Discus

[Sp00ky]

Rain water is soft and acidic isn't it? The Discus live in water that is soft and acidic, so the addition of fresh rain water probably wouldn't affect the chemistry all that much. Plus you can't compare what happens in nature with your aquarium as your aquarium is a closed system.

Moving a fish from ph 6.5 to ph 4 straight away is asking for trouble in my opinion, especially with Discus. Just because someone does something doesn't mean you should do to. It makes me wonder what the long term effect on the fish would be.

I accept a lot of fish will live in varying conditions, but its beyond me as a keeper why you wouldn't want to provide them.

By the way, you should have 0 ammonia in all your tanks, especially with Discus!

wise words... ]

Although, as for the fresh rain water not effecting he water for discus, many leading experts beleive that the addition of rain water in the wild, along with the drop in pH is part of the discus spawning cycle. This can be replicated in the tank by water changes of a cooler temperature and a drop in pH simulating what happens in the wild. however, i never stated that i moved my fish from 6.5 to 4 a friend of mine did. I merely used that as an example in response to the question posed. As for the long term effect.... they are now 3 months old and apart from the obligatory few that generally roll a 7... because they are discus... are fine.

I chose to keep my discus in a pH of 6.7 and they are extremley happy and active at that level. I also stated that the molly was on a 2 week R+R after leaving the birthing tank...... she has 3 days left and she will be returned to the main LB tank.

Correct, my ammonia is at 0 in all my tanks, along with my nitrite.. i never said any of them werent.

It's not your discus I'm worried about Spooky, but your molly. I have myself kept mollies in soft acid water and I am convinced that it shortened their lifespan. These IME are fish that really do need hard alkaline water, much more so than the other common livebearers.

i appreciate that mate and thanks for the concern. However, i have lost just 3 mollies in the past 6months operating this system, and 2 of those were to fungus and one after birth (she did produce 105 young!!) I have never had any problems with my females. Infact, my longest serving female has just given birth again this morning..... Emma her name is LOL. Silver molly... about 50 in the birthing tank