Temperature tolerance in the goldfish, Carassius auratus

Abstract 1. Lower and upper temperature tolerances of 240 goldfish, Carassius auratus , were measured at constant acclimation temperatures of 5, 15, 25 and 35 °C via critical thermal methodology. 2. Mean critical thermal minima and maxima ranged from 0.3 to12.6 °C and 30.8 to 43.6 ° C, respectively, and were significantly linearly related to acclimation temperature. Acclimation temperature accounted for approximately 90% of the variance in temperature tolerance. Ultimate critical thermal minimum and maximum equaled 0.3 and 43.6 °C, respectively. 3. Integrating the temperature tolerance polygon yielded an area of temperature tolerance of 1429 °C 2 , which is approximately 17% larger than the polygon measured via the incipient lethal temperature approach. This difference is explained by methodological differences in these two techniques to quantify temperature tolerance.