I am at my wits' end here! I've spent days looking on pubmed and my university library but it is impossible to find the body temperature or even temperature of the habitat of Tetraodon nigroviridis in a paper. There are tons of websites saying what temperature to keep them at in an aquarium but I can't reference websites in my paper. Does anyone know of an appropriate place to reference for this? I would appreciate any help!
FishBase gives a preferred water temperature of 24°C-28°C, based on Schliewen (1992). The species is widespread in southeast Asia including Vietnam and southern China where rivers are subject to seasonal temperature variation; it probably occurs in a relatively broad temperature range.
However, though the ectothermy statement is generally true, some fish species may raise the temperature of parts or all of their body above the temperature of the surrounding water by means of muscular action. In an ostraciid I have observed a cooling mechanism positioned near the banchial opening. Therefore it would be prudent to measure both water and body temperatures.
I apologize - my earlier response (T. nigroviridis is an ectotherm, so just measure water temperature) was the result of my not reading your question carefully. I, too, would rely on FishBase for the fish's preferred water temp. Dr. Fricke is correct that some fish show regional heterothermy, usually warming a specific body region above ambient (I have not heard of the body cooling that Dr. Fricke has observed, but that is intriguing). I'm not aware of regional heterothermy in the Tetraodontidae. If T. nigroviridis does show regional heterothermy, it would almost certainly be limited to one particular body region (eyes, brain, red muscle, or digestive tract) so most of the body tissue should still be very close to ambient water temperature. If you are not comfortable assuming that the fish is an ectotherm, the usual way to measure body temperature is with a thermocouple temperature probe inserted (and glued) inside a hypodermic needle that can be inserted into the body (likely harming the fish, obviously); thermocouple probes and digital thermometers are relatively inexpensive and can be purchased from various supply companies (I'm in the U.S. so I buy them from Cole-Parmer). I hope this helps.
Dear Emma Quinlan
please check the resources
animal-world.com › Aquarium Tropical Fish › Puffer Fish
www.seriouslyfish.com/species/tetraodon-nigroviridis
badmanstropicalfish.com › Main Index › Detailed Fish Profiles › Miscellaneous species
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/15177693
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