Heater Advice

[jgreen]

Hi, just looking for some advice from some axie experts...

I have 4 baby axies (not sure of exact age, but roughly 6-7cm long). I've had them for several months now and they seem happy, healthy, greedy and growing! So I am content with the set up I have for them so far. They've needed no heat source as in the summer room temp in my living room sat at around 18-21ºC (65-70F), so about perfect, and even through September/early October it got no lower than about 12ºC (~53F) minimum at night.

However winter is now setting in and as I live in Scotland it gets pretty cold here! I only heat rooms when I am in them using storage radiators (which, since I work all day, is only in the evenings). The rest of the day the room is very cold. In parts of the house you can see your breath steaming! Though fortunately the living room is the warmest room. I know people say 'axies don't need heaters', but is there a point at which I should consider getting a small heater for the tank? The room will drop well below 10ºC (50F) as the temperature keeps dropping, and we normally get snow by January. As stated they are only small juveniles and I am worried about the slow in metabolism affecting their appetite/growth.

If I do get a heater, any reccommendations for something appropriate for such a small tank? They are in a segmented beta tank to keep them separate at this age. I don't want to heat the water too much, but just enough to keep it above 10ºC or so I would think? So I don't want a full-on tropical aquarium heater or anything. I read that the 7.5W Hydor Mini Heater is good for only raising the temp by a few degrees; has anyone ever used one for amphibs?

Thanks for any help! x

 

[linuxrulesusa]

I can't speak to how it will affect the axies but here's a few suggestions.

Maybe put a temperature gauge and see how far below 50 F it drops? I read on here the other day of people having theirs breeding in 40 F water. I assume you don't let it get below 0 C / 32 F or your pipes would freeze?

I'm not sure what brands of heater you have available to you where you're at. I've tried a bunch of different brand heaters with my tropical fish tanks. I've tried even those small Tetra brand 50w non adjustable heaters and they will just barely heat a 5g bucket of water to 5-10 degrees above room temperature. So I really doubt the 7.5w will do much better. But, it's hard to visualize how big your tank is. What are the dimensions? General rule of thumb over here is 3-5w/gallon, so a 100W heater for a 30 gallon tank, for example.

I know you said you don't want to get a full-on aquarium heater, but if you get a decent brand (I've had good success with Aqueon Pro) like a 75-100W adjustable and monitor it the first few times you use it to make sure it's working well, I think you'd be fine.

Just remember the longer that heater runs the more your electrical costs will spike. My electrical bill jumped between $50-100/month (40% increase) when I was running a bunch of tanks during last winter so I cut back this year on tanks and heaters and temp the heaters were set at.

 

[jgreen]

Thanks I normally buy things like aquarium equipment online as I'm quite limited in what is available locally (plus it's always cheaper anyway!) so I do have quite a range to choose from.

The main thing with not wanting a tropical heater was more that I don't want something that will make it too warm! I'm fine with a natural temp drop in the winter, just don't want it to go too far, so something small and cheap to 'take the edge off' the cold is fine as long as it does the trick for a few months.

I'm now looking at heaters with an adjustable thermostat, something like Hidom 50w Thermostat Blastproof Submersible Aquarium Heater: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies The lowest setting on the dial is still 16ºC though, so I'm not sure if a really weak 'non-adjusting' heater would be better.

As for tank size, I am at work so need to measure when I get home. It's long and narrow and split into 5 compartments - looks more or less like this:

http://devanaturespirit.ca/productimg/tank_5_1_0m.jpg

But 5 sections, not 6 Total length probably about 2ft, and maybe 8in deep at a rough guess. And only about half-filled with water. So water volume is going to be very small, maybe 10-15 litres (about 4-4.5 US gallons) total (water flows between the compartments). I was thinking I'd just put the heater in the empty segment where the filter is.

 

[linuxrulesusa]

I have five at around 3" (8cm?) in a 22 gallon/83 liter tank. So I wonder if you will need more room soon. I don't know.

Anyway, for only 5g of water then yes perhaps your suggestion of a non adjustable is good, with the main problem being with that it will probably be on all the time trying to reach 78F or whatever and being unable to. At least I would think so. But on the other hand, you have the problem of the adjustable ones only going down so low.

What about something different like trying sheets of insulating foam underneath the tank and on all sides except the front? If you add a lid of some kind that will help hold in heat as well. Then you could probably skip the heater.

I'd wait for some more experienced axie keepers to weigh in but as long as the temp stays around 40F or higher I'd think they'd be just fine without a heater.

 

[Bellabelloo]

You don't have to add a heater, the juveniles will be fine. I had one survive a winter in what I thought was an empty tank. I thought the tank had frozen solid, I only found the juvenile when I was emptying it It will slow down their growth, but not permanently. The juvenile grew into a lovely big female and was as big as it's siblings

 

[jgreen]

linux - My tank has glass panel lids so it isn't open at the top like the one in the picture. And yeah, obviously I will upgrade the tank size as they grow. Eventually I want them all to be in a nice big tank together. Just while they're so tiny and being keep apart to avoid nipping, it seems a waste to buy 4 separate small tanks! They may be slightly smaller than I said too... just know they were around 3cm when I got them and they've definitely grown since then.

Julia - I wasn't sure how cold its safe for axies to be long-term. I've heard of people doing 'fridging' and stuff with ill axies so I know they will survive temps down to just a few degrees, but it's likely to be really cold here for the next 4-5 months at least (depressingly!) so wasn't sure if they'd be harmed by such a prolonged temp drop. I have a fire belly newt too and he lives in my kitchen, which is the coldest room, but he seems quite happy and as active as ever, no problems last winter despite me fearing the tank would ice over from the cold! So I know some amphib species are very hardy.

Begs the question, how do you really know if axies are too cold anyway? I figured I would just watch and see if they became very inactive or stopped taking food, but so far they seem okay and developing nicely. I can see their tiny gill filaments starting to appear now it's very cool Maybe I'm too used to keeping insects which seem to drop dead out of the blue when the temperature falls

 

[layna]

Its advised not to let then get below 6C in the fridge so i would say as long as your rooms arent colder than 6C then dont panic.

Another option available to you, is insulation round your tank, using foam and blankets and towels to stop the frost.
People keep axies in ponds and they do get to freezing point so for the most part i think you'll be fine.
But if you really want a heater, get just a small one that will keep the temp around 10C or so.

Axies dont like to be above 20C anyway as it starts to cause problems for them, im in north east england and i havent even considered a heater

 

[Kaysie]

I've had tanks ice over with no ill effects. If your room is warm enough you can stand to be in it, it's plenty warm enough for axies.