Re: Temp./Snails/pH!

[Glenn Ford <gford at voyageursw_com>]

I am new to the hobby, thanks for the insight.  I plan to breed Australe
and this will help me....Thanks  Glenn Ford

RSchwiegerath wrote:

> Hi Guys!
>
> As many of you know; I've been breeding gularis (Fp. sjoestedti)
> for a long time.  I've also "kept"  A.australe. By "kept" I mean
> maintained or produced at little more than I lost.
>
> After relocating from NJ to central NM about 18 months ago and
> having taken early retirement, I found myself with the time (and
> necessity) to study the great difference in water conditions.  My
> water here has a pH of 8.3 with a hardness of about 50 ppm out of
> the tap.  In NJ it was 120 ppm with a pH of about 6.8 .  My fish
> (and many of my plants) weren't happy with the new conditions.
> The Red Ramshorn snails seemed to cope.
>
> In time, it became quite apparent that the only way to approach
> the conditions I had in NJ was to adjust the water with  Muriatic
> Acid which is dilute hydrochloric acid.  I had tried pH Down - a
> product of Wardley's but it contains Potassium Acid Phosphate
> which is a great fertilizer since it contains both potassium and
> phosphorus.  Result - an algae blaze approaching pea soup!
>
> Muriatic Acid can be purchased very cheaply in any hardware
> store. It is typically used for cleaning brick and should be
> handled with care until diluted since it's vapors are fairly
> corrosive and contact with the skin is unpleasant at best.
>
> Anyway; I didn't always get the pH down to the 6.0 to 6.5 range I
> wanted for my gularis breeders.  Sometimes it went to more like a
> pH of 5.0  and was used in the A. australe tanks.  The gularis'
> egg production seemed to drop off some 50% - BUT the australe egg
> production EXPLODED! (These are mop spawning conditions and all
> of my water contains 1 tsp.. of salt per gallon. Eggs are water
> incubated.)
>
> Now; when it comes to egg production, I find that gularis prefer
> somewhat cooler water (60 -68 F) whereas the australe prefer
> warmer water for maximum egg production.  The gularis' eggs
> (water incubated) hatched in just about a month at 65 to 70 F.
> whereas at higher temperatures for spawning and incubating, they
> took much longer to fully develop and hatch.  On the other hand;
> the australe egg production was somewhat greater at 75 F. and
> their water incubated eggs hatched in about 1 week.
>
> Snails :
>
> I've always found Red Ramshorn to be quite useful.  None in the
> tanks containing very young fry or eggs.  Once the fry are about
> a week old I do add very small snails which help get things
> cleaned up.  All of my other tanks contain Red Ramshorn in
> considerable numbers - even my breeders' .
>
> I guess that this little bit of insight can be extrapolated to
> mean that under a given environment, not every killie will do
> well for you - whether it be temperature, pH, water hardness, or
> even light conditions.  Not to mention diet.  I've even found
> that certain fish room locations are more conducive to egg
> production for my gularis.
>
> Perhaps my wife's advise is something to be taken seriously.
> "Whatever you do best with - stay with."  I strongly feel that
> your local conditions have a lot to do with your success with
> certain genera and species, especially the more "difficult" ones.
>
> Hope I didn't muddy the waters too much,
>
> Tanks,
>
> Bob Schwiegerath
> Socorro, NM

---

References:

• Temp./Snails/pH!
• From: RSchwiegerath <critters at sdc_org>

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