Re: my recent failure with ember tetras...

Well, my order of 15 ember tetras (4 DOAs) is now down to one. It's been just under a week and the day before yesterday my last one was obviously getting ready to die -- I almost put him out of his misery, but changed my mind. Out of sheer desparation and fear of it infecting my other fish, I made a 5G quarantine tank with my tank water and put the ember into it -- to let him die naturally.

There was only one difference ... the quarantine tank's water was 78 degrees (cheapo one-temp heater), and my display tank's water is 82 (I actually cranked it up to 83 when all of the embers got ich) -- my other animals are cardinal tetras, Amano and cherry shrimp, nerite snails, SAEs, Otos. The little ember tetra who would have probably been dead within an hour or so in my display tank recovered completely in about 10 mins in the 78 degree quarantine tank! He's even eating now ... this is so pitiful, if the only problem was the temperature.

I realize that my conclusion may be wrong, because I honestly do not know fish stuff very well. But, given that all other factors seem equal, logic points me toward temperature.

I know that Tom recommends 82 as the optimal temp for cardinal tetras, but how much lower can you go SAFELY, if you would like another species that needs lower temps. I think 80 or even 81 would have been fine for the embers -- again, with my limited knowledge.

So if you added those fish to a Q tank first, would this have been avoided?
Would you come to the same conclusion?

I generally fatten fish up, get them use to me, the food, etc, then add them.

Regards,
Tom Barr

I will always have a quarantine tank from here on out. I'm actually planning on a 20G one soon ... though not as fancy as yours, Tom. I'll quarantine any future fish for sure.

So, after a quarantining, might embers be able to handle an 82 degree water temp? I saw the rating of Dwarf Panda Corys at an 80 degree max. Do any of you keep them at 82 degrees with success? My 25 cardinals are my main stay right now, and I don't want to take a chance with their health.

All my fish, and I have about 60 pandas, all at 82F.

I keep the temps the same for a specific reason, they rule out one large variable.
If you go from 20 C to 30C in temp, the growth rates of many organisms double.

That's under non limiting conditions.
That's just the temp effect alone.

If you ask a different question, say, "what is the optimal breeding temps for optimal brood?"

That's a quite different question and goal that keeping fish.

I think a few degrees outside optimal claims is well warranted with most all fish.

think about it in common sense terms...........would these fish ever make it to market, the 30 day journey etc to the LFS's?

Probably not.

Regards,
Tom Barr