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African Cichlids in Basement

skanda

Members
Hello All,

I have a 75 Gallon African Cichlid set up in my house basement. The temp. currently is around 68 oF without the heater on and goes up to 72oF when the heater is on. I only set the heater on in the winter when the basement temp drops below 68oF. The Africans seems to be doing fine at 68 oF although their activity has decreased a little. I feed them thrice day on a timer. My questions is, can they survive at 68oF in an unheated basement tank? Wil they get a disease? The feeding will decease I believe. I am aware that this is not the optimum temp. Any experience on these?

Thanks

Skanda
 

dogofwar

CCA Members
Basements tend to have stable temperatures, which - in my experience - is more important than absolute temperature.

Many African cichlids will do just fine in the upper-60s / lower-70s...just spawn and eat less. In my (detached garage) fishroom, I didn't heat most tanks of peacocks, haps, mbuna, Tangs and the temps in the winter regularly were in the upper 60s / lower-70s.

If your heater is only raising the temp from 68 to 72, it's too small of a heater...I'd get another or a bigger one and keep the temp at 74 or so. A single, over-worked heater is both always "on" (i.e. using electricity) but also a prime candidate for getting stuck / malfunctioning.

Also, there's no reason to feed them three times per day. I generally feed once per day on weekdays and try to skip feeding altogether a couple of days per week.

Matt
 
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