7.2 PH Fish Compatiblitys....

Question
Hello! I currently have a 20 gallon with 2 algae eaters (Not otto's nor goldens) and I tried to keep Puffers for about 2 months until one by one, then died off. My aquarium stats are good (nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, etc etc) but my P.H is 7.2 and no matter what buffering or change I do, it stays, so I've decided to just go for fish that can live in that range. I mistakenly got an African Knife Fish last week, and it died 4 days later. Lesson learned, therefor, lol. Anyways, my question is, what can I keep in this tank comfortably, besides Live-bearers? I wanted to do Angelfish, but they prefer a more acidic P.H.

Answer
Hi Rich,
Actually, its best to leave your pH exactly where it is and don't try to change it. You will actually run into more problems trying to change your pH to suit the species than if you simply allowed them to live in your current pH level.

Its very difficult (as you have found out) to change your pH level and keep it consistent. While chemical buffers may work for a little while they soon will surely fail and cause all sorts of dangerous pH ups and downs that are very stressful for the fish.

*The important key to remember is its much better to have a -stable- not specific pH.

The good news here is your local petstore very likely has the same pH range that you do. So their fish are already adjusted to such the level. I would definitely ask. Petstores usually do not have the time or money to take out to adjust the pH of each individual display tank to the designated fish to be housed.

More good news is that since the majority of fish are captive bred now, they are much hardier and much more adaptable than their wild counterparts, so fish that once could only live in very acidic water, are now living in alkaline pH levels and thriving just as well.

The reason you lost your Puffers is unclear as of now. We can't be sure if it could have been a stress issue related to water conditions at that time, maybe ammonia or nitrites were present. These little guys are very sensitive to poor water conditions. I'm not sure what species you had, but if they were a brackish water species that may also be to blame. With brackish water being right in the middle of saltwater and freshwater...Brackish water is accomplished in the aquarium by mixing marine saltmix with freshwater..but not quite near the levels that full saltwater aquariums must have. Figure-eight puffers and Green spotted puffers are some of the most common puffer species available and both really do prefer salty conditions to be healthy.

Puffers are also hard to feed. They can be very picky and prefer only fresh meaty foods. Some will only eat moving, living creatures. It took months and months before my Green Spotted Puffer accepted pellets and flakes, but he still prefers fresh chopped frozen shrimp and live aquatic snails.

Most pufferfish are wild-caught. They can come into petstores plagued with internal parasites or other illnesses or can simply be stressed out beyond return from their journey and all the handling and changing of environments.

Unless you had the little Dwarf Puffers, they have been spawned before in the home aquarium. They prefer the same types of foods as their larger cousins and can be just as picky.

Now African Knife Fish are also wild-caught fish that do come in petstores quite stressed, sometimes ill, and often not eating. They are also picky eaters that prefer only frozen meaty foods. It can be quite some time before they will accept flakes or pellets.
These knifefish are very sensitive to pollutants in the water as well.

For now, I'd stay away from difficult species unless you'd like to setup a special tank just for them.

I think you'd be much happier off with keeping easier species anyway. :-)

You can definitely keep Angelfish. I've kept and bred many Angelfish in water with a pH around 7.6 or so. Angelfish have been so widely captive bred that they are very adaptable and as long as ammonia and nitrites stay at 0. They will surely thrive. Angelfish are very shy and timid when young and need lots of plant cover to feel safe. They also do better if there are 'dither fish' present -- schooling fish that have bold and brave personalities and arent too shy to swim about in the aquarium. Platies and all other livebearers fit this bill. As do the larger tetra species like Black skirt (and white skirt), black phantom, serpae, silver tip, diamond tetras for example. And most definitely Zebra Danios, Leopard Danios, or Giant Danios. Make sure to keep all these species I've mentioned in a group of minimum 6 for them to be happiest.

Also, if you decided to bring home some angels, try to buy young angels all at the same time to avoid any territorial issues.
I'd recommend keeping 2-3 in your 20-gallon, you could keep 4 but as they grow to a few inches they may pair up and spawn and that pair in your group will make life really difficult for the remaining angel(s) so keep this in mind unless you plan on setting up another aquarium.

So the basic guidelines here are simply pay more attention to your aquarium's ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level. Make sure they are always as follows -
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- under 20

Your fish will thrive if they get plenty of partial water changes, a decent diet and compatible tankmates. Promise. :-)

I really hope this helps and best of luck!!
Susan~