What fish or invertebrate, either by appearance or behavior, is the best indicator of water quality? Let's leave plants out of this equation. I recently read an old TFH "Ask Jack" article that said that RummyNose Tetras were great indicators of Discus-quality water. Their noses are supposed to be bright red if the water perameters are good for discus and pale grey-red if the water is not so good. So what is the equivalent for a regular tropical freshwater setup? Would the rummynoses still work, or would that only be for soft acid water? Anything else?
Canary in a Coal Mine
- Thread starter lujor
- Start date
My Malaysian Trumpet Snails will start climing the glass during the day to get to the top of the water if my water quality is crap. They're the best water quality indicator I've ever had.
smpage;4398949; said:
Cool. Think I've heard about that before. I have clown loaches, so snails are a no-go in my main tank. Most fish give subtle signs of stress due to poor water quality, but I am trying to figure out which are the most obvious. (And also which ones would be suitable for my main tank)
With clown loaches I don't think this will work for you, but corydoras make infrequent trips to the surface as a normal course of behavior. If those trips begin to escalate so you see a number of them going up quite frequently, it's a good sign that you need something changed in the water quality.