monroe1 Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 (edited) 8f55ae2d8e0eecd966bfc121128cee96 Edited September 10, 2012 by itbites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afr3178 Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 Macrostoma are my favourite fish... I have 50 at the moment- range of ages and sizes but mostly little ones. I would love to help comment but can't see the pics as I don't have Facebook Keep water tanned, pH below 7- up to you how low you go. I find the lower it is the better they do. You can go as low as 3- but try to keep it higher then that. I use lots of IAL- I find fewer water changes and more stable water conditions gets them to spawn. Actually, I don't do water changes at all when I want them to spawn. I feed mine frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp and I'm getting live blackworms soon. Live blackworms would be my food of preference for them. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monroe1 Posted September 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 Do you find that the low level pH gives you issues with lack of good bacteria? I don't know if it's true or not as I'm not all that savvy with pH other than high and low but I've been told that anything under 5-6 and the bacteria will not develop. I am feeding them frozen bloodworm & spectrum pellets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afr3178 Posted September 10, 2012 Report Share Posted September 10, 2012 I'm actually really lazy and I don't test my water. But I've never had an visual problems- like the fish are always healthy and colourful. I sometimes test pH and I try to keep it at 5 or below (my pH tester only goes down to 5). I always have plants in three to suck some of the harmful stuff out and the only filters I have are two large sponge filters. I'm assuming there still is some good bacteria but only a small amount compared to a tank with a higher pH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhong89 Posted September 11, 2012 Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 some plants won't grow as well in lower pH too Beth don't worry about the pH just keep it steady and under 7 then it will be good. The parents breed twice in the same water as these are raised in. I don't test the pH but like afr3178 I do keep an eye out for visual effects such as colour or behaviour etc. Plenty of plants, I feed them spectrum pellets, whiteworms and bloodworms on occasions. I don't like blackworms coz there's rumours that they can cause dropsy not to mention it's so annoying to keep.btw I don't have permission to see the pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killiguy Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 At a really low pH biological processes involved in filtration cease as mentioned.Fortunately most of the ammonia is converted the relatively safe ammonium at pH less than 6.0 or so.Also most pathogens can't live at these pH's although velvet certainlty can.Im not much of a plant person but have found java fern and java moss survive down to 3.5 I have my macs in water that is 7.0 or so.They are quite young (about 6 cm)and I may need to work on this if they fail to spawn,the seem to be flourishing otherwise.They are very cool fish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhong89 Posted September 12, 2012 Report Share Posted September 12, 2012 I've never fussed about my pH when keeping my fish all I tried is try to keep them constant or add things like indian almond leaves so I never knew plants can survive as low as 3.5? I guess I learn something new everyday. I found macs don't need to be kept at really low pH at all. Mine spawns in rainwater with addition of IAL they're big, healthy and brilliant colours, but find the babies to be slow growers. My last lot toke 8 months to grow to colouring size Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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