Cold water creatures to our tanks
 

Has anyone ever heard of the creatures in the waters off BC (about 45-60 degrees farenheit) ever climatizing them to live in a tropical tank?


I see all these fun things every day and I am like "man would that ever been cool to have in my tank"

I know its slim to none, but maybe there is something that has worked before.

Thanks

nope, they can't transfer over. I've had hermits live for a few weeks, but that's about it.

kept a few barnacles for a few weeks in a spare tank...

I have kept little neck & manilla clams & snails from Superstore in my 20g tank (usually 68-70 C) for several months & I even had the clams in my 100g for several months until the snowflake & bird wrasses figured out how to chow down on them. Still have 2 or 3 clams in the 20g after 1 year.

I've even tried the large prawns but they don't even last the 4 minute drive home from the shop.

In the past I've caught shore crabs & sand fleas & China caps & tossed them into my 20g with fairly good success. Still have some China caps after 2 years.

JME

Anthony

me thinks you need a chiller, must be some serious lighting over that 20 to warm it up that much. :mrgreen:

Seriously though Noj, I also wondered this and sent off a few e-mails to the likes of Dr Ron Shmek, and a few others and they all agreed it would be imposable to keep them long term as they are designed for colder waters (ie. 50 degrees F) and there system would speed up to fast in 78 degree F water. mind you they did figure if you could do the acclimatization over about 100 generations of off springs it might work :mrgreen:

Steve

Coastal Creatures
 

Hi,

You would probably do well with the creatures that are able to survive in the most shallow of tide pools that heat up in the summer time when the tide goes out.

I was thinking to do this exact thing. Those shallow tide "puddles" get very warm. Some animails do get cooked but you could probably start out with some cool creatures. Just acclimate very slowly.

In the summer I PU snails from Centenial Beach in tswassen, from in the tide pools and they last for about 6-12 months..probably the same life span as snails you would buy at your LFS. They are sand sifters

I'm sorely tempted to set up a local tank. Beyond an overpowered chiller and probably styrofoam on the sides, back, and bottom to help keep the water cool, I don't think there'd be that much more involved. Like bnhreef said - any critter that you'll find in tidepools in the summer will probably have a very high threshold for temperature and could handle the tank, and hopefully you'd have the tank a little cooler in the winter to help simulate their cold period.

you will find most of the cool critteres out here are heavy plankton feeders (as our water is saturated with it) going to be hard to maintain that level of food in a small contained ecosystem.

Steve

Dont forget most of our local live is used to water that doesn't change water temperature that much between summer and winter. Yes of course when you are looking at shallow bays etc the water will warm up but as that water warms in the summer you'll find less and less life there. As a former dive instructor I've been on the sunshine coast in the middle of the summer when the water temp was close to 80F but there was no life to speak of, go below the thermocline at about 35ft and a temp drop of close to 35F and all the sudden there was a lot more life. Our local water sits with in 2-3 degrees of it's summer high and it's winter low for the most part.

Doug