so, as i understand it, if you bring home a native fish,you should use water and even substrate from where youve taken the fish. only makes sense. how do you introduce tap water? you cant keep bringing lake water home. lol. i do realize its illegal here, as much as i would love a native tank, just sittin around dreamin and wondered how you would ween them off the lake water.
just wondering
- Thread starter stickman
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depends on the type of fish. Bass and sunfish are relatively hardy and you do small water changes. I dont know much about others(pike muskie, ect...) but my bass did great even thought the ph was 8 and did water changes and he lived great!
I do use river water from the collection site but I can't say that I wean them. I add salt at the collection site and at home I acclimate the temps, add a little tank water and I'm ready. With all of this said, I live in an area where the water is neutral to slightly alkaline. My tap water is alkaline and I'm a bit more careful when introducing fish from tannin (acid) water.
when i had natives before i didnt even use the lake water. just temp acclimated them and put them in. they were fine.
Sometimes, I get the logs or environmental wood and/or substrate and rock that comes from the area they were retrieved from, such as the Amazon river. Lots of wood in the water there makes it to their liking.
I never use lake or river water, I immediately acclimate all native fish to my tapwater and all have been fine, so I guess it's a matter of opinion. As long as the tapwater isn't massively different from where you got them originally and you don't just dump them in they should be fine.
i've always found native fish to be very hardy, as long as you don't shock their system, doing a slow change over from the water they came form I've had no problems at all.....these are fish that have survied from thousands of fry to be only one of a few that are still around...they are generally pretty tough