I live in LA with ridiculously hard water and ph 8.2

[k0olmini]

So I live near LA and our water is pretty much liquid rock and has high pH. I’ve been told by my LFS that cichlids and livebearers. I’ve been told any fish from the Amazon (most of the popular fish) would not do well in this water. Has anyone had experience/success breeding fish that don’t prefer these conditions? The only fish I’ve had spawn is bronze cory dora but theyve eaten their eggs. 

[Atitagain]

You could try lowering naturally with lots of plants and tannins this will take time and might not get you down where you want to get. Or mix in bottled water ive used this water and had good results.

It has minerals add to it. You would have to experiment and find a mix to get the PH your looking for.

Or get a RO system I have no experience with those so I can’t speak on that.

With all that said most fish IMO will adapt to your parameters. Will they be in optimal conditions, no but they will live long healthy lives. You might not get them to breed under those conditions tho.

This all just my opinion from my experience. I’m by no means an authority on this subject.

[CalmedByFish]

One idea is to decide on a species you want to try, find it, ask the store to test the water parameters of that tank, and ask how long the fish have been in that tank (to confirm that they're surviving the store's parameters.) That will give you a starting point to then slowly adjust from.

[Dwayne Brown]

@k0olmini I have had a similar delima ot that I cannot successfully keep hardwater fish because my seattle water is so soft. What I usually do is research fish that can live in my water type, then go from there. That way you have fish that are happy, and thriving without having to do to much water modifications. There are so many cool hard water fish out there that are just as interesting as soft water one. Such as south american livebearers, African cichlids, African tetras, and others that can tolerate both hard and soft water. Perhaps it would be interesting to attempt to breed african cichlids, or Congo tetras. 

[Ken]

Sorry for the  poor picture, I was attempting to show the water parameters in my tank with the Cardinals in the background. What I am attempting to show is Hardness is off the chart, buffer is high, Ph is well into the 8's. Cardinals are healthy and happy ( bought them tiny they are downright big now). There are Panda Corys in there, Lemon Tetras, and Hengeli Rasboras, plus a billion Cherry Shrimp and two billion snails. Hard water is easy, I don't envy the folks with water with nothing in it.

 

 

[CalmedByFish]

On 10/17/2021 at 10:30 PM, Ken said:

 Hardness is off the chart, buffer is high, Ph is well into the 8's. Cardinals are healthy and happy ( bought them tiny they are downright big now). 

Super cool. Do you think introducing them to your water while very young was key? I'm curious about how to succeed at adapting fish so well.

[Scapexghost]

I have similar similar water parameters and have never had trouble keeping tetras or plecos. Specifically I've kept neons, silver tips, and rummynose tetras and I've kept bn plecos. This is the way I think about it: 85-90% of americans have hard water, so if a fish could not handle hard water, it would never become popular in the U.S. Therefor, all of the most popular fish will do fine in hard water. Also, your lfs would not carry fish that cannot survive in the local water since it would make a lot of angry costumers. Very few fish keepers bother w/ r/o systems, especially novice fish keepers which make up a majority of sales for a lfs. If your ordering rare fish online, that's a whole different story. 

One interesting observation from my lfs that is applicable: they carry most of the common amazon fish; angels, tetras, cories, plecos, rams, and even discus; and all are kept in ordinary tanks no different from the livebearer or african cichlid tanks, with one exception: apistos. My lfs carries apistos however they are kept in a blackwater tank. My theory is that the apistos cannot handle the high pH. My local chain stores also do not carry apistos, yet they do carry all the other common amazon fish, even rams and discus. 

Tl;dr common tetras, plecos, angels totally ok, rams and discus should be fine with caution, apistos and rarer fish may need extra care. 

Edit: i should mention that this logic does not necessarily work in the reverse; as in, a lfs may sell hard water fish which cannot handle the local water unaltered. This is b/c raising the hardness of a tank is much easier than lowering it. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Scapexghost
Clarification

[k0olmini]

No more true words have been spoken. 

I really appreciate this glimmer of hope 

[Ken]

On 10/17/2021 at 10:21 PM, CalmedByFish said:

Super cool. Do you think introducing them to your water while very young was key? I'm curious about how to succeed at adapting fish so well.

Not really. When I got back into aquariums I read all I could about pH and hardness (one of the first things I bought was an API Master Test Kit) what I found is that people that raise fish for a living don't even react until their pH is below 6.5 or above 9, assuming adequate hardness to buffer. I figured I was fine and proceeded to ignore it. I think stability and clean water (changes) are what matters. I do test weekly and change water whenever it needs it (based on Nitrates with the CoOp test strips now), or every two weeks whichever comes first.

I do drip acclimate fish that I buy mail order because big fast changes are harmful. Local buys are temperature acclimated in the bag then plop and drop.

[KaitieG]

I have water that's about exactly like yours in terms of hardness and ph.  I've done well with most things--including softer water fish like neons, ember tetras, angelfish (though I specifically looked for a local hard-water breeder and bought from him), corys, loaches, betta.  

I like the philosophy Cory shared on a video--usually fish can handle 1 or 2 stressors but when you get over that you have trouble.  I figure if I have fish that find hard/high ph water stressful, I should work to keep other stressors at bay.

Edited October 18, 2021 by KaitieG

[JettsPapa]

I also have 8.2 pH very hard water.  I've had good luck with guppies, serpae tetras, lemon tetras, black neon tetras, pristella tetras, pearl gouramis, Lake Kutubu rainbowfish, Corydoras pygmaeus, Corydoras panda, and Corydoras trilineatus . . . and probably a few more I can't remember right off the top of my head.