Greetings from Alaska!

[AlaskanCorydoras]

Greetings! I've been using your Cat-elog here to help identify my corydoras, so I thought I'd register and list my tanks.

Corydoras are my favorite family of fishes. . . even when I was a kid with just a Goldfish tank with a pair of albinos in it, they "kittenfish" were my favorite fish in the tank. Today I have 5 or 6 separate species of Corys, spread across my 3 tanks.

[MatsP]

Welcome to Planet Catfish.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

Welcome to Planet catfish What's the weather like at the moment

[OldMan]

Welcome to the forum AlaskanCorydoras. I look forward to reading your postings.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

Currently? about 10f. (say -16c) Not too bad really. 'course I moved down from Fairbanks, where it is currently about -40.

[Richard B]

Currently? about 10f. (say -16c) Not too bad really. 'course I moved down from Fairbanks, where it is currently about -40.

Ooooooo - that's a damn sight colder than the current 4c here in the middle of the UK

[Bas Pels]

And we are even complaining about that 4 C

Far too ocold for the season

[medaka]

Hello AC

Greetings and welcome to planet catfish

[Richard B]

And we are even complaining about that 4 C

Far too ocold for the season

It did creep down to -1.5c this morning

[Birger]

Bas Pels wrote:And we are even complaining about that 4 C

Far too ocold for the season



It did creep down to -1.5c this morning

Hehe...after a really nice fall season where we had higher temps. than normal we woke to - 42 C yesterday...quite rude for a Monday, my truck really complained about starting up in that, but at least it is backup to a balmy - 18 this morning, these cold spells do not last long where I live

[AlaskanCorydoras]

In Fairbanks it isn't too uncommon for it to be -30c for a whole month or two. (And getting to the negative teens is a hot-spell) Coldest I've been out is -54c, which isn't all that uncommon in Fairbanks.

Anchorage is much warmer, it is rare that it gets colder than -20c here. (though anchorage gets much more wind.)

This leads to a bit of a problem for fish-keeping, as opening the door to enter one's house can drop the temperature of that room ten degrees. You have to factor one's work schedual into the heating requirements of your tank.

[MatsP]

You can solve the "temperature drops" problem by having a much bigger tank - which also gives you a wider choice of fish that you can keep in the tank...

A bigger tank has 8 times more water for each time you double each dimension, which means that it takes much more time for a big tank to loose the same amount of heat. But I suspect that even a small 10-20g tank will not drop VERY much each time you open the front door.

--
Mats

[bronzefry]

Welcome to PC, AC!

What kind of heaters do you find work best? I would imagine you've tried many.
Amanda

[AlaskanCorydoras]

I'm just using generic kit heaters atm, and they work just fine. When I get my 90 gallon in the upcoming months I want to find something with its own thermostat.

In truth the biggest difference between here and somewhere warmer is the utter lack of humidity in the air. I lose FAR more water in the tanks than I did when I lived somewhere that had actual humidity.

[bslindgren]

A belated welcome to Planet catfish. We've had a cold spell here for the past week and a half, but only down to -34C or so at night. Now it's nice and sunny and -10C.

This reminds me of growing up in Pitea, sweden. I had a 250 l tank. One Christmas we went away, and the furnace failed during a -25C cold spell. We came home to a lot of dead fish and miraculously some still alive, albeit sluggish. The home insurance, to noone's surprise, didn't cover the losses!!

Keep that furnace in tip-top shape up there, eh!!

Merry Christmas.

[AlaskanCorydoras]

We're having a bit of a cold spell currently and just hit around that temp. (still nothing compared to the -50s that were all too common in fairbanks.)

I live in an appartment, so there is a bit less worry about the heat going off.

Of note, however, the lilys just sent up their lilypads in my cory tank. And I think the otos in the tank have gone insane. . .