Bruce Hansen
ANGFA
email: bhansen at ozemail.com.au
Don't miss the ANGFA web pages at -
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~fisher/angfa.htm
Dr. B - are you talking about Oz or NG when you say "that I have been able to
test have been rather soft ( ? low in Ca and Mg) except in Limestone country."?
Since you've written about both places now it may be potentially confusing.
>From my understanding from what you and others have written that a lot of the
waters in Oz are soft (10-90 ppm) in general hardness, and dissolved solids in
general (your use of a conductivity meter and fairly low #'s reported suggests
that). It does seem though that some of the NG fish do hail from areas where
the water is much harder. I think that lacustris was a good example of that, if
I remember correctly Jerry/Heiko talking about swimming next to the limestone
cliffs.
In general, people that have more trouble here in the US keeping NG type
rainbows "tend" to have softer water. I think it's still up in the air as to
whether it's (often) the carbonate that accompanys the higher Calcium/Magnesium
concentrations or whether it's actually the Ca/Mg that "seems" to be benefitial
to the long term well being of ADULT rainbows.
Why don't you remind the group about those tremendously large inornatas that you
saw/caught? Can't remember if it was just doing a beer, a talk or one of those
many articles that you've written for ANGFA. I think, whatever the size you had
described them as the largest rainbowfish that you had ever seen.
Gary Lange
Rainbowfish Study Group