What’s a “Cool Water Fish?”  Naturally, our native fishes (sunfishes, catfishes, suckers, and minnows) can handle cool water quite easily.  But since so few people keep these usually larger tank residents, we’ll just cover the “imports.”

Import Note.  Although carps (koi) and goldfishes are cold water fishes, they are fairly recent immigrants to our country.

No Heater Necessary.  Most cool water fishes live just fine in unheated aquaria.  They don’t need heaters to live happily or to breed.

Temperature.  Fishes from warm countries (tropical fishes) never see falling leaves much less falling snow.  Cool water fishes have adapted to varying weather conditions – even ice on top their water.  This doesn’t mean they like ice in their water, just that they can survive it.

Fish Bowls.  Since fishbowls and those “executive aquariums” (with the emphasis on execute) have no heaters, the cool water fishes work better in them than tropical fishes.

Your Choices.  Some potential candidates to consider include:

   ●  Paradise Fishes
   ●  Most Danios
   ●  Black Skirt Tetras
   ●  Many Barbs
   ●  White Clouds
   ●  Killifish
   ●  Goldfishes
   ●  Carp

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Paradise Fish.  Think of these guys as cool water bettas.  Just slightly less colorful than bettas, these tough little scrappers can thrive in conditions that would kill most tropical fishes.  We saw one pair kept outside in a bucket (in the shade) spawn and hatch eggs.  Like bettas, they fare best when kept separate.  (Males like to argue.)  Mature males make excellent display fishes in those one-gallon crystal bowls you can occasionally find.  We cannot recommend paradise fish highly enough.  They will sometimes beat up on tank mates when crowded into smaller quarters -- especially other anabantids.

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Zebras rarely pause for a photo op.

Danios.  These schooling, darting fishes chase and flit thru any aquarium.  They add action.  Most of the danios:

   ●  Zebras,
   ●  Golds,
   ●  Pearls,
   ●  Blues,
   ●  Leopards, and
   ●  Several other "new" danios now coming out of India

all school together when in the same tank.  Some people consider them “too active” because they want all the other fish to chase along with them.

Long-Finned Danios.  We prefer our danio species in the long-finned varieties.  Danios are excellent cool water fishes.  They will pester slow moving fishes.

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White, long-finned, black tetras.

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Long-finned black tetra.

Black Skirt Tetras.  Black skirt tetras develop their darkest colors when kept in the cooler ranges.  This group includes a long-finned variety as well as the white skirt tetra (which develops no black colors).  This group also contains the injected fruit-colored tetras.  All these originally black tetras will school together quite happily.

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Many Barbs.  Gold barbs especially enjoy cooler tanks.  These colorful (and peaceful) schoolers look good in tanks of smaller fishes.

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White clouds also make pretty good skeeter eaters.

White Clouds.  Look at these guys when the sunlight hits them.  Their white and yellow stripes and red-tipped fins flash very attractively in good light.  A school of these minnows really makes a tank look great.  Temperament-wise you couldn’t ask for a better fish.  They will not hurt or chase their tank mates.  These guys will even survive in those nasty mini-tanks.

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Goldfishes and Carps.  We’ve covered these species in other papers.  If you need more info about this huge category of fishes, ask for more Fact Sheets on them.

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These guys grow to a nice size.

Weather Loaches.  Good scavengers and exotic looking.  They work great in larger tanks.

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Maybe a little vain?

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Most killies need no heaters.

Killifish.  Even though many killifishes came from Africa and South America, many prefer unheated aquaria.

Feeding.  Cool water fishes eat any food you offer them.  They are always at the front of the chow line.  Several small meals per day work best.  Most respond very well to color foods.  Color foods bring out their reds, oranges, and blacks.

Decor.  Most cool water fishes enjoy swimming in well-planted tanks.  Goldfishes and koi are well known plant munchers, but the others will leave your plants undisturbed.  Anacharis and hornwort (U.S. aquatic plants) grow quite well in cool water tanks.  LA.

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