Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #280

[Moontanman at aol_com]

In a message dated 8/15/02 4:06:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com writes:

<< Before anyone on this list can offer advice though, it would help to know 
 more about the tank conditions.  For the most part, you can find excellent 
 answers to most questions at www.thekrib.com...
 
 Algae is the least of your problems!!
 
 - -Tony
  >>
If you want to keep sunfish there are dwarf and pygmy species. The blue 
spotted sunfish is one of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen and they 
stay small, 3" to 4". Pygmy sunfish don't look much like regular sunfish but 
they stay even smaller at about 1.5" or so. Mixing fish like cichlids and 
sunfish is not any worse than mixing African fish with South American fish. 
That being said disease from one continent can be a problem when fish that 
have no natural immunity are exposed to it. that is one real good reason to 
never release any aquarium fish into the wild. Even native shouldn't be 
released one they have been kept in captivity to prevent the spread of exotic 
disease. Of course some fish require cooler water or warmer water but 
fortunately that is an exaggerated problem for species of fish from North 
America that come from anything but cold mountain streams. As long as you 
keep the aquarium temps in the mid 70's most of the time most North American 
fish will do well. most just require cool water to induce breeding. In my 
area (South Eastern, NC) the summer water temps are often in the 80's and 
90's. Most of the fish from here do well at tropical temps but will not breed 
unless given a few weeks of cool water. I breed red fin pickerel, blue 
spotted sunfish, madtoms, blue fin killies, least killies, dwarf crayfish and 
pygmy sunfish. All do best at tropical temps becoming inactive in cold 
weather, some even die if the winter temps drop too far. Also a great many so 
called tropical fish will tolerate much cooler water than most authorities 
give them credit for. I have a pond in my greenhouse that I keep pacu and 
arrowanas in and the temp often drop to less than 60 degrees in the winter 
but they stay active and do well. Even cardinal tetra's will tolerate water 
in the low 60's if the change is slow and doesn't last more than a few weeks. 
Low temps can keep tropicals from feeding but more tropical fish are bred in 
ponds where the winter temps fall into the low 60's and high 50's than most 
people would believe.



Michael Hissom
Captive Environments, aquaculture