PlanetCatfish.com

hi again just wondering what the ideal water temp is for bristlenose and bronze catfish?do any catfish like cold water My hubby would like some in our pond with he goldfish is this possible?we get cold winters and hot summers,our fish tanks are heated but the pond isn't.

Bronze cats can withstand lower temps, but not bristlenoses.

Check the Cat-eLog ( and Ancistrus) for more info (not sure exactly which species of bristlenose you are referring to).

thanks heaps for the quick answer,are there any other catfish other than the bronze catfish that can stand cold water,and if I was to add some to my pond should I do anything special ,like add more rocks,plants etc also how many bronze catfish should I put in to keep the little guys happy?

How cold a temperature are we talking about?

It may be difficult to get cold water catfish (other than native species) in Australia anyway.

The cat-elog says that Corydoras Aeneus is to be kept at 21'C (lower end of the range). I'd be surprised if they don't tolerate quite a bit below that, but much below something like 16'C would definitely not be a recommendation from me...

Common bristlenose isn't going to be too badly affected by 21'C, in fact I've seen reports of people keeping them as low as 18'C. Much lower than that and they go into a coma/sleepy state where they are no longer able to "stick" to their surface. This doesn't appear to damage the fish in the longer term, but obviously for too long of an exposure of low temperature is not going to be good for the fish [my specimen that "comatosed" on the bottom of the tank was at low temperature for about a week, where the temperature would rise during the day. The same fish is now a mother of about 100, and quite happily swimming around in my big tank for the time being.]

I'd be surprised if you couldn't find SOME specie of Corydoras that are tolerant to lower temperatures than C. Aeneus. Have a browse through the fish on this page. Look for fish with a green "i" next to it, which means that it at least has SOME information.

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Mats

I'm not too sure how cold the pond gets but we can get down to outside air temps around the 2C sometimes lower in winter but it doesn't stay cold long in winter even if we get frost(once in 6yrs) it is warm about (18C-24C) by lunch time in winter.in summer we can get up to 33C outside I will put a thermometer in the pond tomorrow and see what it reads.I have seen quite alot of different catfish in shops over here ,some big fellas and some very tiny like the bronze ones,pretty sure there are lots available but I have no idea what ones would be suitable if any.

Given those temps, your best bet would be native species (a salmon tailed cat or a tandan, maybe?), as I doubt that you would get exotic catfish capable of surviving those temps legally.

Thanks alot I will try and find a salmon tail or tandan,I'll try research these before I buy

NO !!!

Both salmon tails and tandanus grow big enough to eat all the goldfish !!!

Tandanas get to 2kg and Salmon tails to 5 kg and bigger.

I live at Caboolture, a long way South of Ravenhoe and bronze and pepper cories live outdoors all year no trouble.

I have had bristle nose live down to 11*C during the the infamous "Joe" power strikes in the only Winter I have ever seen snow and sleet here. So it would not hurt to try a couple. I have kept them outdoors here in covered ponds no trouble.

Alan.

thanks for that advice I am so glad i didn't run out and buy a salmon tail or tandanus.I was actually thinking the little cories would be ok as we have had bronze and peppered cories and also bristlenose in a tank that didn't have a heater when we first got our tanks ,they were fine but it was only for a short time until the heater arrived,theyw ere not as active but they were still swimming around enjoying life,I was just concerned after I read a bit on the net that not keeping them warm would somehow hurt them in the longterm,so it is great to here that you have keep them outside in Caboulture as I think our winter temps are very similar to yours down there.We are alot colder than the rest of North Queensland due to being at such a high altitude so when gardening we sort of go on advice from down your way,especially as we have stone fruit etc which won't grow else where in NQ.I really love the bristlenose and little cory cats so I will definately be putting some in the pond and see how they go.