Advice For A Questioning Mind

[ramaseseniblikxviii]

ok, i got to thinking where do fish live?.........in rivers and lakes etc. so why dont we use river water in our tanks?
Got a lovely little babbling brooke at the bottom of my garden which has got little brown trout in it in the summer and some sticklebacks too.
Aside from the cross over of bugs and diseases, why dont we use river water in our tanks?
surely its better than tap water?

 

[hairyhaggler]

Thats a good question really.
I suppose you could do that with your ponds etc , but not sure about warm water tanks.
Maybe if you warm the water it might change the chemical make up of the water itself . I would have thought if it was possible then someone would have already come up with the idea and done it , so going on that judgment alone i suspect there could be some other reasons why river water isnt used in warm water tanks.

but i am clutching at straws a bit here seeing as i know nothing about fish tanks...

also , seeing your avatar man from atlantis , do you feed jam to jamfish at all ... and have you ever seen a bearded sausage..?

 

[Saedcantas]

Because sadly, thesedays in all but the most remote places, there is no way of garuanteeing (unless you have a mini testing lab...) that the waters are not contaminated by various organics like pesticides or with fertilliser products.

More to the point, depending on the fish you keep, are they all from one biotope? and is that biotope exactly the same as the one in this babbling brook?, if not in what way exactly will it be beneficial???

 

[Jules H-T]

ok, i got to thinking where do fish live?.........in rivers and lakes etc. so why dont we use river water in our tanks?
Got a lovely little babbling brooke at the bottom of my garden which has got little brown trout in it in the summer and some sticklebacks too.
Aside from the cross over of bugs and diseases, why dont we use river water in our tanks?
surely its better than tap water?

In theory it's a great idea. However there are concerns- one as you say is parasites or diseases. The second is the lack of quality control. Parameters for domestic supply are regulated, regularly tested, and a breakdown is available FOC. It might not be the cleanest most sparkling mountain spring water, but it's not going to be toxic. The stream may be better one day, then some guy dumps a drum of fertiliser upstream and what happens?

I wonder whether the environment agency has done any testing on your stream? The fact that there are trout in it seems a good sign, anyone know how sensitive they are?

 

[Saedcantas]

Trout now live in the Mersey... nuff said

 

[ramaseseniblikxviii]

Because sadly, thesedays in all but the most remote places, there is no way of garuanteeing (unless you have a mini testing lab...) that the waters are not contaminated by various organics like pesticides or with fertilliser products.

More to the point, depending on the fish you keep, are they all from one biotope? and is that biotope exactly the same as the one in this babbling brook?, if not in what way exactly will it be beneficial???

ok well i use rain water in my tank, and every water change i have to re mineralise it to bring it back up.

It might suprise you but it doesnt always rain in wales so i have to pay £1 per gallon of R/O water from my LFS in the summer so that would be benefit , on my pocket .

FYO, I do have access to a lab of sorts, my sister is a chemist and i am very cheeky..............

 

[Bloo]

I only have the Thames on my doorstep and there's no way I'm going near that babbling brook !

No, jokes aside I wouldn't use it. Too many potential disease and ground pollutants.

 

[ramaseseniblikxviii]

In theory it's a great idea. However there are concerns- one as you say is parasites or diseases. The second is the lack of quality control. Parameters for domestic supply are regulated, regularly tested, and a breakdown is available FOC. It might not be the cleanest most sparkling mountain spring water, but it's not going to be toxic. The stream may be better one day, then some guy dumps a drum of fertiliser upstream and what happens?

I wonder whether the environment agency has done any testing on your stream? The fact that there are trout in it seems a good sign, anyone know how sensitive they are?
[/quote]

I have been round the local area lookin for springs and only found one ,but its too iron rich to use, and the source of my stream is only a mile or so away.
The water quality is really nice in my lil stream if a little hard and my main concern would be introduceing disease or bugs (had a nasty incident a while ago with a cray fish in the mother-in-laws pond)

Really it was just a thought ..................

 

[Qays]

interesting idea, but i prefer clear water, and if the fish are happy with clear water, im happy!

 

[Phoenixfish]

just a point tank bred fish have never come into contact with river water etc, and even the F1's wouldnd have much problem with tap water

 

[ramaseseniblikxviii]

just a point tank bred fish have never come into contact with river water etc, and even the F1's wouldnd have much problem with tap water

Interesting point.........I wonder if commercially bred fish lose there natural disease tolerances through not comming into contact with thier natrual habitat
Futhermore, is it possible that commercial breeding will phase out certain traits in our fish such as predator awareness and mateing habits?