Cory type fish for hard water?

[CaptainBarnicles]

My water is in the 300s out the tap, it's super hard so I'm very limited as to what I can stock....I was wondering if there's something I can add to stir up the substrate a bit? I have a few amanos and my kribs do well at sifting through the substrate for yummies but it would be nice to have something else to help get the muck up into the water column for the filter to catch...any ideas?

 

[Ch4rlie]

I too have hard water from my taps, 284 last tds and gH at 303ppm on last check.

Can feel kinda frustrating at the sort of limited choices, especially with cories which are amongst the top choices for me but alas, I've never had any over the years I've been keeping fish.

but something to turnover the soil or substrate, Malyasian trumpet Snails come to mind, ive had those and they do a good job of this, ok, they can multiply to silly numbers but I kept assassin snails as well so they kept these numbers in check, plus both these tend to hide under the substrate a lot so you dont see so many at once.

 

[Wills]

Synodontis one of the smaller species like Nigriventis, Polli, Petricola are all smaller species - Polli is the biggest of the three but there are some sub-species that are available like Zaire White that stay smaller. Petricola would be my choice though they look awesome and get to a max of 4 inches but usually a bit smaller.

Wills

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Synodontis one of the smaller species like Nigriventis, Polli, Petricola are all smaller species - Polli is the biggest of the three but there are some sub-species that are available like Zaire White that stay smaller. Petricola would be my choice though they look awesome and get to a max of 4 inches but usually a bit smaller.

Wills

I love those! Thank you, will look into it

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Aw but I have black limpopo sand, its like a fine gravel rather than soft sand ☹

 

[Ch4rlie]

Another option may be some whiptail catfish, such as Rineloricaria lanceolata perhaps, I am considering those myself but they do grow a bit larger.

 

[Colin_T]

Another option may be some whiptail catfish, such as Rineloricaria lanceolata perhaps, I am considering those myself but they do grow a bit larger.

Not sure about whiptail catfish in hard water?

Depending on what other fishes are in the tank, either Synodontis multipunctatus or S. petricola (as mentioned by @Wills). These 2 Synodontis catfish come from Lake Tanganyika, which has very hard water. The S. petricola are smaller than the S. multipunctatus.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Not sure about whiptail catfish in hard water?

Well, if SF site is accurate then it states their range is 5-20dH, 20dH is hard water to be fair.

Also mentions pH 6-8.

A broad range granted but what I gather from that is that certain species of catfish can be feasible for hardwater, only slight concern is warmer temperatures to be noted.

Copied and pasted from SF website -

Water Conditions​

Temperature: 77-82°F (25-28°C).

pH: 6.0-8.0

Hardness: 5-20°H

Rineloricaria lanceolata (Whiptail Catfish) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[itiwhetu]

Whiptails are soft/acid water fish. They won't like hard water.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Right, so SF are completely wrong?

 

[Ch4rlie]

Whiptails are soft/acid water fish. They won't like hard water.

Right, so SF are completely wrong?

 

[itiwhetu]

I am starting to think " Seriously Fish" should be renamed " Seriously Flawed". I can't believe how much of their information is just fundamental inaccurate.

 

[Colin_T]

Right, so SF are completely wrong?

Possibly.

All the whiptail & twig catfish (Loricaria, Rhineloricaria & Farlowella sp) I have dealt with, have been wild caught and didn't do well in water with a pH above 7.0 or a GH above 150ppm.

There might be more captive bred fishes around now but if people are dealing with wild caught fishes, then I would try to keep whiptails and twig catfish in soft water with a pH under 7.0.

 

[itiwhetu]

Possibly.

All the whiptail & twig catfish (Loricaria, Rhineloricaria & Farlowella sp) I have dealt with, have been wild caught and didn't do well in water with a pH above 7.0 or a GH above 150ppm.

There might be more captive bred fishes around now but if people are dealing with wild caught fishes, then I would try to keep whiptails and twig catfish in soft water with a pH under 7.0.

The only way these fish will breed is in soft/acid water. Therefore, they need an acid tank to survive.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Interesting, how does one tell if SF has wrong information and how does one tell if fish are wild caught or not at LFS, as we all know information from most LFS are to be taken with a rather large dose of salt in most cases.

I personally would like to get a Whiptail of some sort if cannot get cories for hard water but I certainly won’t get them if this is detrimental for the whiptail if they don’t fare well in hard water.

Is there any real way to prove or disprove this information regarding whiptails in soft/hard water?

By the way, I do apologise to the OP, @CaptainBarnicles for hijacking his thread. Sorry, can’t resist asking questions sometimes….