Fish and water temps (cichlid, happens, feeder, small)

[Uplander]

I just checked the temp in my ponds and it's 87.2 F. Current inhabitants are Goldfish, Koi, Electric Blue Cichlids, Pseudotrophus aceii, platies, Giant Danios, and some other aquarium varieties. They all seem to be in great shape. It makes me wonder about some of the temperature limits that the books place on some of our fish. I do recognize that warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen, there is a water fall and a short stream.

The thermometer was checked against a reference set of ASTM thermometers and found to be within the specified variability of those thermometers.

[andthentherewere3]

That is a strange assortment of fish living together. How long do you have temps that high in the pond? How large are your ponds? Smaller, shallower ponds tend to be warmer. Keeping some floating plants in the pond will help shade it. For short periods of time your fish will probably not have issues, however if they were to live year-round in water that warm it could eventually take a toll on their health. Some types of fish are more sensitive to higher temps than others. My goldfish in my pond have no problems adjusting to the warmer temps of summer, and in the past I've had livebearers in tubs on the deck and they were fine for the summer, too.

As your fish grow larger I'd also be concerned that the larger ones would eat the smaller ones. I know my goldfish attempt to eat any small fish that happens to be with them, platies would be a tasty meal.

[Uplander]

I haven't been watching the temperatures all that closely, but highs 6 out of the last 7 days have been 100+F. I agree it wold not be good for extended periods of time. I have two in-ground ponds which are connected by a short stream. Water is pumped from a lower one through a pipe and over a waterfall into the upper one. I think the two combined are about 1000 gallons. They are shaded in the morning and afternoon, probably about 6 hours of direct sun. There are water lillies and water hyacinths in the pond, but in the last few days the deer seem to have developed a taste for the lillies.

I'm sure some of the platies get eaten, but I started 2 years ago with 6 and I now have a few dozen. I've used a couple of hundred small ones as feeders and sold several bags of them at club auctions.

I move the tropicals to the ponds in early summer when the night time temps are consistantly at or near 70F and remove them in early September as the nights get cooler.