Easy Fish For Hardwater

[veronica26]

We finally seem to have our fishtank (15 gallons) up and running. We currently have one zebra danio and five neon tetras. The tetras seem pretty happy, but one was found dead yesterday morning. We have pretty hard, alkaline water, and I am wondering if there are some fish out there that would do better. I hear that neons are not as hardy as they used to be and prefer soft water.

Any suggestions for stocking our tank would be appreciated. I didn't want to traumatize our two-year-old with so many fish deaths, but I think it bothers me more than her!

 

[limerickbandit]

We finally seem to have our fishtank (15 gallons) up and running. We currently have one zebra danio and five neon tetras. The tetras seem pretty happy, but one was found dead yesterday morning. We have pretty hard, alkaline water, and I am wondering if there are some fish out there that would do better. I hear that neons are not as hardy as they used to be and prefer soft water.

Any suggestions for stocking our tank would be appreciated. I didn't want to traumatize our two-year-old with so many fish deaths, but I think it bothers me more than her!

What is your PH?

 

[veronica26]

The tap water we use for the aquarium has ranged, over the past year, between 7.5 and 8.0.

 

[Corleone]

Most commonly sold fish do quite well in almost any pH - changes are bad, but anything between 6 and 8 is fine for all but a few particularly sensitive species, unless you're trying to breed them. Do you have a liquid test kit to cover ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? These are the important water stats. I remember about a month ago you had some fish-in cycle problems, it's possible you had a mini-cycle, or simply bad luck - sick fish happen, and as it is "just" a neon, if your water stats are 0 ammonia/nitrite, I wouldn't panic.

The common livebearers (guppies, platys, swordtails, mollies) all thrive quite well in hard water, and many of the rarer ones as well. With your pH, you'd probably have no trouble keeping mollies in fresh water rather than brackish.

 

[backtotropical]

Neale Monks wrote a good article on the subject. Well worth a read.

<a href="http/wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwhardness.htm" target="_blank">http/wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwhardness.htm</a>

Cheers

BTT

edit: Bear in mind that this article deals mainly with high kH (carbonate hardness), not gH (general hardness). This distinction is very important, and you should determine which (or maybe both) applies to you before relying on this information.

 

[waterdrop]

Nice article BTT! Veronica, I agree with Corleone, interested in your Amm/NO2 values but if it was just one neon... When Oliver and I went to get a shoal of neons we wanted 6, so I said we would get 8 because ever since the 1950's I've always had one or two neons die when you bring them home! Sure enough, one of the most tiny ones was lost shortly after introduction but the other 7 have come along really nicely.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[rhostog]

Agreed that platys are a good choice for hard alkaline water. They come in lots of colourful variations, including red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, which might appeal to the little one too - you can even get them with a mickey mouse shape on their tails.

 

[veronica26]

Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear that random neon deaths probably aren't our fault. We would like to keep platies, but we're a little nervous since we got some when we were first starting our tank and they all died. I was sort of wondering if there was another type of small, schooling fish that would be a better choice than neons, in case they all die! The remaining five all look fine right now, though.

 

[jumblepod]

Yeh platys do very well in hard alkaline water. Ive got 5 platys and my ph is 8. There as happy as can be