for my Ilyodon xantusi group.

All my indoor tanks change temperature with the seasons, the ambient room temps rarely drop below 20C during winter and hit ~26+ during mid summer. Aquarium filters and powerheads heat the water above ambient room temps, as does the strong T5HO lighting on my Rio240, when it is on 6 hours daily to try and make my few real plants survive (Anubias and Bolbitis have very recently been joined by Duckweed).

Typically, my indoor tanks never drop below 21C, if we have an especially bitter cold spell, I do have heaters in the cupboard. Many of my fish are low-end tropical, but I do have a few species that are considered to normally be more mainstream, including my Ctenopoma bought as ~1.5cm SL babies in 2010.

If I had to set heaters up to maintain ~24C, I simply could not afford to run as many tanks as I do. If I really thought a fish was expressing discomfort/stress due to the temperature, I would re-home those individuals.

Good article. Thanks for the link.
-Shane