Hard water fish
- Thread starter Carnage
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Marble hatchets and discus, really? This goes counter to my reading over the years. I always thought they preferred soft, acidic water conditions. Do you have any more sources? It's quite interesting and I'd like to know more.
OP, how hard is your water? Most fish can adjust to differing water conditions to a certain extent, so the degree of hardness might be important in gaining a proper answer.
OP, how hard is your water? Most fish can adjust to differing water conditions to a certain extent, so the degree of hardness might be important in gaining a proper answer.
Bizarre, I kept both marbled hatchets and discus in very soft water for years with no ill effects, are you sure? Like homebunnyj I'd love to know more. It's generally, if not always reccommended to have discus in soft water.
Having read the link, I'm seeing quite vague and sometimes inaccurate information. A lot of gouramis won't tolerate hard water, such as chocolate gouramis, liquorice gouramis and moonlight gouramis, and others won't tolerate extremities. Also, it reccommends keeping oscars in groups of 6 or more, not taking into account the fact they grow a foot each. They also do not like extremes of hardness. Some of the information in there is, I believe, quite misleading, and the feedback from readers shows this.
Livebearers do work well, but the fact that they breed so much is a bad point for me, lots of stores won't take the thousands of fry that are surely taken to them each month.
A lot of rainbowfish actually quite like hard water, they're something worth considering. Avoid threadfins and boesemans, which tend to prefer softer waters. Many types of freshwater gobies also like hard water.
As well as rift lake cichlids, some cichlids like firemouths, kribensis, orange chromides and parrotfish work well in hard water.
It would however be useful to know the hardness of your water to determine what you could get away with, because quite a few fish aren't too fussy with a bit of hardness.
Having read the link, I'm seeing quite vague and sometimes inaccurate information. A lot of gouramis won't tolerate hard water, such as chocolate gouramis, liquorice gouramis and moonlight gouramis, and others won't tolerate extremities. Also, it reccommends keeping oscars in groups of 6 or more, not taking into account the fact they grow a foot each. They also do not like extremes of hardness. Some of the information in there is, I believe, quite misleading, and the feedback from readers shows this.
Livebearers do work well, but the fact that they breed so much is a bad point for me, lots of stores won't take the thousands of fry that are surely taken to them each month.
A lot of rainbowfish actually quite like hard water, they're something worth considering. Avoid threadfins and boesemans, which tend to prefer softer waters. Many types of freshwater gobies also like hard water.
As well as rift lake cichlids, some cichlids like firemouths, kribensis, orange chromides and parrotfish work well in hard water.
It would however be useful to know the hardness of your water to determine what you could get away with, because quite a few fish aren't too fussy with a bit of hardness.
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