PlanetCatfish.com

Hi there,


My tap water is naturally in the mid 7 range for PH, will that affect the L128 much if at all? How important is getting the PH dead on?

It shouldn't be terribly important as long as you are not trying to breed them.

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Mats

I agree with Mats. I know local people here who are keeping them with African cichlids (not an ideal environment of course), but they seem to be doing fine. Not breeding of course.

Awesome, thank you. Just ordered a shipment from Jeff Rapps, hopefully I'll have better luck this time!

Be very careful when adjusting the pH...I also know of people who have kept L128 with africans. I just acquired a pair from a pretty knowledgable hobbyist who basically keep african cichlids and he was keeping them at pH 8+/-.
I had him slowly bring them down to 7.5 during a week and had a tank ready at pH 7.5, hard water (300ppm) to receive them. Temperature was about 82F. Once at home I did partial water changes daily (20%) with r/o water until I came to pH 7.0+/- and 100ppm TDS. I then added Muriatic acid, about 10ml per day, until I got a pH 0f 6.0, holding fine. Tank is a 55G.

These fish do not take harsh pH adjustments well so do them gradually. They are very sensitive to quick pH changes, but they do adapt to a variable range.

Regards
Ed

Very true. I forgot to mention that. They're pretty tough, but do seem to be touchy to quick changes.

Watch out for Ed. He thinks anything higher than 30 ppm is hard water.
Ed wrote:
"I had him slowly bring them down to 7.5 during a week and had a tank ready at pH 7.5, hard water (300ppm) to receive them."

LOL Larry. I'm doing a little exception here and I am trying to keep it around 100ppm. Where these guys are from water is around there, somewhat harder than in the tributaries, mainly because it's rough water, a lot of movement, erosion over solid rock surfaces and the TDS is quite higher than in the surrounding and immediate "altum" habitat we have dealt with at Finarama.
Been feeding them blackworms as of yesterday and they are going for them as expected....they had been eating a bit before then, but I still don't like their poo!
BTW, how's the cold up there coming along?...down here in the SLV snow has been on and off this week...out the window it looks nice and sunny today, but I think it must be rather cold judging by the temp here in my living room right now.
Hope to see you soon.
Ed