are CA ,SA fussy with hardness?

[jagsandpits]

when i research many cichlids such as the jaguar and green terror online i notice that it says something like hardness 10-20 or watever. is this really important cuz my tap hardness is like 3 lol. the guy at my lfs said low hardness is better because thats how thier natuarl environment is. then why is it saying 10-20 and whatnot online?

 

[fishman09]

Ca/SA are very hardy for the most part so avoiding extremes and keeping it stable is more important meeting a certain standard.


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[Aweshade9]

I wouldn't worry about hardness unless you are in the rift lakes, or discus set ups

 

[duanes]

The great lakes of Nicaragua are very much like the African greats lakes in that pH level is approx 8.5, and many of the Central American rivers are similar, but because these cichlids are adaptable, it is much better to be consist.
Managuense and green terrors are apples and oranges though, the later coming from S America where softer waters are the norm, and managuense from Central America (Lake Managua and surrounding calcium rich rivers and lakes).

 

[jagsandpits]

if my hardness is low is this gonna bother my jag even tho hes captive bred

 

[oscarman2003]

dont worry bout hardness just keep everything stable main point

 

[rgonzales]

your fish should be fine

 

[jagsandpits]

ok cool cool. thank you guys

 

[neutrino]

the guy at my lfs said low hardness is better because thats how thier natuarl environment is. then why is it saying 10-20 and whatnot online?

Probably because your lfs guy apparently has the same misconception that a lot of people have, that South American cichlids all come from soft, acidic water. But it's a big continent with a wide variety of habitat and conditions. Green terrors don't come from particularly soft water. IMO you may find they benefit from having some minerals in the water and it wouldn't hurt to add a small amount of cichlid buffer, enough to keep pH over 7 and GH and KH closer to 10 than 3.

 

[tiger15]

SA from Amazon Basin can be picky on water hardness as many came from water with near zero hardness, such as Discus, Rams and many Geo species. Green Terror, Fastae and a few Aquidens and Geo Species came from the Pacific rim of the Andes and thrive in hard water like CA. It's best to read the origin of the fish to find out their source water chemistry. It's easy to keep hard water fish as you can add buffer, but difficult with soft water fish unless you own a RO unit to soften the water. I don't own a RO unit and had bad experience with soft water fish as they all came up with HITH desease.