PH levels - New to Cichlids, need some advise

[Jescoe]

:mrgreen:

Hello,
I am new to this forum, and new to Cichlids. My question is about ph. We have a 20 gallon tank with 6 fish (Don't worry, they're all young and will be moved to more a appropriate tank very soon). I checked the ph and it is about at 6. I understand that it should be around 7-7.5, is that correct? Well anyway, a friend of mine knows a bit about the subject and gave me some stuff to raise ph. I've also heard that salt will do the trick as well. My question is this. All of the fish seem to be very healthy and happy so is the water at a dangerous ph level? They get along great (which some find interesting seeing that I have a Convict, a Bumblebee, an Auratus, and three others I'm sure of the name of - one is a small albino, who by the way is the most aggressive and the other is a roundish yellow one that looks like Woodstock - which we aptly named it and a bottom feeder - bigger than the other fish by now). I keep the water temp. at about 81-82 and there are TONS of hidding places (rock, vegetation, etc...) Should I mess with the water, or will they be ok?

Thanks!
Todd

[SGypsyMermaid]

six is too low for the african lake cichlids; ideally their ph should be at least 8.0. if you raise the ph, be very careful to do it slowly so as to avoid shocking and possibly killing your fish.

[merlyn2221]

Hello, Todd! Welcome to this great website.

Based on the information you provided, you seem to have a mixture of African and Central American cichlids in the same tank. This is not really good, since they require different water conditions and have different diet requirements.

The auratus and bumblebee are from Lake Malawi in Africa. Their natural habitat is a pH level of between 7.7 and 8.6. The water is hard, mineral rich with naturally occurring salts. Most people who have Malawi cichlids usually keep their tanks around 8.2. These two fish are primarily plant eaters, who will graze on the algae on rocks.

The convict comes from Central America, where the waters are softer and the pH is much lower; somewhere between 5.8 and 7. Convicts will eat just about anything, but need a diet of much higher protein content., like chopped earthworm, bloodworms, etc. These foods would cause serious digestive problems for Africans, since their systems are made to digest plant material.

What the albino fish and yellow fish are, I can only begin to guess. They may be either African, or South/Central American. If you can go to the place where you got them, they may know their genus and species. This is necessary to determine if they are African or South/Central American. If you have a picture of them that you can put on line, that is even better.

Just as an aside,and I may get flack for saying this, but you may need to go to a new lfs. :x Where ever you got these fish, they should have told you that it is not a good idea to mix the two types of cichlids. They should also have helped you in creating for your fish as natural an environment as possible. That is if they are reputable! This is a thing about local fish stores (lfs) that really bugs me. :x I have seen it happen too many times, and it has caused the needless death of many a beautiful fish!

Hope this has helped.

[fOx]

I have to agree with Merlin... any LFS that lets you walk out with American's to mix with Africans doesn't know what its doing. The Bumblee Bee and the Auratus will be at war with your convicts before you know it, I've seen it happen so many times.

As for raising your PH, you have to do it slowly and by that I mean over the course of a week. In order to prevent shock you should never raise the PH above 0.5 in any 24 hour period. For the africans I like to keep my tank at 8.2, it should take you between five and six days to get it to that point.

That's all for now, but as a parting shot... find another fish store with employees that know what they are doing. When you are new to fishkeeping, or cichlids, your LFS is often your best, quickest and most reliable source of info... or at least it should be. (Although latley I have been noticing a lot of them are just staffing the floors with kids who don't know the difference between fresh and brackish water :cry: )

fOx

[matt1066]

All of the above are wonderful responses, the only thing I can add is to drop the salt.

Matt