How tropical can fish get?

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

If a thermostat/heater setup malfunctions, a tank can get
overheated.  Yesterday I came home to find one of my tanks
was 94 degrees F.

The tank had to have been well over 80 for most of the day,
but then it's over 80 for much of the summer without ill
effect.  It must have been close too, at, then over 90
degrees for several hours.

The plants didn't seem to mind.  I lost a hundred or two
dollars worth of rainbows, barbs, and some SAEs.  Most of
the fist survived, even some Madagascar Rainbows that
generally prefer cooler water than most tropical fish.

Nothing to do but water changes to bring the temp back down
to normal.

I usually have my heaters plugged into a secondary
thermostat to protect against overheating (Ultralife and
Otto make decent ones) but I wasn't using that setup
yesterday. 

Probably my worst tank disaster in decades, after the time
the bottom of one of my 20 gallon tanks decided to up and
split one day while I was at school.  I guess I can handle
a disaster every couple of decades or so   :-|  .

I wonder what web pages JoAnn (the Algae Artist
--http://www.myfishbox.com/members/jmarella/index.html ;
the Worm Wizardress 
http://aquabotanicwetthumb.infopop.cc/#1  ) might have been
able to make out of such an event.  Thinking about that
made me laugh -- thanks, JoAnn, for making me feel better.

I recommend against temperatures in the 90s for most
tropical fish.

Scott H.

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