New Tank with Blue Gouramis

I'm aware of the fact that the cardinals prefer soft acidic water... but I live in a city where GH in the water is quite high but I try to buy my fish local so that the fish are used to the hardness.... I asked some stores and they all told me the same thing that the cardinals in most stores are not wild caught anymore ( they used to be) but mostly bred locally so they're used to this kind of water... For my GH as far as I remember it's quite high around 14-16 with a pH around 6.8
 
Most tetras, including cardinal tetras are bred in Asian fish farms now. However, they are still bred in soft water. So unless you are getting locally bred fish (fish bred in your town and neighbourhood), they will still be bred and reared in soft water.
 
Colin is correct. But as I know you are in Belgium (from an earlier post here) you may be getting Czech-bred cardinals. Now I am not certain, but I believe they breed them in somewhat harder water. Though the exact impact this may have on the fish is another matter and I won't start that argument.

It was the platies I was most concerned with, because these will not be healthy or live long in soft and/or acidic water, so you should have no issues here.

And in general, the store water is irrelevant and cannot be taken as what you should do at home where the fish will be living for the rest of their lives. Fish can usually (but not always) manage temporarily in store tank conditions (parameters, lack of décor, crowding, inappropriate numbers/species) but stores hope they sell their fish fast to save money so when you get them home it is a totally different issue. Knowing where the fish were bred or if wild caught is much more significant than the store water.
 

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