Quote:
Originally Posted by Sniperelite8243  |
I read this as well on that site, however, I think they were just speaking in general about all cichlids overall and certain species would definetely be better off in a tank with a more narrow Ph 'window' than some others. What people often forget is that fish like Discus, who I believe prefer a much lower Ph, are cichlids as well, hence the 6.5 Ph range.
Honestly, unless you would like to attempt breeding of a cichlid species that is not known to mate well in an aquarium, the Ph is not going to be all that major of a concern. I feel that the best issue to conquer first is to get a tank up and running that will maintain a constant Ph level, rather than attempt to acheive one spacific 'number'; if that makes sense. On the upside, most all freshwater fish have the ability to adapt to a wide range of Ph levels, however they cannot do so very rapidly and this is why you would not want the Ph in your tank to 'swing' up and down as this could cause shock and stress to your fish.
For example, my Malawi Cichlid tank, which now holds Yellow Labs and Tiger Barbs (non-cichlids) as well as a pleco and a rainbow shark, has a near constant Ph level of 7.2. According to that same Drs. Foster and Smith website (
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...fm?pCatId=839), the "ideal" Ph for the labs alone would be 7.8 to 8.5. However, they are doing fine in my tank right now and actually are still breeding at a rate that I would almost call 'out of control'!
Another good strategy would be to take a reading of your tap water's Ph, as well as the Ph of your tank as it would normally be (after being cycled and a day or two after a water change) and use that Ph number to guage what type of cichlids you can have as far as each fish's 'ideal Ph range' is. I know a few people who have actually claimed that they are so happy they moved because they can now keep a fish that they have always wanted, but were not able to before without having to add a bunch of buffers and additives to his or her tank. (Most of them have large large tanks though, so it would be uneconomical anyways)
If you want to search through the different SA cichlids and see what Ph range they would most likely do best in, start with this page on the Drs. Foster and Smith website since they give quite detailed information about each species:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...cfm?pCatId=889 
