Fish for 80L tank?

[whatfish]

Hi all,

I am looking into getting an 80 litre tank for cold water fish. Does anyone have any suggestions of what types of fish are suitable for a tank of this size? I would like to have a few plants in there too. I know it's not a huge tank and I don't want to overcrowd it.

I've tried googling and everything I find seems to just recommend white cloud mountain minnows for small tanks so I was wondering if there are any others I could consider.

I haven't had fish since I was a kid so am starting fresh here.

Thank you

 

[Aiken Drum]

Do you mean cold water or temperate? Temperate would be room temperature, but you should still have a heater in the tank to prevent the tempetature dropping too much, for instance during winter nights when your room heating might not be on.

WCMM are temperate fish. Other temperate fish would be other types of minnows or danios. So celestial pearl danios or zebra danios. Goldfish are temperate. Some barbs are temperate, rosy barbs. Tiger barbs would be ok at the upper range of temperate, guppys and platys too. Some corys.

It all depends on what you mean by cold water, and if temperate what temperature you are going to maintain your tank. If i left my heater off overnight, the temperature in the tank would drop from 20c to 12c overnight in the winter, which would be too much for temperate fish.

 

[whatfish]

Do you mean cold water or temperate? Temperate would be room temperature, but you should still have a heater in the tank to prevent the tempetature dropping too much, for instance during winter nights when your room heating might not be on.

WCMM are temperate fish. Other temperate fish would be other types of minnows or danios. So celestial pearl danios or zebra danios. Goldfish are temperate. Some barbs are temperate, rosy barbs. Tiger barbs would be ok at the upper range of temperate, guppys and platys too. Some corys.

It all depends on what you mean by cold water, and if temperate what temperature you are going to maintain your tank. If i left my heater off overnight, the temperature in the tank would drop from 20c to 12c overnight in the winter, which would be too much for temperate fish.

Hi yes sorry I meant room temperature. However if I need a heater either way, then maybe I don't need to limit to temperate. I didn't think about the drop in temperature in winter.

I did look at barbs but the ones I looked at said they needed a larger tank, is 80l enough?

 

[Aiken Drum]

The biggest cost of running a heater will be power, not the cost of the heater. So if the reason for the temperate aquarium is to save a little money, then you would still make savings. Maintaining 18c will be a lot cheaper than maintaining 24c.

If you are looking at whether you need a heater or not, you should consider how well insulated your home is. If its a fairly new construction the temperature drop off at night in the winter after the heating has turned off wont be all that much and you probably dont need a heater. But an older house, less well insulated will be more likely to need one. My house is 30 years old, so fairly modern, but i still lose 5 or 6 degrees overnight when its really cold outside before the heating kicks in in the morning.

A typical 80 litre aquarium is 600mm/ 24" long. I would say thats OK for a small group of rosy barbs. If its a more square type aquarium that isnt as long, then i agree its probably not suited to these fish and i would be looking at those WCMM or CPDs as being more suitable.

 

[Colin_T]

If the tank was 30 inches long or bigger you could get bitterlings. A single paradise fish could live in a 2 ft tank. American flags can live in cold water and aren't big.