Cold water vs Warm water

[i cant think]

You see blue spot jawfish being sold and many other cold water fish being sold as warm water species. I just wanted to get some of the differences between colder water and warmer water fish.

First, what is a cold water fish?
A cold water fish is a fish that needs waters around 65 degrees (Often below) Fahrenheit to thrive. Yes in some cases these fish can survive in normal reef temperatures but their lifespan is shortened greatly due to it.

What temperatures are reefs found/kept at?
Reef-building corals cannot tolerate water temperatures below 64 degrees Fahrenheit. Many grow optimally in water temperatures between 73 degrees and 84 degrees Fahrenheit, but some can tolerate temperatures as high as 104 degrees Fahrenheit for short periods. Often in the hobby we keep our reefs around 77 degrees Fahrenheit. This is much warmer than what many cold water fish we find for sale like.

What are the most common Cold Water fish we own?
Now we’ve gone through the temperature difference, what are the most common fish we find sold as.
- Opistognathus rosenblatti, the well known Blue Spot Jawfish. These guys prefer 58-70 degrees Fahrenheit to thrive.
- Lythrypnus dalli, the beautiful Catalina Goby. These guys prefer 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit with 74 degrees Fahrenheit being the maximum they will thrive in.
- Lythrypnus zebra, very similar in colouration to the Catalina Goby but is instead the Zebra Catalina Goby. These prefer very similar temperatures to L. dalli.
- Oligocottus snyderi, the Fluffy Sculpin. These are much less commonly seen in the hobby but will appear every so often, they prefer temperatures similar to the above two.

Obviously there are more but these are the ones that come to me off the top of my head.

What are the most common inverts sold that are cold water?
- Turbo fluctuosa, the good old Mexican Turbo Snails. These guys prefer waters of 72-78 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Norrisia norrisi, Red Foot Snail. They’re beautiful but prefer temperatures of 55-72 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Margarites pupillus, Margarita snails. Possibly one of the most sought after snails but prefer temperatures of 50-68 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are many more but for now this is all I can find. I will update this thread as I find other inverts commonly sold as warm water animals.


What’s the difference between the bacteria?

Because of cooler water temperatures, populations of nitrifying bacteria can take a considerable amount of time to develop in temperate systems. This can also make cycling a cool water tank much slower than a warm water reef.
In warm water, bacteria will grow much quicker making populations be rather easy to maintain and grow. This makes cycling a reef tank much more easier than cold water tanks are.

What are the differences in metabolism?
In a warm water aquarium, everything is done quite quickly. Growth rates are rather fast, bacterial growth is fast too. Whereas in a cold water aquarium, everything is much colder and the animals that live in it have slower metabolisms. This slows growth rates in animals and bacterial growth down. This makes it so that if you put a cold water fish in a warm water aquarium, and from my understanding, it will have a faster metabolism then normal and so grow much faster and have a shorter lifespan than what it would have in a cold water aquarium.


If you have anything else you’d like to add, feel free to do so!! I’d love to hear your input into this topic

- I can’t think

 

[i cant think]

Didn’t mean to press post thread but anyway, I can work off of it I guess. Give me a few minutes to edit the original post!

Edit 1: I have now edited the original post. And I hope this thread spikes up a nice conversation between both cold water ”reef” keepers and warm water reef keepers!

 

[Coralsdaily]

This is a very interesting topic of discussion. While you are at it, I am curious if you’d also like to include inverts into the discussion?
I see stores also often sell “temperate” water inverts like some snail, urchin, or starfish species to be mixed in with reef species. I see most of them do alright for a short while but almost always perish after a while.
As for fish, some of the most common fosh I see being sold as “tropical” fish are catalina goby (or anything from the catalina sea, garibaldi damsels, rock angels, or basically anything from the Eastern Pacific near US or MX.

 

[i cant think]

This is a very interesting topic of discussion. While you are at it, I am curious if you’d also like to include inverts into the discussion?
I see stores also often sell “temperate” water inverts like some snail, urchin, or starfish species to be mixed in with reef species. I see most of them do alright for a short while but almost always perish after a while.
As for fish, some of the most common fosh I see being sold as “tropical” fish are catalina goby (or anything from the catalina sea, garibaldi damsels, rock angels, or basically anything from the Eastern Pacific near US or MX.

I completely forgot about inverts! Yes, that would be an amazing way to make more people more aware that some of these animals are cooler water. Whilst we’re at it I think we should add coral to this too, since from what I’ve read the coral in temperate areas are Gorgonians.

 

[Tamberav]

Mexican turbo snails, red footed snails, margarita snails all seem to do better in the cold

 

[i cant think]

Going to add some of these to the original post! Thanks for the reminder of inverts, what would I do without you guys haha.

Added some inverts, feel free to name some others you find prefer cold water tanks!

 

[Jeeperz]

Let's bump this. Maybe a list of inverts that are common to the hobby or lfs that ARE good candidates for the temps we keep our reefs at. I was going to buy more margarita snails but the ones sold everywhere (black shell) are false margarita, am I correct and are a cool water species. I've had a few live a couple years though