Fish tanks and boating?

[b0atman]

ambient temp in liveaboard boats would be usually in winter 20+c ok for unheated temperate tank summer would be no problem unless too hot lol,

[Phil Ambrose]

ambient temp in liveaboard boats would be usually in winter 20+c ok for unheated temperate tank summer would be no problem unless too hot lol,

At the moment Too Hot is a distant memory.LOL

[Alan Saunders]

i wonder do fish get sea sick?

 

Phil Ambrose so you are saying they leave boat in the winter with no heating for how long ?

Water in tank does not freeze and fish do not die ?

 

According to a previous thread, a few years back, fish can suffer from motion sickness.

 

For reasons that I cannot remember my father put our fishtank on an outside window ledge in winter. The whole thing became a block of ice with the goldfish in the centre. It cannot have been solid ice or it would have cracked the tank. After gentle thawing the goldfish (cold water, carp?) survived.

 

Consider a large LED screen with digital, tropical fish, sea-horses, sea-urchines etc. endlessly doing what they do.

 

Alan

[Burgiesburnin]

I have kept tropical fish in a conventional house for years. Once up and running with good water quality then it's a doddle.

Marine is a totally different matter and far more demanding than a normal proposal set up. Considering the cost of fish and the ease at which you can loose them I wouldn't think it a good idea.

[Phil Ambrose]

I have kept tropical fish in a conventional house for years. Once up and running with good water quality then it's a doddle.

Marine is a totally different matter and far more demanding than a normal proposal set up. Considering the cost of fish and the ease at which you can loose them I wouldn't think it a good idea.

Yeah, marine tropicals are silly money, you need deep pockets if you are going to drop a few of these. Beautiful though

Phil

[pquinn]

Or a polar bear.

i reckon you could get a lot of penguins in for just one polar bear,they could feed themselves from the canal even in icy weather.might be a bit of a squeeze with a polar bear.

[Davids]

Daft question but has anyone tried keeping a marine aquarium on board a narrowboat?

Hi Steve

 

I have a full reef tank on board. 3ft x 15" x 18". It has been running for 3 years

and before that I had both Tropical and Cold water aquariums. It is not the

temperature you need to worry about, so much as having a pump running to

circulate and airate the water. The heater in my tank rarely comes on. Boat temp

plus heat from the lights and pumps keep the temp at around 26 degrees C. I live

aboard on a permanent mooring and would not recommend a warm water tank if

you are CCing. Lights and pumps suck a lot of juice. If out cruising I hook them up

to an invertor. A dedicated battery keeps it running for about 12 hours.

[b0atman]

Solved the tank lighting by using 12v led spotlights from bedazzled 2 x 21 led 2 x 18 led with individual switching.

Out cruising I have sorted the optimum water level to allow for bumps and taped tank so that water line is not visible .

Happily been running a temperate tank for 2 months now with fish in .

Fish at moment are Zebra danios, Ottocinclus Catfish & variatus Platies .

Trying to source some Corydoras/Scleryomystax barbatus catfish to complete the stock.

Better than tv and makes boat feel cosier at night.

[Sabcat]

I used to keep cichlids when I lived in a house, pretty much the only thing I miss living on a boat.

[b0atman]

Big tanks are pretty much a nono on boats that move .

When land based I had a large barb that was 24" when it died at 12 years old because heater failed.

I also had an African lung fish that at 40" was too big and so went to London zoo I took the front seat out of the car to fit a dustbin in for transporting it I had a great day at the working part of the aquariums .

[Guest]

Never tried a fish tank on the boat, but my pool table was a disaster.

Used to keep fish in tanks at home and had enough trouble keeping a constant temp. in a fairly uniformly heated house, so would imagine it would be harder on a boat. Don't think I would try such on a cruising narrowboat though I can see that using shore power on a residential boat would make the task easier.

[Jerra]

 

A cold water fish would be okay..

I suspect if left over winter it would die from lack of food even if the water didn't freeze. I doubt anybody who wasn't a live aboard would want a tank installed.

[Peter X]

I kept freshwater tropical fish (in several different houses) for about 12 years, and can offer the following thoughts:

 

The OP's actual question first: What I know about marine fish comes from having read fishkeeping magazines rather than actual experience, but I think it's generally agreed that they're much more expensive and tricky to keep than freshwater. All fish like good water quality and a stable temperature, but especially marines, which of course also need the right amounts of salts to mirror what they'd get in the sea, whereas freshwater fish are mostly happy with a mix of tapwater and rainwater; I'd avoid canal water. If you meant coldwater marine fish, you could keep those in a tank if you have enough knowledge and find the right ones in rock pools on a beach, but they're also hard to keep alive.

 

Most tropical fish like the temperature to stay somewhere around 24C, but will tolerate a few degrees above or below that, whereas cold water fish can cope with water going cold in winter, but I think that's only if the temperature is going to stay cold for the winter as would happen in the wild or a garden pond where they'll survive under the ice. Basically goldfish more or less hibernate at cold temperatures and need less food, so you might get away with leaving them for the winter if you were careful? But consult someone who knows more than me before trying that. There are some sub-tropicals such as the "White Cloud Mountain Minnow" from China which are in-between and will be OK going down to about 16C.

 

If I wanted to keep fish on a boat I'd take the following into account:

 

The water will slosh about a bit, but I reckon if you just don't fill the tank too near the top it should be OK. At sea, especially when it gets a bit rough, you'd really have a problem, but inland shouldn't be too bad unless your boat hits something... Go gently!

 

Unless you expect to have a reliable supply of electricity from a shoreline or from moving about and charging up your batteries, you should look at solar panels. Fishtank equipment doesn't need a lot of power but it does need to not go off for very long. Your filter will be OK if interrupted for a few hours, but after that the essential bacteria start to die. Similarly if a heater is off for a brief period you'll get away with it, but not if the tank cools down too far (bigger tank = more stable temperature).

 

Given all the above you probably need to be a liveaboard, and rarely away for long. All else being well, fish will happily go a few days without food (except fry), but you going off for a two week holiday is a problem.

[b0atman]

only stock a minimum amount of fish and lots of problems do not occur.

Smallish fish in a well balanced tank with algae growing will be ok for quite a while .

1 because they will have been overfed compared to the life in the wild

2 notice how clean the tank is after 2 weeks away or even 3

3 do not let friends neighbours feed them unless they know what they are doing or leave measured amounts of food to be fed every few days.

[Jerra]

only stock a minimum amount of fish and lots of problems do not occur.

Smallish fish in a well balanced tank with algae growing will be ok for quite a while .

1 because they will have been overfed compared to the life in the wild

2 notice how clean the tank is after 2 weeks away or even 3

3 do not let friends neighbours feed them unless they know what they are doing or leave measured amounts of food to be fed every few days.

That of course assumes that the fish are algae eaters/vegetarian.

[series3]

As above....keeps my coffee from spilling on the dash in the vsn.

[b0atman]

Well my tank is doing great I have gone for temperate water fish .

I have been out boating for 3 weeks done a few locks having lowered the designed water level by about 1" I have not spilled any water.

Now the nights are drawing in the tank and fish movements are really looking good .

Going to Freaky Friday Braunston Mid chandlers then into Rugby to check out fishtank tropicals railway terrace (east cheam ?)