Are Chilids Hardy Fish?

[fatheadminnow]

I was told today by an employee at my LFS that cichlids are hardy fish. Is this true...just kind of curious?
Thanks
-FHM

 

[bitteraspects]

really depends on the species.

 

[fatheadminnow]

really depends on the species.

I am not sure what species it is other than that it is an African Cichlid. I know this does not help that much either. I will try to get more info soon.

 

[doresy]

Define hardy? No fish like being kept in less than perfect water

 

[waterdrop]

Define hardy? No fish like being kept in less than perfect water

Yes .. got me to thinking, any life form that's around now is the result of millions of years of evolution and is likely to have some stage of "hardiness" in its habitat, depending on its mutations as an individual, so "hardiness" all comes down to how close the artifical habitat mimics those attributes that are key to the individual fish, or species, surviving and thriving, I'd guess. The problem for us is that we usually only work with the most crude basic parameters of the habitat and are either clueless about the more subtle ones or would have a hard time controlling them if we knew them!

Breaking out of that reverie, I'd venture that cichlid species are so varied that our basic hobby aquariums probably render some of them hardy and some "delicate!"

~~waterdrop~~

 

[fatheadminnow]

Define hardy? No fish like being kept in less than perfect water

Yeah, I would say that, "no fish left in less than perfect water." I would also add, that hardy for fish, is any fish that can live in toxic lefts of ammonia/nitrite, with levels above .25 and holding; and the fish are not all that effected by the water conditions, or if they are effected, they will still live a pretty long time.

 

[RedeyesUK]

I guess the question to be asked here is "why"?

If you're running into problems keeping good stats, you're better off getting that sorted first, rather than looking for fish that can live in it.
Even if a fish can survive poor water quality, they certainly won't thrive.

:EDIT:

From what I've read before, rift lake cichlids enjoy excellent water quality in the wild. That's not to say they aren't hardy, but surely your aim should be to give them the closest you can get to their natural environment?

 

[fatheadminnow]

I guess the question to be asked here is "why"?

If you're running into problems keeping good stats, you're better off getting that sorted first, rather than looking for fish that can live in it.
Even if a fish can survive poor water quality, they certainly won't thrive.

:EDIT:

From what I've read before, rift lake cichlids enjoy excellent water quality in the wild. That's not to say they aren't hardy, but surely your aim should be to give them the closest you can get to their natural environment?

No, my water conditions are fine...after 7 weeks of cycling that is. I was just told that cichlids are hardy fish and just wanted to know for sure. Why...I was just a little curious if my LFS was right.

 

[RedeyesUK]

Fair enough!

All I can say then, is that I had an ammonia spike in my malawi tank after a water change a couple of weeks ago (for reasons unknown...), and although I didn't lose any fish, they definately didn't look happy about it! There was a small amount of flicking, gasping and so on, plus some increased aggression (which may be down to that, but may have been spawning behaviour). Not something I'd want to put them through again.

Personally, I wouldn't trust any LFS when they said a particular fish was hardy - the bad ones will say that about any fish!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Personally, I wouldn't trust any LFS when they said a particular fish was hardy - the bad ones will say that about any fish!

Yeah you are right about that. Thanks for your response.
-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

As has been said, all fish available in the hobby are fairly hardy compared to the rare ones that nobody tries to keep. That said, there re fish that are more likely to endure hardship and survive it. Many of the common livebearers will tolerate a wide range of water conditions as long as the water is fairly hard. There are things like zebra danios that are considered quite hardy along with things like convict cichlids and rainbow cichlids. The real question for me would be why would you care? If you treat your fish right, all of the ones you are likely to find at the LFS will survive and thrive. In my case I have fairly hard water so I do not knowingly bring home fish that need soft acidic water. Those fish would not enjoy my tanks and I would not care to look after weakened fish. People who live where the water is very soft should likewise avoid some of the livebearers that are considered harder to keep, such as mollies. Mollies are incredibly easy for me to keep because my tap water is almost their ideal water but they have a reputation for being difficult because people try to use them in a tank with water suitable for a tetra. Tetras, on the other hand, survive in my tanks but are not at their best in my water. I seldom am even tempted to bring home a tetra because I would not look forward to needing to mix my tap water with lots of rain water or RO water for them to be happy. I do have one tank that I use 4 parts RO to 1 part tap in order to get good water for Corydoras to breed in but I don't want to do that in all of my tanks.
Use the fish that suit your water rather than trying to make the water suit the fish. It makes for a much more enjoyable and trouble free hobby.

 

[fatheadminnow]

As has been said, all fish available in the hobby are fairly hardy compared to the rare ones that nobody tries to keep. That said, there re fish that are more likely to endure hardship and survive it. Many of the common livebearers will tolerate a wide range of water conditions as long as the water is fairly hard. There are things like zebra danios that are considered quite hardy along with things like convict cichlids and rainbow cichlids. The real question for me would be why would you care? If you treat your fish right, all of the ones you are likely to find at the LFS will survive and thrive. In my case I have fairly hard water so I do not knowingly bring home fish that need soft acidic water. Those fish would not enjoy my tanks and I would not care to look after weakened fish. People who live where the water is very soft should likewise avoid some of the livebearers that are considered harder to keep, such as mollies. Mollies are incredibly easy for me to keep because my tap water is almost their ideal water but they have a reputation for being difficult because people try to use them in a tank with water suitable for a tetra. Tetras, on the other hand, survive in my tanks but are not at their best in my water. I seldom am even tempted to bring home a tetra because I would not look forward to needing to mix my tap water with lots of rain water or RO water for them to be happy. I do have one tank that I use 4 parts RO to 1 part tap in order to get good water for Corydoras to breed in but I don't want to do that in all of my tanks.
Use the fish that suit your water rather than trying to make the water suit the fish. It makes for a much more enjoyable and trouble free hobby.

"No, my water conditions are fine...after 7 weeks of cycling that is. I was just told that cichlids are hardy fish and just wanted to know for sure. Why...I was just a little curious if my LFS was right."

Thanks for the reply OldMan47!

-FHM