I keep a community aquarium and I wanted to add some african cichlids to the aquarium. I need to do a water change soon so my ph might go up a little, but My PH is around 7.4 right now. The thing is I have a black ghost knife fish in my aquarium and I don't know if their tolerance range would overlap with an african cichlid's range? Would They be able to be kept together?
Ph range compatibility?
- Thread starter Leo1234
- Start date
There are some African cichlids that come from soft low pH or neutral pH water, and there are rift lake African cichlids that prefer hard water (pH 8-9 range). Some of the more popular rift lake Africans if bred in your area, in your water, can be accepting of your neutral conditions, but if you are talking about some of the less popular species, there can be problems. Some people might suggest that a few or more generations of aquarium rearing in soft water can make cichlids more forgiving, but I'm not so sure a number of aquarium generations can make up for a few million years of evolution. I always feel, tailoring your species of fish to your normal conditions is the best, and less problematic route to go.
What species do you think would work? I was thinking of getting eye biters, electric blue, and/or a yellow lab. My water tends to be very hard and has a PH around 7.6
I believe those species will probably work well with a pH of 7.6, especially if they were bred in your area.
Where I live the water hardness is in the 250-300ppm range, with pH 7.6-7.8 and fry from all those are readily available from local breeders at all our clubs events.
Where I live the water hardness is in the 250-300ppm range, with pH 7.6-7.8 and fry from all those are readily available from local breeders at all our clubs events.