Acei in Brackish?????

[Beth777]

I've been surfing around the net and I've come across 2 sites that say to put acei in brackish water. I've never heard such a thing. Have you all?

Liz

[mnemenoi]

This is a bit of a complicated answer. In short, yes and no. Psuedotropheus acei are a Malawi cichlid, thus are not Brackish, nor are even close to ever having been in brackish or would see it in their natural habitat. That being said, we happen to hard crazy hard water here in H-town. Like on a 1-10 (10 being the craziest), we sit at a 9. Most folks elsewhere don't have this curse (or luxury depending on what you like to keep), so with their lower Ph softer water its a Rift lake cichlid killer. One easy way to increase their Ph and water hardness (mineral content) is by adding marine salt (not a good way to do it and obviously someone who is unaware of how to do it other more healthy ways). My guess is that these are the folks doing it. Baking soda and Magnesium salts buffer water, without adding salt that would increase the salinity. Thus keeping it fully fresh and not brackish. On the same point, I see many folks here succeed with "brackish" water species like scats and monos in Rift lake tanks, as our hard water and any additional hardness added, helps buffer the water and they seem to enjoy and thrive in it. There has been very little done as far as studies on what the fish are really needing in their water, so it might be a little from column A and Column B. Some species really need salinity, while others its not a deal breaker as long as you have hard water. Hope that helps and might shed some light on the issue.

[ptran]

(+1) I never heard such a thing. Acei is a rift lake cichlid, so I don't think it would work. It might not kill the fish, but it doesn't provide a good environment for the fish to flourish.

[Beth777]

Wow, thank you for taking the time to teach me something new. I couldn't figure out why on earth any one would do that. I haven't even added regular aquarium salt to my tanks in years. Had no idea the water is that hard in that area. Here in alief mine has been 8.2 for as long as I can remember.

I'm really glad that I can keep cichlids but all those hard water stains on every thing is a different story.

Thanks Again!

This is a bit of a complicated answer. In short, yes and no. Psuedotropheus acei are a Malawi cichlid, thus are not Brackish, nor are even close to ever having been in brackish or would see it in their natural habitat. That being said, we happen to hard crazy hard water here in H-town. Like on a 1-10 (10 being the craziest), we sit at a 9. Most folks elsewhere don't have this curse (or luxury depending on what you like to keep), so with their lower Ph softer water its a Rift lake cichlid killer. One easy way to increase their Ph and water hardness (mineral content) is by adding marine salt (not a good way to do it and obviously someone who is unaware of how to do it other more healthy ways). My guess is that these are the folks doing it. Baking soda and Magnesium salts buffer water, without adding salt that would increase the salinity. Thus keeping it fully fresh and not brackish. On the same point, I see many folks here succeed with "brackish" water species like scats and monos in Rift lake tanks, as our hard water and any additional hardness added, helps buffer the water and they seem to enjoy and thrive in it. There has been very little done as far as studies on what the fish are really needing in their water, so it might be a little from column A and Column B. Some species really need salinity, while others its not a deal breaker as long as you have hard water. Hope that helps and might shed some light on the issue.

[Beth777]

Seems to me like it wouldn't be good either.

(+1) I never heard such a thing. Acei is a rift lake cichlid, so I don't think it would work. It might not kill the fish, but it doesn't provide a good environment for the fish to flourish.

[mnemenoi]

Happy to help out! Our water is really, amazingly hard and alkaline. Ph is a good indicator, but I have seen soft water with an alkaline Ph though it is a rarity. A better indicator to measure our mineral content (which is why it buffers back up, if you try and lower the Ph) would be TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), Gh (General Hardness), and Kh (Karbonite Hardness). Our TDS sits between 350-650 ppm (even seen higher right out of the tap) which is the cause of all those hard water stains on everything. Most areas might see 150-200 ppm in comparison. Just knowing that we can keep Lake Tang/Malawi WC fish in our tap without buffering it up is crazy. Most other folks across the world spend a lot in adding minerals and buffering salts to keep them and have to do that every water change. The higher the TDS, the more it buffers the Ph and acts to inhibit the water from becoming acidic (i.e. lowering the Ph). This is the main reason fish from the Amazon or SE Asia do poorly in our tap, they prefer soft acidic water and we just do not have that.