Archivarium 2004

[Psyfalcon]

Still looking for something for my 10 next year. I was looking at Apistos, but I will have hard water. Home is the worst, during january, where a pH of 8 and hardness over 150ppm would not be unexpected. As far as water treating, I can't have an RO maker, but I could filter with peat (I won't mind the tea too much, but with water this hard, it might not make a differnce.)

Could a pair of Cacatuoides live in that sort of water? Breeding is not important (and too many fry would be very bad) but a few fry produced would be a nice addition. I was thinking of a biotope type with some driftwood and maybe some plants (those would not be biotope) and perhaps the dried oak leaves for effect.

Any other tankmates if I went for apistos?
How would they hold up to hard water. They are a more hardwater tolerant species, But, no one ever seems to state how hard is too hard.

[benedictj]

If you were able to bring it down a bit, you could keep them possibly.

in the wild, cacs actually have been found in water with a pH of in the mid 7 range with a fair amount of hardness. The place I got this factoid (from the Uwe Romer Cichlid Atlas, Vol 1) stated that these fish were probably artifically introduced into that water, they have adapted none the less.

You might want to start out using bottled water with low hardness in your tank when you get them and then slowly aclimate them up to your tap. Of course, adding peat would help drive the pH down and will make that a bit easier on them (and your nerves). Hope that helps...
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Best,

Jake

[elTwitcho]

Have you considered shell dwelling cichlids? A friend of mine has some neolamprologous (sp?) Brevis in his 20 long with some other fish, and they're fascinating to watch. Coming from the African rift lakes, they will also THRIVE in your hard water, will fit comfortably in your tank, and are every bit as interesting as some larger cichlids, but won't grow over 2 or 3 inches big.

[Psyfalcon]

Shellies are an option, but lets pretend they arent, for the sake of discussion.

[violentray]

bottled water would greatly lower your hardness.

also if you were to go with cockatoos, look for locally raise fish and make sure you discuss the breeders water conditions before you buy.

if the breeder is using the same type of tap water as you are you should be fine. locally gown fish are better because they have already addapted to your hard water.

before I start my cockatoo tank I will need to find a breeder with water almost identical as mine. fortunately I already have about 4-5 breeders who have contacted me about buying their fish.

search for a local cichlid association in your area, many times you will find people in that clube who are willing to almost give away fist because a cockatoo spawn is about 100 babies per female and they are harem fish. so in a harem you could easily have 3-400 babies from one horny male.

to sum up - look for a local cichlid society who has breeders of the fish you would like in water as close to yours as possible.
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never let your girlfriend watch your fish for the weekend.

RIP - 6 neons, and a betta

[benedictj]

Not too overly plug the apisto thing, but I ran across some more info on Apistos and hard water from a reputable source (Mike Wise). Check out this thread, the list is much more than cacs

http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=3242

Hope that helps. It certainly opens up your options. Of course, you'll want to research the needs of each individually before making any decisions.
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Best,

Jake

[Huntress]

Actually you have to be careful on which bottled water you use. Spring water is fairly hard, while distilled has no buffering at all. Personally to get a good environment for soft water cichlids I use a mix of distilled with some tap water for buffering and inject CO2. It has been the most stable way for me to lower my rediculously high pH and hardness in my water.
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"Feminae bene moratea historiam raro faciunt"