What Are The Ideal Water Conditions For This Stocking?

[MrNiceGuy]

I'll be switching around my stock soon and i want to know what i can do to provide the best water conditions because i've had bad experiences with fish that have specific needs.

its a 20 gallon long

1 blue ram (dont like bolivians much)
2 dwarf gourami... 1 blue, 1 wild-like
8 cardinal tetras
11 ghost shrimp
5 kuhli loaches
3 otos


the tank is heavily, densely planted. many hiding places and what not. the tank has been established for over a year now and its well filtered. any advice will be appreciated.

 

[arobinson1984]

Hi,

The blue rams are not suitable community fish because they have very specific requirements such as:

PH - Low PH required between levels 5.5 & 6.0
Temperature - Higher than usual temperature between 28-32 celcius, the other fish will not like these temps.
Nitrates - Blue rams will not tolerate nitrates above 20ppm so if you tap water is 20ppm or above out of the tap then these wouldnt be an option anyway.

When kept outside of these parameters they are lucky to live longer than a couple of months.

Sorry but thats the harsh reality, its wrong that so many lfs sell blue rams as community fish. If you are wanting a ram for a community then it would have to be the bolivan.

How about a pair of apistogrammas instead? I've just got a trio of apistogramma cacatuoides triple red, they are stunning, search on google.



Andy