Fish suggestions for soft water

[Stefan3289]

And I also got 3 more cories (now I will have 10) since I finally found the panda ones

 

[Barry Tetra]

Get endler’s guppies as they do well in soft water, buy at least 6

 

[Stefan3289]

The species I was thinking of was poecilia recticulata

 

[seangee]

The species I was thinking of was poecilia recticulata

How soft is the water? Guppies need hard water.

 

[Byron]

Agree, all livebearers must have moderately hard or harder water to live healthy normal lives. I earlier asked for GH and pH, this will confirm, but so far it seems to be assumed you have softish water.

 

[Barry Tetra]

@seangee @Byron I personally don’t see the point of guppies in hard water, after I been walking near a waterfall and polluted blackwater river, I have seen a bunch of guppies and I have tested the water and Gh; 5 Kh; 5 Ph about 7

below is the post about the poluted river next to my house with lots of livebearers and killis (including halfbeaks)

Polluted river

Hi TFF So basicly there is a polluted river; it have been expose to chemical such as oil, cloth dye and even poop from toilet everyday, enjoy the picture of the river... Smelly water and weird stuff in the water; oil, poop and cloth dye. Super-Long 3 meters anacharis (Elodea)

www.fishforums.net

I have kept lots of guppies in black water for about 5 years now and they’re doing fine.

Here is the picture of the wild guppies and halfbeaks in the softwater river and also wild killis.

 

[seangee]

@seangee @Byron I personally don’t see the point of guppies in hard water, after I been walking near a waterfall and polluted blackwater river, I have seen a bunch of guppies and I have tested the water and Gh; 5 Kh; 5 Ph about 7

Apologies to OP for the diversion this does deserve a response.
Firstly I never criticise for keeping fish in the wrong parameters, but I do advise not to.
Based on my own experience with soft water fish.
For many years I kept tetras and corydoras in very hard water. On average my fish lived for 12-18 months. My fish died of "old age". Either I found them dead or they got dropsy, which is a sign of organ failure and not uncommon for old fish. I had read that in the wild cardinal tetras are seasonal fish, usually only living for a season so thought nothing further of this. I also though the profiles I read on sites like seriously fish were referring to specially bred "show" fish, because there is no way a cardinal could ever reach 3.5cm, or a pepper cory 7cm (mine always died before they got to half that size). This belief was supported by the fact that all of the photos on these sites showed fish that were very much brighter than mine.

Then a few years ago I was talking to a dive buddy (funnily enough in Thailand) and we discovered we kept the same fish. I mentioned how frustrating and expensive it was having to replace 50% of my fish every year. He was shocked at this and said his fish all lived over 5 years and he hardly ever bought fish. So we stayed in touch and compared notes and photos of our tanks. The most significant difference was that he had very soft water and low nitrates. Since I love softwater fish and don't really find live bearers appealing I gradually changed my water, first dealing with the nitrates and then moving to soft water. The end result is my fish now do look like the photographs you see on fish profiles. I also have 7cm cories and 3.5cm cardinals and many of my fish are more than 5 years old. A lot of my current fish started out in hard water and these are no less colourful than those that have always been kept in soft water.

Now I am no expert on live bearers but guppies are not native to Thailand - so the local population started in someone's fish tank. Guppies are prolific breeders and will breed in adverse conditions. We have no way of knowing how long they live in this environment and do not have to deal with posts from people saying "help lots of guppies are dying in the local river".

You are fortunate to live in an environment where you can catch and keep wild fish. Your wild guppies are probably genetically stronger than commercially bred ones, simply because the weaker specimens will die very quickly in the wild. So by all means go for it. But my general recommendation for hobbyists remains to keep fish that are naturally suited to the water that you can provide. I know form personal experience the effort and cost involved in changing the water parameters. For me that's still preferable to having to replace 30-40 fish every year, and there would be no point in asking for help on here - because I would know the reason.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Apologies to OP for the diversion this does deserve a response.
Firstly I never criticise for keeping fish in the wrong parameters, but I do advise not to.
Based on my own experience with soft water fish.
For many years I kept tetras and corydoras in very hard water. On average my fish lived for 12-18 months. My fish died of "old age". Either I found them dead or they got dropsy, which is a sign of organ failure and not uncommon for old fish. I had read that in the wild cardinal tetras are seasonal fish, usually only living for a season so thought nothing further of this. I also though the profiles I read on sites like seriously fish were referring to specially bred "show" fish, because there is no way a cardinal could ever reach 3.5cm, or a pepper cory 7cm (mine always died before they got to half that size). This belief was supported by the fact that all of the photos on these sites showed fish that were very much brighter than mine.

Then a few years ago I was talking to a dive buddy (funnily enough in Thailand) and we discovered we kept the same fish. I mentioned how frustrating and expensive it was having to replace 50% of my fish every year. He was shocked at this and said his fish all lived over 5 years and he hardly ever bought fish. So we stayed in touch and compared notes and photos of our tanks. The most significant difference was that he had very soft water and low nitrates. Since I love softwater fish and don't really find live bearers appealing I gradually changed my water, first dealing with the nitrates and then moving to soft water. The end result is my fish now do look like the photographs you see on fish profiles. I also have 7cm cories and 3.5cm cardinals and many of my fish are more than 5 years old. A lot of my current fish started out in hard water and these are no less colourful than those that have always been kept in soft water.

Now I am no expert on live bearers but guppies are not native to Thailand - so the local population started in someone's fish tank. Guppies are prolific breeders and will breed in adverse conditions. We have no way of knowing how long they live in this environment and do not have to deal with posts from people saying "help lots of guppies are dying in the local river".

You are fortunate to live in an environment where you can catch and keep wild fish. Your wild guppies are probably genetically stronger than commercially bred ones, simply because the weaker specimens will die very quickly in the wild. So by all means go for it. But my general recommendation for hobbyists remains to keep fish that are naturally suited to the water that you can provide. I know form personal experience the effort and cost involved in changing the water parameters. For me that's still preferable to having to replace 30-40 fish every year, and there would be no point in asking for help on here - because I would know the reason.

Wow thanks @seangee this make me understand more, in Thailand
I have never met anyone who know about Kh and Gh, it’s basicly 70s old school fish keeping.

Please take a look on this fish market I went to every weeks, it’s basically hell for fish.

Bad place.....fishes cruelty

I went to Bangkok animal market and this is what I found.....pure animal cruelty they even have thousand blood parrots in 60 gal tank, they put

www.fishforums.net

 

[Stefan3289]

I did not know that hard water vs soft water was that serious.. Luckily I asked before I am here: My water parameters are these

Ph: 7
Gh: 160 ppm (9)
KH: 0

Since I can’t have any live bearers, I assume for my sizes tank that I would have to stick with tetras (and of course the cories I have). Let me know any tetra suggestions as I have kept a decent amount in the past but I got bored of them.