What Are The Effects On Fish When In Ph Outside Of Recommended

[chrismr]

It just occurred to me, I have no idea what the effect on a fish would be when it is not kept in water of the recommended ph.

Say someone has a fish which prefers a ph of 6.5 and it is kept in water of ph 7.5, how would it effect the fish?

I know many fish can tolerate varying levels, but for arguments sake, what would it do?

Would it make them more sluggish, more active, more skittish, etc?

 

[rdd1952]

Most fish can adjust to a very wide pH range as long as they are introduced slowly. If you buy a fish at your LFS and the water he was in there (and the water in the bag you bring him home in ) is say 6.5 and your tank pH is 7.5, you will almost certainly kill him if you just acclimate to the temperature for 15 minutes and dump him in. If you spend a couple hours adding a little tank water to the bag every 10 to 15 minutes (or set up a drip line to add water slowly), he will be fine.

Once they are in the tank, unless they are a very delicate fish such as discus, they will adjust to what your water is as long as it isn't terribly out of their range.

 

[chrismr]

Thanks... I know most fish will adjust to a different ph, but what I am wondering is will a fish which prefers a ph of 6.5 behave the same in a ph of 7.5 as it would in a ph of 6.5?

 

[rdd1952]

It guess it's possible they may not be as active or show their full colors. I'm certainly no expert on that so I'm kind of guessing. As long as they're not stressed though, I would think they should act normally.

 

[prankster705]

Thir imune sistem is probably weakened to.

 

[cujoho78]

I think, as the above posts have mentioned that for most species it should not be a big deal. I have read that the fish can tolerate a pH that is not their ideal range as long as whatever pH it is remains constant. I think that once a fish is used to a particular pH then they will act as normal. Some fish only spawn or mate in water of a specific pH range so as long as you aren't trying to breed then that shouldn't be a problem. Of course, i wouldn't try to put fish into water with a pH much less than 6 or much higher than 8.