List Of Fish Suitable For High PH And Hard Water

Interesting that your having such success with the pygmy cories, as I know others on here have had them in the past and had them die off suddenly/quickly.  Can I ask what you 'do' @Fiona in terms of feeding, temperature.... to keep yours so.... rabbit like?

@fcmf and @Matt

Don't forget Sue had pygmy fry as well in her tank.

I have no idea how old the fish were my son bought, he wasnt selective and just bought 10 however they got fished out. They're all still alive in his tank with the puffers, bumbles and otos, they do display mating behaviour at times but its his tank, so the care is up to him and I don't look for eggs. A mature tank, white sand, gravel, planted pebbles and bogwood and more plants (although not heavily planted), temp 25C. When they first got added there was a huge issue with brown algae and detritus worms which the pygmies scoffed. I doubt eggs and fry in this tank would reach maturity because of the puffer patrols. He adds bits of catfish pellets every day which the pygmies and otos eat and live foods every few days. His pygmies are a lot less active than mine. The nitrates in my son's tank are hideous at plus 50 and a source of constant irritation to me.

I actually selected my pygmies so I had 2 I suspected were adult females because of their size and shape by comparison to the rest of the fish in the tank, the rest were little ones about 1cm. They got added to a mature shrimpery which I dose daily with Bacter AE, twice weekly with Beta-Glucans and Mironekuton deep sea minerals, also once a week with Easy Life Ferro for the red plants. Dark substrate 1-2mm width stones, soil substrate. Bogwood planted with java ferns, black pebbles with anubias, rock with bolbitis, java moss clump,  vallis, hygrophila, green cabomba, alternanthera rosaefolia and a green grass for the foreground whose name I lost planted in the substrate and floating frogbit. Nitrates are 20ppm, pH 7.5, temp 23-22C, I always add cooler water. I lift the lid so the light isn't too bright. I had problems with detritus worms before I added them which has gone now, they eat what I feed the shrimps plus bloodworms x2 a week. Oh I don't hoover the gravel either, I just top up with water. This tank has a sponge filter.

That's it but if they can live in my son's tank they can live anywhere. Also you don't know how old they are when you buy them, even the shop doesn't know and as they're generally live caught or tank bred I doubt the supplier does either, which is why I bought the differing sizes.

Blimey probably my longest post ever!

Hi
New to this , my ph is between 7.5-7.6 is this considered high ?
On the colour scale I have 7.6 is the highest in a darkest blue , mine is not quite dark blue but is near to it .
Ally