wilds and ph

hi all - i know wilds prefer low ph, but was wondering if they can be kept safely in a show tank with ph of around 7 -7.2

Quite simply ...nope
6.5 or lower ....5 if you ask Merrilyn
;-)

There is a man by the name Larry in US that keeps his heckels at ph 7,5. His nick on Simplydiscus ia "apistomaster". In his opinion it dosn't bother the fish such high ph, they got used to it. Lot of people in US keeps wilds in their tap waters.
We keep our wilds in low ph; heckels ph 4; green & blue ph 5

Americans do a lot of strange things with fish ....

Although I know it isn't ideal, my wilds are kept at 7.6. They obviously show very little interest in spawning and it took some time to condition them, but they are happy.
I will in due course be lowering the pH slowly to keep them at about 5.5 to 5.8 and my heckels below 5. This I will do when I have more time to devote to them and monitor the pH more carefully

I keep my wilds in the dry season in bore water - 50 (+)gH and pH 7.5-8 Doesn't worry them too much as long as I change them to that pH slowly (over a month). Ie from breeding tanks (pH 5-6) in 900lt tanks - when changing the water I use 1part bore to 3 parts rain water. After 1 month they can go to full bore changes until its all bore. Reverse happens around now (Sep) and we're back to rain water. Their is some research data that suggests that hard and high pH water can cause calcification of the gills and renal tubules.

Also - watch the classifieds as I'm possibly moving to USA and I'll be selling my wild breeding pairs.

I have 2 RSGs in my 3 footer. WC 30% to 40% once a week with straight tap water. Been with me for close to 3 months. I put in 3 to 4 cattapa leaves regularly to help bring down ph. I never checked my ph value though but I guess it would be around 5.5 to 6. They're feeding on FBH & FBW...
Doing fine till today. I guess they can easily adapt to my water parameters as compared to my Altums.
They still seem rather shy till today tats why I put in driftwoods for them to hide. And they have the tank all by themselves.


Sanie.