# Fish Skittish Because Of Ph ?



## Marcus_H2 (May 5, 2016)

Hello,

maybe someone overseas knows more about this.

4 Weeks ago i got 10 Caribas which at the time where around 2"/5cm

The first 2 days they where hiding most of the time, after that they formed loose groups of 5-7 fish, roaming around in the evening and morning, and got back to hiding at full sunlight.

So pretty normal i guess. From the 3rd day on they ate, dead fish from the start, all happy.

Sadly like 12 days ago we had a little problem with the water over here, so i could not change the water in the tank, because there was chlorine in it. As far as i know young piranha uses hormones to regulate how many survive and they where actually becoming more aggressive and much more timid!

Recently i got a special filter so i can now do water changes as i like again. Did a really big one yesterday of around 80%.

But still the fish behave like in the first days. They do eat, but i can not even guess how many have survived. And sadly they never roam around in groups anymore. Some definetly have grown a bit, which is normal i guess.

My water parameters are:

Temperature: 25°

Nitrit: absolutly nothing

Nitrat: 1-5mg/l

Oxygen: 6.5-7.0mg/l there are two bis pums with 1800liters/hour and 4000 liters/hour and a small one with bubbles doing 750 liters/ hour.

The tank is 1200 Liters, man plants and hiding spots.

The only issue might be the fact, that the PH level is rather high: 7.8. It is very difficult to reduce that substancually and stable over a longer period of time. Maybe this is the reason why the fish do not feel as comfortable as they should?

Greetings


----------



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Typically a stable ph is more important... as long as its not moving all over you should be fine.

I bet all the changes just stressed them out and they will return to normal


----------



## Marcus_H2 (May 5, 2016)

Ægir said:


> Typically a stable ph is more important... as long as its not moving all over you should be fine.
> 
> I bet all the changes just stressed them out and they will return to normal


Yeah this is why i stopped with the deminalisation 2 years ago. Gotg a nice ph of 6.8-7.2 out of it, but the ph changed too much.

So i should not do water changes frequently to reduce the aggression?


----------



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

I would do smaller ones, more frequently VS 80% at once.


----------



## Marcus_H2 (May 5, 2016)

Well i will try that.

But is it true that most fish who prefer lower ph-levels tend do breathe better at levels below 7.0?

I also read that P. Piraya is best suited for higher ph levels, is that true?


----------



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

I have never really paid attention to Ph levels, I know my tap water level and rarely check after a fish is acclimated. Problems occur when there are rapid swings in PH and things arent consistent.


----------



## Marcus_H2 (May 5, 2016)

Ok but what is your tap water level? Maybe it's just pretty great from the start?


----------



## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Various places I have lived, 6-8... Some definitely not being ideal, but worked fine after acclimation.


----------



## Marcus_H2 (May 5, 2016)

Hmm the still ongoing skittyshness aside, a friend of mine noticed, that my caribe show a very unusual colour, way to yellow instead of red, and breathe very very hasty.

The amount of dissolved oxygen is around 5.5-6.0mg/l, which should be enough so that the fish would breathe normally. Also i have two flow-pumps, one with 1800liters per hour and one which ran on 4000liters/h up until today, now i gave it more power so it should run 8000liters/hour, but still i see no difference. In addition to these 2 flow pumps there is a small filter with 750liters/h with an diffusor installed, so there are always fine bubbles in the water.

No nitrit, barely nitrat. I also got the ph down with demineralised wat to around 7.1, but still the fish breathe and look like this:






now compare to fish from the same import guy from someone i know right now:


----------

