High PH.... Okay or NOT okay?

[Feisty]

So.... I have high PH... Is that really an issue?

I keep mainly cichlids along with some other community fish. I have several tanks and everyone is doing good.

BUT - I brought home 4 Rummy Nose Tetra and the fish store "kid" stirred the HECK out of the tank when he caught them. They were doing this weird "stressed" floating thing in the bag and I complained to the desk and they said bring them back if they die. Those stress easy and they do that, but they should be fine.

And 2 of the 4 died by the morning. I took them back, with the water sample and they would NOT replace them as they said my PH was too high for them....

GRRRR - 2 are STILL alive over a month later...

Thoughts??? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Feisty]

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

DARN IT - "Advice" ... I guess I should have previewed before posting!

 

[creepyoldguy]

High PH is great for african cichlids! As far as other fish, if you can slowly acclimate the fish (usually drip acclimating them is best) you can usually keep healthy fish in a wide variety of ph. I have 2 retic rays in a ph of 8.0 and they are doing great. There are plenty of discus keepers here that have them in a high ph. Just acclimate them next time and tell the guy at the store not to kill them while catching them for you.

 

[Feisty]

High PH is great for african cichlids! As far as other fish, if you can slowly acclimate the fish (usually drip acclimating them is best) you can usually keep healthy fish in a wide variety of ph. I have 2 retic rays in a ph of 8.0 and they are doing great. There are plenty of discus keepers here that have them in a high ph. Just acclimate them next time and tell the guy at the store not to kill them while catching them for you.

Thanks Creepy Old Guy! (love that name!!!)

I really think it was the awful way this kid chased them around the tank FOR A REALLY LONG TIME and not my PH, but I was not totally sure. I do acclimate slowly with a ton of small water dumps from my tank into the bag (not sure what "drip acclimating" is exactly? Maybe that's what I'm doing).

I was very upset that the sweaty young fish store "kid" did that and then when they told me they would replace them, I left with the fish. Frustrating for them not to replace them though... I won't ever leave with "stressed looking fish" again...

I appreciate the advice!

 

[philfreenode]

Whatever you got from the tap, almost any fish can probably adapt to it. It's no big deal.

I got hard, high PH water. PH 8.4 from the tap and I'm successfully keeping Guppies (they probably like the water), Common Plecostomus and Pacu (which are traditionally found in softer, lower ph water). I do "spoonfull acclimation" where I add a couple spoonfulls of aquarium water to bag water every few minutes for about an hour, then net the new fish out and put them in the (quarantine) tank.

Find out what day your lfs store gets new fish and get your fish the day before that. Don't buy fish the day after that as some are permanently damaged from shipping and others are going to die due to shipping stress. I lost 5 of 6 guppies i bought on a Saturday, when ****mart gets their fish on friday night. I got 4 replacements on a thursday and only lost 1.

 

[philfreenode]

Also the least healthy specimens are usually the ones the pet store employees catch (cause they are the slowest). cause not everyone will be firm about getting a specific fish. So try to pick the most active largest fish in the tank and make them net you out that one. Also easier when the tank has less fish (day before new fish arrive)

 

[knifegill]

And be happy you have naturally high pH. We have no hardness here in Washington and have to buffer our aquarium water or the pH drops to ridiculously low levels. Like 5.5. Which is like the rainy season in the amazon but with threats of instability and horrible deaths if you do a water change from the tap. It comes out at 7.3 and degases down to 6.4. From there it continues to drop between water changes. So aquarists here must decide whether to buffer their tank water or age all their tap water before adding it. Most of us just buffer with baking soda or crushed coral.

No, I don't think I'd mind hard water from the tap one bit. It's all about stability and hard water is easy street for that.

 

[Feisty]

Also the least healthy specimens are usually the ones the pet store employees catch (cause they are the slowest). cause not everyone will be firm about getting a specific fish. So try to pick the most active largest fish in the tank and make them net you out that one. Also easier when the tank has less fish (day before new fish arrive)

Thanks for the advice - philfreenode, I do appreciate it.

I am the person that stands there and says... I want that one, the fat one or the "cute one" or the one that has that dark spot on the gill, or recently - the one with the deformed face, because "nobody's gonna want that fish - oh and can I get a discount because he's obviously deformed" - LOL!

I always pick out which one. I swear they hate me...

 

[aclockworkorange]

That kid was an amateur obviously... the way you catch small fish in a big tank is you hold the net at an angle in the corner, and then use your hand to "chase" them in a round loop leading back to the net. Hard to explain, but this is how I did it working wholesale---we would have to bag up to 100 small schooling fish in bags (and accurate counts were needed, lol) for every order someone did for a species, obviously people would order many different species each order... we would fill 10 orders on our busy ship out day and pack 1000s of fish. To this day I hate hatchet fish, pictus cats... many other species for how hard they are to catch in big numbers.
I killed a half bag of neons from stressing them out too much before bagging my first week. Small schooling fish stress really easily. In the future, if a guy does that again, either demand new fish, or don't buy them... ask if you can bag them yourself.

And HOW high is your ph? What number are we talking here?

 

[Feisty]

And HOW high is your ph? What number are we talking here?

Seriously you guys are killing me with the names. I thought I was bad signing up as Feisty.... ACLOCKWORKORANGE fantastic! I almost peed when I read that....

Its HIGH... 8.4...