Loaches Online Forum

evening all. im back home in wales visting the folks and popped inot a very nice local shop. they have some very nice loaches amongst other things. they have some VERY nice kuboti and rostrata and it look like im buying some on my way home on sunday.

my only concern is that the Ph here in wales is about 7 if not a little lower whilst in portsmouth its more like 7.5-8.

so im wondering is it possible to transfer from one to the other or is it too risky. i was thinking that a much more gradual acclimatisation to the water rather then the 30-40 min one i use should be ok but im not at all sure


lee

You can do it in a bucket, and add a heater if needed. Putting the bucket on the floor and using some airline tubing as a syphon from the tank (with a knot in it to keep the flow down to a drip) is a good cheap easy way to slowly acclimate. I'd think they should be fine. I would take at least an hour for a .5 change in ph, longer for more, just to be safe and reduce stress.

I'm not sure how they do long-term in that ph. Mine is much lower. Maybe others will have opinions, or maybe you already have some similar loaches so you already know.

Ya that pH is high but in terms of acclimating thats how you do it. YOu dont even have to put the fish in the bucket, just put the bag in the bucket (supported so it wont tip and spill), pour most of the water out (leave enough for the fish... obviously)

and what I do is fold a kink into the airline so it drips about five drips per second, then I just leave it to its own devices, supervised of course, for two hours or so... I do that with every fish I get. They don't act stressed at all once they go into the tank this way.

That's what Harold does @ menagerie with new arrivals (for longer obviously- cuzz the pH in the bag is 4 or 5 sometimes)... Looootts of mini airlines and little buckets...

Looks like a Borg ship