I’ve got a 135 gallon tank with a Central American cichlids, however I’ve started to lose interest in the tank so I’m selling some of my stock to accommodate some catfish. I will be left with a group of thorichthys and a clouded archerfish. I wanted to know of some catfish that tolerate hard water as that is my tap water. I’ve already asked about Central American catfish for when I was going in that direction but there didn’t seem to be any that would work. I have started to plant my tank so they would need to be plant compatible. I’ve been reading a bit of stuff about how many fish go through changes in the ph and hardness of the water in the wild depending on the seasons and other factors. They say that stability would be more important in a closed environment than altering the water to try and mimic a fishes supposed natural habitat. If this is true then would most catfish work if they get along with other fish. My water is around 7.8 ph and pretty hard. Thanks for any help and suggestions.
Hard water catfish
- Thread starter Bertie07
- Start date
I thought about them but people have said they can be nasty and might get too big for my tank, some people say they can get 16”+
They’re pretty cool but I think that they’re probably too big for what I’m looking for, I kind of want a to keep a group of catfish in the tank.
Didn't know that you wanted to go smaller. I've kept brochis splenden and corydoras aeneus in hard water (TDS 425ppm) with a PH of 7.8 for up to 19 years. I'm sure they would have survived longer if I had decent information back in the 90s.
Oh really, I’ve heard thought they needed soft water but that could be a good choice
Find strangely that bristlenose plecs also tend to breed better in higher ph harder water so there's another choice, along of course with the harder water syno catfish.
Synodontis petricola or synodontis lucipinnis would be a good choice. Peaceful, active, non aggressive catfish.
