Guppies at ambient temperature?

[Fernando M.]

Hi,
fishes "in the wild" usually don't live in an temperature-stable
environment, oposite an aquarium where you can set a temperature and
then it's keept forever.

Thinking about this, i was wondering what would be the survival chances
of a guppy in an acuarium with no heater? I know these are warm water
fishes, but would it be very dangerous for it? is it a very bad idea?

Thanks.

[Charles]

On 2 May 2005 10:06:41 -0700, "Fernando M."
> wrote:

>Hi,
>fishes "in the wild" usually don't live in an temperature-stable
>environment, oposite an aquarium where you can set a temperature and
>then it's keept forever.
>
>Thinking about this, i was wondering what would be the survival chances
>of a guppy in an acuarium with no heater? I know these are warm water
>fishes, but would it be very dangerous for it? is it a very bad idea?
>
>Thanks.


Kind of depends what your ambient is.

I have some in tanks with no heater, but if rarely gets below 60 in my
house.
--
Charles

Does not play well with others.

[spiral_72]

IMO, temp doesn't seem to be that critical. To my knowledge I have not
had a temp related fish health problem. My water has dropped to 41 F
for several days (power failure) and has hit 85 F in the summer with no
noticed effects. The fish don't seem to like sudden drastic changes
though.
Again.... IMO, for tropical freshwater fish. I don't have experience
with any other fish. My fish seem to be kinda picky about breeding
outside a small temp rannge though.

I'll probably get hammered on about this one! :)

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly "Fernando M." > Spake Unto All:

>Thinking about this, i was wondering what would be the survival chances
>of a guppy in an acuarium with no heater?

Define "ambient temperature". As long as the temperature of the room
in which the aquarium is placed is in the 18 - 30 celsius interval,
the guppies will be fine indefinitely. If it is significantly outside
that interval, they wont be.

[winddancir]

Hi,fishes "in the wild" usually don't live in an temperature-stable environment, oposite an aquarium where you can set a temperature and then it's keept forever.
I live in Sacramento, California. One of my friends has an outdoor goldfish pond in a huge galvanized aluminum tub. Really gigantic. When our night temps stay above 60*, he tosses in a handful of guppies. They seem okay, and by the end of the warm season, he has a lot of them to sell back to the fish store. I told him this year I would supply his guppies, as an expirament to see whether ones raised in a stable environment would do as well in an uncontrolled environment.
I'm thinking it won't be too long before it's warm enough. You can ask me later in the summer how they are doing. Just remind me, because I forget lots of things! (but not feeding my fish. They glare at me if I even think about forgetting to feed them!)

[ToeKnee]

On 2 May 2005 10:06:41 -0700, "Fernando M."
> wrote:

>Hi,
>fishes "in the wild" usually don't live in an temperature-stable
>environment, oposite an aquarium where you can set a temperature and
>then it's keept forever.
>
>Thinking about this, i was wondering what would be the survival chances
>of a guppy in an acuarium with no heater? I know these are warm water
>fishes, but would it be very dangerous for it? is it a very bad idea?
>
>Thanks.


My guppy tank (wife's actually) has a heater that has not been turned
on months.

The water temperature ranges from 68 -74(f), not diurnally, but over
the last six months. Daily temperature in the tank rarely varies more
than a degree or two. The tank is a little more than year old.

With good clean water, reqular water changes, stable enviroment, we
have had no problems. We use this tank to grow snails for the loaches
in the big tank, our corys will not quite laying eggs (at least
monthly now), and our Otto is fat and energetic. And to your
question, we had to pull all the female guppies from the tank. They
were always pregnant.

Overall, water quality has agreed with the guppies, and that does
include temperature swings. The only looses in that tank in the last
six months have been snails, cory fry and guppy fry all due to
harvesting.

I'd say as long as the ambient temperature does swing wildly, you
should be ok... but YMMV....


--Tony