List Of Fish Suitable For High PH And Hard Water

So I have been keeping fish for a few years, but to my shame only realised quite recently the importance of keeping fish in water that suits them. This explains my lack of success with neon tetras in the past - Hertfordshire tap water rocks (pH 8.1, KH 14, GH 19)!  Yes, it's well hard  .

As I'm about to upgrade to much larger tank (from a 90 to a 240 L) , and will be a able to stock some additional fish, I decided to do some research on what fish would be happy in my new ultra-hard water tank. Well, the good news is that there are many more fishes out there than you might expect.

Please note this is NOT a complete list of all species suitable for hard/high pH water. It is simply a list of fish that fit the specific requirements for my new tank:

1. No fish bigger than 12 cm
2. Community fish only - you'll find no cichlids here!
3. Suitable for both high pH and high GH (with a couple of borderline exceptions, e.g congo tetra)
4. Suitable for 240 L / 120 cm long tank
5. No livebearers (except platy and wrestling halfbeak - I've enough difficulty keeping my existing platy population under control!)
6. No goldfish

Whilst doing my research I found lots of forum posts of fellow-fishkeepers asking for stocking advice for hard water/high pH aquariums, but not a great many recommendations (the notable exceptions being two articles by Neale Monks on wetwebmedia). I therefore hope that this list is of some use to others.

Most information has been drawn from seriouslyfish, with additions from a few other websites.

My own spreadsheet contains a lot more information then just common and scientific name, but I don't know how to copy/insert a table. If someone can give me some guidance than I'd be more than happy to post the full spreadsheet. 
Happy reading :-)

Platy    Xiphophorus maculatus
Celebes Rainbowfish   Marosatheria ladigesi
McCulloch's rainbowfish   Melanotaenia maccullochi
Threadfin rainbowfish       Iriatherina werneri
Neon dwarf rainbowfish   Melanotaenia praecox
New Guinea rainbowfish   Melanotaenia affinis
Lake Kutubu rainbowfish   Melanotaenia lacutris
Boesmani rainbowfish   Melanotaenia boesemani
Australian rainbowfish   Melanotaenia fluviatilis
Forktail blue-eye   Pseudomugil furcatus
Neon blue-eye   Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis
Popondetta blue-eye   Pseudomugil connieae
X-ray tetra   Pristella maxillaris
Congo tetra   Phenamogrammus interruptus
Black widow tetra   Gymnocorymbus ternetzi
False penguin tetra   Thayeria boehlkei
Red - eye tetra   Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae
Glass bloodfin tetra   Prionobrama filigera
Florida flagfish   Jordanella floridae
Odessa barb   Pethia padamya
Cherry barb   Puntius titteya
Rosy barb   Pethia conchonius
Golden barb   Barbodes semifasciolatus
Indian glassfish   Parambassis ranga
Inlecypris auropurpurea   Inlecypris auropurpurea
Emerald dwarf rasbora   Celestichthys erythromicron
Red dwarf rasbora   Microrasbora rubescens
Asian rummynose   Sawbwa resplendens
Wrestling halfbeak   Dermogenys pusilla
Zebra danio   Brachydanio rerio
Glowlight Danio   Danio choprae (Celestichtys choprae)
Pearl danio   Brachydanio albolineatus
Inle Loach   Petruichthys brevis
Dwarf lake synodontis   Synodontis petricolaa
White cloud mountain minnow   Tanichthys albonubes
Paradise fish   Macropodus operculis
Puntius snyderi   Puntius snyderi
Empire gudgeon   Hypseleotris compressa

 
Mansion, ha, I wish. 
I do have some of the fish on the list, and I'm aware of ones like the Empire Gudgeon and a few of the others.
It just goes to show, whatever water you have, there is a huge range of fish suitable.............and that you'll never have enough space for all the fish you want.

Some of them will look even better when you see them, or they will have an unusual way of moving that may be attractive, so it's always worth having a look. 

Goby are so cute. They have lovely faces.
Apparently Rhinogobius zhoui and Rhinogobius duospilus are suitable for hard water. I was looking at the second one (white cheek goby) for the river tank because it's fine in lower temperatures and needs high O2.
 

You can add these to the list too:
Dwarf Puffers
Sparkling Gourami
Croaking Gourami
Bumblebee Goby
White Tipped Tetra

I've always believed that gourami prefer soft water?  I currently have sparkling gourami in my softwater tank, and previously have kept honey gourami though they quickly became ill, I hope I'm not about to make the same mistake twice?? 

Using Fishbase as my source:
Trichopsis pumila and T Vitatta (sparkling and croaking gouramis) = 5 - 19 German deg
Trichopsis schalleri = unknown - 12 German deg (that is, they don't know the minimum hardness for this species)


That converts to 90 to 340 ppm and unknown to 215 ppm.

Goby and Stiphodons suitable for hard water - awesome. There are often a few of each family of fish that are suitable for harder water, which is great.
Again, stiph have the most adorable little faces. I don't know what it is about fish of that shape, but they are adorable.

According to seriouslyfish most the fish you mention are just below pH8 and dH 19, so technically not allowed in my list  It's great to hear they are thriving in Hertfordshire liquid rock - it gIves me hope.

I'd not come across stiphodon before - how cute!

A while ago I saw bumblebee gobies at Chiltern Aquatics and they were very cute too, but I read they prefer slightly brackish water, so left them off my list?

Re Indian glassfish - I have read about the practice injecting them with dye - how horrible. They're not hugely high on my stocking  list and definitely a fish I'd like to see in the fin first.

Cories as a group are generally considered to be soft water fish but there could be some species that would be OK in harder water.

The simplest thing is to direct you to Seriously Fish and for you to look at each species to see if any of them can cope in the hardness of your water.

A while ago I saw bumblebee gobies at Chiltern Aquatics and they were very cute too, but I read they prefer slightly brackish water, so left them off my list?

Re Indian glassfish - I have read about the practice injecting them with dye - how horrible. They're not hugely high on my stocking  list and definitely a fish I'd like to see in the fin first.

The brackish water only is a bit of a myth, I read somewhere it was generated when some bumbles were found in brackish water (estuaries and tidal plains) and some shops won't stock them because of it but they are a quite widely distributed species and the same species can be found in fresh and brackish water. Ours actually spawned but the ensuing 'family' massacre that followed in a very short period of time scarred me for life, so if you are going to keep them make sure you have a big enough tank, the floor space being more important than literage. As new fishkeepers we had them in a 55l 60x40x40 tank  we thought it was big enough and learned the hard way it wasn't.

There are some really beautiful species of glassfish but they are hard to find in shops. I found Parambassis ranga to be unsuitable in a tank with smaller fish regardless of the fact they are labelled as peaceful community fish, they don't have those big mouths for nothing. I had to rehome mine.