Re: Amazonian fish and hard water

[Piabinha@aol.com]

at an aquarium shop in nyc recently, i saw the most amazing sight: in a large
100 gallon tank there were discus, south american tetras, geophagus, other
south american fish, boesemmani rainbows, congo tetras and Monodactylus
sebae!!!!!!  i asked the owner how was that possible, after all the M. sebae
is an saltwater fish, whose juveniles enter rivers and live in brackish water,
or at least, hard and alkaline water.  anyway, he told me that many captive
bred discus were hardier and could be kept in water that was more neutral.  as
for the sebae, he told me they were captive bred and highly adaptable.  nyc
tap water is fairly neutral and more soft than medium.  but i guess there is
some truth to the fact taht fish are more adaptable than we might think.
however, i have never been able to keep sailfin mollies or puffer fish (even
though i have east african cichlids).  i have always assumed it was the water
issue but maybe it is other factors.  

in the "optimum aquarium" book, the author talks about his dream tank taht had
a pH of 7.0, in order for him to keep mollies, plecos, east africans and
amazonian fish all togehter.  don't know how well that works though.

tsuh yang chen, nyc


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