Night time lows?

Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 10:28 pm

I was given the green light from my wife to set up more outdoor tubs for moving my fish outside this summer and was wondering if mid 50's at night are to cold for my goodieds. I would be interested in moving my Chapalichthys pardalis and maybe my Characodon sp. Los Berros outdoors as well.
I will be setting up some 30 gallon tubs along with an extra 75 gallon tank that I dont have a place for inside. The tubs will get morning and early afternoon sun so they will warm up quickly.
I am getting them all started right now with some daphina and I will be putting some water lillies in there soon as well. I look forward to reading your replys.

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 5:09 am

I figure that if I average the daytime high and the overnight low and get a result over about 55, I am good to go as long as the low stays above freezing. I do have a large enough volume of water that my summer tub never reaches the extremes but swings somewhere between them. With a little 30 gallon, I would probably wait until the overnight low was at least 45 rather than just staying above freezing. Depending on where you live, having sunshine hit a small container like that could make things get too warm for your goodeids. In general goodeids like their water cooler than most tropicals do. A high of over 80 with added sunlight might well make the water too hot.

Extinct in the Wild Joined: Sep 19, 2005 Posts: 19

It really depends on the size and shape of your tubs and also the plants. 30 gallon tubs are on the small size, in my opinion. Larger vessels hold the water temperature stable. 30 gallons is likely to have large fluctuations. I would suggest that you take the temperature and decide for yourself. Beyond that you can do what I did and experiment with a few fish this season and see how it goes, that is the only real way you will know. I don't do goodieds outside but many of my killifish and other livebearers thrive.