Comments on this pH thread...

[beviking]

Trying to brush up on my physiology of fishes via online I found this...
http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.9909/msg00684.html
There are several others with "ph myth" as the subject but this covers the idea.
Anyone with helpful info on the subject? Specifically how pH affects fish and "pH shock". Not, sudden drop or rise in pH kills fish...how it affects them. Is it an ion interference that throws off a gradient or somehow interfere with osmoregulation. Darned if I can find specifics!

btw-trying to search "pH" here at AC doesn't work (I know, too short :( )

[RTR]

First off, it ain't pH shock, IMHO there ain't no such critter. It is osmotic shock if anything. On that I do agree with Wright H. Osmotic changes are best taken slowly, to allow adaptation. Planted tanks are a great souce of myth-busting on that one, as pressurized CO2 addition is as close as you are likely to get to non-TDS affecting pH changes, and the fish all but never react until you get to respiratory-problem CO2 concentrations.

And yes, it is all osmoregulation SFAIK.