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hi everyone

im looking for another Small coldwater catfish to replace my dearly departed upside-down catfish (can never remember the proper names)

the smaller the better as i only have a small (40L) tank (and thats all im allowed if 'er downstairs has anything to say about it...)

What sort of temperature are we talking here?

You can of course use the Advanced Search of the Cat-eLog at the bottom of the Cat-eLog menu-list on this page - it allows you to enter your search criteria, such as size, temperature range [keep this as tight as possible, bigger range means "only fish that tolerate a wide range of temperature"].

Edit: I just realized that you've only had the tank for a very short time - I'd hazzard a guess that the tank is not "cycled" yet. You should read the Fishkeeping Basics article to understand cycling and other useful things.

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Mats

another Small coldwater catfish to replace my dearly departed upside-down catfish

Hello.

You imply that the upside-down catfish is a cold water species.

It is not.

Perhaps this is why it died?

ah crap it seemed perfectly happy in its previous fish tank (which was also a coldwater) so i cant see why it wouldnt have died sooner, if anything the temp in my fish tank would be hiher than the previous one

is there even such thing as a Coldwater catfish?

Yes, there are.
may become too big, but have a look at

is there even such thing as a Coldwater catfish?

what temperature is your tank running at, are you just not running a heater and have it at room temp.....if so there are some small cats that need what we would call cooler temperatures, for example Chaetostoma and even some cory's

Of those two, I would recommend the Cory's, as they are more likely to be happy with a slow circulation of water. There are goldfish in the same tank, and they tend to dislike fast-flowing water.

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Mats

MatsP,

It would be a mistake to just group "Corys" generally as a cold water fish, especially in the light of the legislation in the UK regarding so-called "Cold water" fishes. A statement such at that picked up in the wrong place, could put the whole family in jeopardy of being banned, as it could be regarded as a potential danger to native species. Extreme as it may sound these people that make these decisions actually know very little about what they are making judgement on and therefore care must be taken when making generalised statement.

There are a few species of Corydoradinae catfishes that will tolerate cooler temperatures, BUT not cold true water, which I rate as being below 48ºF (8.9ºC).

Most if not all of the know catfishes that are true cold water species are totally banned from being kept except under licence in the UK, and I believe that includes the European Wells catfish Silurus glanis.

Wild_foamy,

I would firstly suggest that you make sure that your tank is fully cycled and also make a note of the temperature range over a 24 hour period. This can be done simply with the aid of a max-min thermometer as used in greenhouses. Once you know the temperature range, then ask the question, "Which small Catfishes would be suitable in such a range"

It is very likely that there will indeed be several Corys and other Catfish that will be more than happy at the lower range.

Ian

Dear Ian,

I'm afraid you underestimated Corydoras adaptability a bit.

I collected Corydoras (cf paleatus and cf aeneus) quite close to the southern coast of Uruguay, in small waters. Last summer this region has had periods with average daily temperatures below 8 degrees ofr over 3 weeks - thus the water will, at least in the end, have cooled to less than 8 degrees too.

I'm certain a lot of the Corys died, but not all of them.

Still, I think you are completely right in putting out that Corydoras can not survive a European winter, at least not one such as we can expect to see in England, or the Netherlands for that matter.

Bas Pels,

I think you actually missed my point, which was the inference that ALL, not that some Corydoradinae species were cold water species. Which from a UK legistratative point of view, could put this group of Catfishes at risk by indicating that they can withstand our winters, therefore forming a potential threat to our own native species, if they were ever to be released into our native waters. If this was accepted then we would find the whole genus banned and effectively removed from the UK hobby.

I am in no doubt that there are a few species that are tolerant of fairly low temperatures, I have bred C. paleatus at 55ºF (12.7º), but I doubt that they would survive a full UK winter.

Refer to some species as COOLER and not COLD WATER species and hopefully they will avoid the wrath of the none fish people that make the laws.

Ian