# Coldwater -v- Tropical?



## Treaclesmum

I'm weighing up the pros and cons of a coldwater aquarium versus a tropical aquarium... I know you need to cycle both types before adding fish, but do you have to do all the same tests etc (nitrate, nitrite etc?) :

Is the maintenance the same for both types of aquarium, or is a coldwater one less work?

Obviously there would be no heater so that would save some money, I'm not sure how much a heater costs to run though, does anyone know??

Apart from that, I think some coldwater fish are hardier than may tropical ones and easier to keep alive (i.e. more resistant to change in water temps etc).

I love Gold white cloud minnows but also love a lot of tropical fishes too....


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## Phoenix24

Cold water and tropical are no different to keep apart from the fact that you have a heater in a tropical tank. You still have to do a fishless cycle, and you still have to test for all of the same water parameters (nitrate and nitrite are integral to the nitrogen cycle!). The only other thing you need for a tropical tank is a thermometer, and these cost very little.

In general you are more likely to find tropical fish to suit your tank than colder water fish. There are a range of cool/cold/temperate fish out there as I said in my reply to you in your other post - some of them will not be suitable for the pH of your water and the size of your tank. Bigger tanks are slightly more expensive to run than smaller ones, but are more stable and less likely to suffer from problems that will cause fish loss. Bigger tanks will also afford you more choice in what fish you can keep. 90L isn't bad, so long as the tank is not cube-shaped (there is less swimming room per litre than an oblong tank) or spherical (not enough surface area for gas exchange - the fish suffocate).

Don't forget you can use these tools to help you decide what fish you can keep:

Seriously Fish - Feeling fishy?

AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

And these websites are about temperate fish (cool/cold water):

How to set up a temperate tank - that looks tropical! | Features | Practical Fishkeeping

Alternatives to coldwater fish

Tropical Fish Finder.co.uk - The ultimate UK fish keeping resource for all types of tropical and marine fish, including fish books, articles, fish shops, fish clubs and more.

https://www.haynes.co.uk/wcsstore/HaynesPublishing/images/PDFs/H4640spread4.pdf (an excerpt from the haynes manual series)

Tropical Fish Centre - The "cold water tank" : Alternatives to Goldfish

Hope that helps.


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## Treaclesmum

Peppered cory catfish.... Definitely want some of those!...


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## NaomiM

My new tank will be temperate, once I finally set it up. As Phoenix said, not much difference in how easy/difficult they are.

If you're having platys, and pretty much any fish other than goldfish/WCMMs, you will need a heater during the winter months unless the room it's in never gets cooler than 18C (even in the middle of the night). You'd just keep the heater set to a really low temperature, and it would only come on if the water temp drops too low.

In addition to the species Phoenix mentioned, it might be worth looking at American flagfish (also called Florida flagfish). Beautiful fish - I'm almost definitely going to have at least one pair of them in my temperate tank. They're ideally suited to hard water/high pH too. They need a well planted tank though as they can be territorial.


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## paulbeeston

You will need a bigger tank if your going down the cold water fish route. Goldfish get massive, where trops stay smaller such as neon tetras Ect 

I would personally go down the trops route as you can then buy plants (goldfish will eat most plants) and IMO the fish are nicer.

You could always go marine


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## Lurcherlad

I kept a shoal of 6 cloud minnows in a very large vase for several years, in the lounge with no heat or filter. Gravel on the bottom and some live plants, partial water change roughly once a month and a full clean every few weeks. 

(N.B. this wasn't by design but as an emergency alternative to them being eaten by the fancy goldfish in the proper tank - despite being advised they were compatible.)


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## paulbeeston

White clouded minnows are ok to have with no heater as they prefer lower temp


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## Phoenix24

they can have no heater but they should still have a filter! No matter how long a fish apparently 'survives' in an unfiltered set up it is completely inhumane treatment.

I kept white clouds with goldfish with no trouble, but I suppose a larger goldfish could be a problem if the white clouds had nowhere to escape too.


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## paulbeeston

Totally agree but didn't want to go off on one :thumbup:

Really annoys me when I see fish in a unfiltered tank 

Goldfish need big filters as they are a dirty fish


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## Citruspips

My twopenneth 

As a child I always had an aquarium but wasn't allowed tropical. At one point I even fished out 20 goldfish fry from our garden pond to fill one of my tanks to give it a tropical look! 

Over the years I continued with a tank on and off until my own little boy wanted to start a tank I told him yes but it MUST be cold. I'd never had tropical and after all those years of cold figured tropical fish just seemed too sophisticated and fragile and must be hard to keep especially for a child.

My son grew up and progressed himself onto tropical and went off to uni leaving the fish for me (just glad I'd said no to the bird eating spider and lizard) I can honestly say that now I think tropical is easier. Why? For me it's a size thing goldfish of any type even fancy eventually grow big and this demands quite a bit of skill managing the water chemistry especially if their tank does not grow with them. Also some fancy goldfish still prefer their water to have a little warmth so this can become an issue in unheated rooms during colder months. 

My tropical fish, and admittedly they are nothing fancy, are just so very easy and undemanding. They don't damage the flora (although that won't be true of all types) and even in a relatively small tank I can enjoy a wider variety of fish.


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