Comment by Robert Jango on June 29, 2012 at 1:50am

I tried it in Boston last winter and the electric bill spiked. To heat a 180 gallon tank I used 1300 watts - two 500 watt heaters and one 300 watt. This is what's needed to maintain a temperature of at least 68F in sub-freezing Boston winters, and I had to cover the tank with a heavy woolen blanket at night. You could keep a small tank but this might pose stability problems during a Canadian winter even with heaters. 

Anyway, one kilowatt costs 7.5 cents per hour in Boston. At, lets say a minimum 1000 kilowatts, you're using 24 kilowatts/day. That's 24 X 7.5 cents = $1.80/day. Round that off to $2 with lights, filter etc, and it would cost you about $50-$60 per month to maintain one tank.

Now if you heated the shack, you could put as many tanks in as you wanted and it would cost the same to heat them all. But if (and when) the power went out you'd better have a gas stove or fireplace to boil water because that would be the only way to save the fish. Either that or catch them and bring them indoors in buckets.

The last option would be restricting yourself to temperate fish as opposed to tropicals. Paradise fish don't mind temps down to 50F, and you probably already know about Goldfish. The livebearers can withstand low temps. Sydney, a member of this site, kept Mollies in an outdoor pond year-round in Alabama where they spent two days under a thin ice sheet - their natural habitat extends up through South Carolina. But again, this was in a pond. A fish tank is not a natural habitat or a even a small pond; so I couldn't guarantee Mollies surviving these temps in a tank. Native fish like Pickeral, Bass and Sunfish prefer seasonal changes, but these  are all super aggressive, even more than cichlids, and one fish could decide it wants a whole tank to itself. 

There's a guy in the UK on this site who wants to set up a fish shack outdoors. Hopefully he'll read your post and have something to add.

Comment by Tyler Musialek on June 29, 2012 at 1:27pm

Were in Canada? Because I live in south surrey BC and it would be easy here.
I would insulate it VERY well and put a space heater in there. Just my two cents.
Cheers

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