I didn't know Kribs were brackish.....

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jdheff1982

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Aug 17, 2002
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After going thru the species profiles, I stumbled upon a section that said that Kribs were brackish. How do I make my water bracksih?? I have aquarium salt already. Since they have been living in unbrackish waters for a few months, will it be bad to do the change???? Thanks!
 

VoodooChild

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Dec 17, 2001
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I've heard that too, but the majority of the information out there (and the best luck I've had with them) is that they should be kept in soft, acidic conditions.
 

ChilDawg

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Dec 26, 2002
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Thanks to AC's species profiles, here is a new perspective on the brackish affinity of Kribs:

These small cichlids are characteristic of the slightly-brackish deltas and low lying streams of West Africa. They occur in fresh as well as slightly brackish water, and adapt well to most water conditions provided extremes of pH and hardness are avoided. They are usually easy to breed, with large, robust fry that feed well on aquarium detritus as well as newly hatched brine shrimps. This makes them among the easiest of all egg laying fishes to spawn. As a rule they are territorial but not too aggressive, and both sexes have bright colors.

So, I think that you will be all right keeping them in fresh water, and no adjustments will be needed if that is how they have been kept.
 

jderuiter

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Nov 21, 2001
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The way I look at it, if it was tank bred and raised, your water parameters should be close to the same as those that the fish is used to and not nessacerily what the "book" says. If you are dealing with wild caught fish then your water parameters should be the same as the water they came from.
JMHO
 

rus

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Jan 6, 2002
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tank raising does not change a fishes water requirements. fish do not adapt to water chemistry because they are born into them. evolution has molded the fish to the water chemisty in it's natural habitat and raising it in a tank is not going to change that. sure fish will live in water that is not like the waters they are found in and sometimes nowhere close to the waters they are found in, but they should not be kept in these waters. most fish do not thrive in water greatly unlike that of their natural habitat.
 

firetank

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Nov 27, 2002
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the only possible "advantage" to altering the water chem is if you are breeding -- its said that the ph has a direct effect on the proportion of males to females when breeding.

(low ph = females, high ph= males)
 

Faramir

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Nov 20, 1998
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Originally posted by rus
tank raising does not change a fishes water requirements. fish do not adapt to water chemistry because they are born into them. evolution has molded the fish to the water chemisty in it's natural habitat and raising it in a tank is not going to change that. sure fish will live in water that is not like the waters they are found in and sometimes nowhere close to the waters they are found in, but they should not be kept in these waters. most fish do not thrive in water greatly unlike that of their natural habitat.
I'd like to offer a slightly different perspective.

Evolution indeed moulded the fish to its wild conditions, and that same evolution will also mould the fish to new conditions - such as those prevailing in aquaria.

Take Angelfish for example. Years ago they had a reputation like Discus - demanding about water quality and parameters. Now, you can breed them in chalky liquid rock; I've seen it done. Natural selection will consistently select those individuals that are more tolerant, because the picky ones end up belly up.

Some species seem more maleable than others - Rams for example seem still to be very picky.

According to Baensch vol. 2, guppies are another case in point. If you get wild ones, you need to keep them in water like the water they came from - this is very variable, but each population is adapted to its particular water conditions. Domestic guppies, OTOH, will adapt to a wide range of water conditions, apart from the very soft and/or very acid.

I sometimes wonder if poorly doing specimens are on occasion put down to the "wrong" water when in fact the fish is in poor condition because the DOC level of the water is very high, the nitrate is through the roof, and it's being picked on by the RTBS.
 
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