Re: [RML] Re: Rainbow Size Frustration -- Melanotaenia
Gary Lange (rainbowfish4u2 at yahoo.com)
Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:49:02 -0800 (PST)
too many questions :-) Ionic - doesn't just mean salt. You had a pretty good answer from the fellow that you quoted to the list from the forum. It means Ca, Mg, salt, as in Na Cl iron, sulfate carbonates and the whole list. All of those add up. When we tested (GH and KH only) many of the streams in IJ appeared to be made up of distilled water. Forgot my ion gauge, but I"m guessing that there weren't many dissolved solids either. IF you tried keeping your tank like that, the pH would drop, your fish would be stressed and then you would have diseases. Buy a Tetra test kit. If your water isn't higher than 400-450 ppm GH leave it alone, just change it like you've been doing. Adding salt to the water isn't very helpful and it may kill the plants. Bows like to have plants in their tank so that wouldn't be good. Rainbowfish WILL take a lot of salt though and really not show any ill effects for it. I don't remember what I did with my praecox x australis cross pics. I don't
think they've got the striped version of praecox in Oz either so don't sweat it. Also the list doesn't seemed to have reported as many of the crosses in Oz as we see in the US. Don't know if that's because they're asleep at the wheel :-) or they just don't let the crosses from the far east into the country! Luke, trust your instincts, feel the force, rainbows are easy :-) You should however, make sure you have a lid on them, especially if you want them to live a long time. BTW I had a boesemani go for something like 9 years and I had a herbie go about the same length of time. I think Julie said her bossy boes went something like 10+ years. Mine was breeding up to the week I went away on vacation too so they are still productive even at an older age. I also wouldn't worry about 4 praecox in a 10 gallon tank. Otherwise it would be a pretty sparse tank. You can do a lot to a rainbowfish, it will tolerate a lot of conditions without dropping dead. Note the basic to acidic
water messages though. They are spot on. BTW my favorite method for adding a new fish from unknown water parameters (ie the petshop or an auction where people from all over sell fish). 1) put the fish in quarantine tank, not your main tank. 2) Start with the fish in a bucket/bowl (with lid to prevent jumping). Use airline tubing tied off to a slow drip. I like to double the initial water volume in about an hour. Then net the fish out and put in the tank. Toss out any water in the bucket and top off aquarium with fresh water. Don't use any of the water that the fish was carried home in as if there were any paracites, you're just adding them to your tank.
cheers,
gary lange
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