Breeding Keyholes

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jakester

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Hi, I recently set up a 20 gallon fish tank in which I plan to keep and breed keyhole cichlids, I currently have a group of 5 juvenilles. However I was reading a pfk mag and it said that to breed keyholes succesfully you must have soft acidic water. Is this completly true does anyone have any experiences of breeding them in harder water.

My water in tank:

Ph: 8.2

Gh: 22

The water from my tap is 7.0 which means there must be something raising it in my tank I have:
Normal Bogwood
Slate
Terracotta flower pot
rubber tube (from lfs)
Plain gravel (from lfs)
So what could be raising it from these things? The ph is also higher in one of my other tanks.
 
While a pH of 8 isn't ideal, if they are captive bred fish and have been so for many generations it may be possible. However your best chance of breeding by far is to lower the pH, like I said theres a chance they may breed, but I would have thought it would be a small one.

The issue with your pH rising is odd, as bogwood lowers pH, slate should be inert and not affect pH(though I've heard there can be veins of minerals going through the rock).
I found this article on terracotta pots: http://nippyfish.blogspot.com/2006/10/terr...n-aquarium.html. The rubber and gravel shouldn't do anything if bought from a LFS.

When did you test the pH of your tap water? As this can change over time, when I tested mine I left it out overnight in a cup, you should probably try this and then test. If the pH is still 7, and you trust your test kit then it will be something in the aquarium thats altering the pH.
 

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