Does The Heatwave Affect The Fish?

[alysonpeaches]

I wondered if during this spell of hot weather, fish, tropical or otherwise have more health problems or breed more or it has no effect.

I know that with a thermostatically controlled tank they shouldnt feel the difference but in practice there may be an effect.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well the thermostat on there and the heater will make sure the tank temp doesn’t get too cool, however unless you have a chiller set up on there the tank can still get too hot.

The important thing to remember in this weather is that the warmer the water gets the less oxygen it holds, fish do sometimes die in hot weather, most of the time it’s a case of them not getting enough oxygen and suffocating rather than the temp itself killing them (Although clearly there is a point where the tank temp in itself is enough to kill them, boiled fish anyone?! ).

So really all you need to do is provide plenty of oxygenation, so adjust your filter output so there is a lot of surface agitation which will get plenty of oxygen into the water, if the temp is getting really high then the most effective way of cooling it is to keep the temp of the room it is in as low as possible. So run a fan in the room that it’s in, close curtains to stop the sunlight from warming the room up etc.

 

[ox5477]

Well.. towards the first question you posed.... fish, like other animals, will revolve their lives around the seasons. Depending on what season it is, a species may be more apt to breed or not depending on availability of food and space. A lot of TFF members talk about doing wc's which almost magically makes their fish breed... and this is due to the above fact... that when fresh rains come, the environment is more likely to contain less hazards and more food.

Ox

 

[Tag2008]

Ive had the same worrys in the summer time , not that we get much heat waves up here in sunny aberdeen, but do recall seeing my old tank temp up at 30 one time and it must have just been the heat allround was hotter than the tanks settings and raised to the rooms temp?

I didnt have any problems that I recall as the fish I kept were said to like it hot (Young Discus)....

Ive always been told to aviod dramatic fluxuation of temparatures and also was told that plants dont do very well when it gets too hot...

 

[Colin_T]

There’s nothing to worry about. Our tanks go up to 30 or 32C every summer and the fish are fine. Just make sure there is plenty of surface turbulence to maximise the oxygen levels in the tank. Do regular water changes & gravel cleans and make sure you use a dechlorinator as the water corp often increases the chlorine during spells of warm weather.
The warmer water will often encourage some species to breed.