SAE temperature tolerances

Bill Stock wrote:
My office tank has been running a little hot lately (82-84+) . The room temp
hovers around 28°C at the moment, so the SAEs are near their max temp?

I think SAE are fine at 28°C (even 30°C+), as long as O2 content is
sufficient. Saying that, my tank with 5 SAE are surviving extremely low
oxygen levels during the night, less than 4ppm O2. I can see their gills
moving more rapidly, but they are fine. I've had no casualties when I've
even had 2ppm O2 for short periods.

I did a water change recently and matched the input temp to the existing
tank temp. The next night I saw an SAE lying on the bottom breathing
rapidly. I turned the light off, added extra aeration and (slowly) cooled
the water slightly, but the SAE was gone within an hour. I've been leaving
the lights off and left the added aeration, with no further losses. The tank
temp has dropped to around 80 or less.

I'm more inclined to suspect something funky about the water change, but
could the marginal temps be the primary factor?


I reckon the poor SAE picked up an infection, maybe through the water
change, exacerbated by a lower O2 content.

Nikki