Water Temperature

All fish are cold blooded: their internal body temperature is not regulated to a constant value. Instead, they follow the temperature of their environment. Each species has an optimum temperature range within which it functions best as a piece of biological equipment. At temperatures above optimum, fish become sressed, negative, and they seek cooler water. If cooler water is unavailable and temperatures continue to rise, the fish die. As tempertures fall from the optimum range the fish's metabolic rate slows and activity decreases. At specific minimum temperatures some species go to varying degrees of torpor and actually semi-hibernate for the seasonal periods of cold water.

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