Pulling Thermometers - Right time to encourage breeding?

[nabokovfan87]

Hey everyone.

I have gone ahead and looked up temps for the next week or so. It's getting pretty hot here and I expect things to get warmer. Tanks are running eheim heaters, 74 degrees.  One of the issues with my location is that nights to get pretty cool.

In my view, some drop in temperature is good because it gives the fish that cycle and the real goal is to protect temps from dipping too low. For reference, on the tanks in question for the past few years I added them back into the tanks when the house was around... 55-65 in the mornings and it didn't get above 68 for a good portion of the day.

The fish in question are both cory species tanks, everything is about the 70-72 sweet spot temps, but it's california, in the summer, it's going to get hot.

When do you decide to pull heaters, or them as low as possible / off, if that is your preference to do so?

[Guppysnail]

My tanks can have a 3-5 degree fluctuation each day depending on the season. I set my tanks up so they get direct sun for some portion of the day in summer  I never pull my heaters I always leave them but I turn them back a few degrees in summer. I usually do this when I’m confident the temps won’t dip below where I think the fish are safe (75) for the ones that live at 77+. Not certain that is helpful to you though. 

[Odd Duck]

I leave heaters in and on.  If the house is warmer, and the water is warm enough, they just don’t click on.  I’m hoping to eliminate some heaters once small tanks are consolidated into a fish room.

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/29/2022 at 5:25 AM, Odd Duck said:

I leave heaters in and on.  If the house is warmer, and the water is warm enough, they just don’t click on.  I’m hoping to eliminate some heaters once small tanks are consolidated into a fish room.

Once the daytime temps are high enough and the house air temp is consistent. You should pretty much always have the ability to run without heaters. For something like discus or extremely sensitive fish I would leave the heater in for the floor to make sure the temps don't go too low.  In basically all of my tanks the mass is either big enough where the water always feels (and is) warm or the species specifically want a cooler tank. My pandas love it into the high 60s at times and do just fine and enjoy the added oxygenation.  The only issue I've ran into is when I moved a Bolivian ram and didn't keep in mind temperature.

It's difficult to decide when. But the house can get into the 90s and I have to pull therms to give the tank a chance to get cold enough and then rise through the day. It's a west, desert, California thing I'm guessing. Something people in Utah, Arizona, Texas, Nevada would also deal with a bit.

I totally understand the idea of dropping the therms down and just keeping them in. I guess it saves some of their lifespan if I'm not running them too? So I've always pulled them.

For anyone who isn't used to this idea, here's Cory discussing the concept.

In my case, purpose for the thread, is to try to promote some Cory breeding. I have decided to wait 7-10 days and then I'm going to pull them based on weather again. It got slightly too cold the past two days for me to feel comfortable about it. When I pull them, I'll report back regarding a temp drop or water change and any breeding behavior.

[nabokovfan87]

I pulled them yesterday. It was a bit late in the evening, but the temp inside was 71. I checked in the morning and the tanks were sitting right around there. I'm running a floor heater to gently raise the room temp and let the fish slowly acclimate while the tanks recover from the water change.

So far everything looks good and the corys are definitely chasing one another around.

[nabokovfan87]

No eggs yet. Slight spike in nitrate from the added feeding.

Fish are all doing fine. The temps during the day are about 5-6 degrees warmer (72-76 in the room) during the week now.  If/when I get eggs I'll report back but I'm always struggling to get these Corys to react. Last spawn was a day it stormed during winter.