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Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:54 am**

It's about time I put something useful into this section. So here goes...

Rio Xingu: High water; Temperature 80ºF pH 6.7-6.9

Source: http://opefe.com/waterchem.html
You can also find the stats for other rivers in south America.

This cichlid site states:

imitate Rio Xingu water - pH 6.5 and about 100uS conductivity

http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/549 ... 3page.html

I did notice that the figures (for pH) that the two sites give are different... The possibily could be that the readings were taken at different times of the year, who knows.

But the most common thing to note from all the sources I have found is that they all state that the water parameters "need to be stable" in order for successful spawning to occur. It's no good simply trying to recreate those conditions if the water buffers used make the water's parameters fluctuate.

Bader.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:17 am**

Without fluctuation, such as you'd see during the rainy season, you'd be hard pressed to get these fish to spawn, IMO. Stability is the key to keeping most fish happy and healthy but it is not always the key to reproducing them, in my experience. I do find it interesting that they're noting the highwater temperature as 80 degrees. Theoretically that would be the time of the most run off and rain, so you'd think it would be cooling off the water then. According to Shane Linder there's a pretty serious variation in the conditions through the seasons and I've even read that they fluctuate just by the time of day that you test, due to sunlights reaction with algae and plants and what not. All of which are happening in water much softer than any of us attempt to keep stable in small quantities

.

Barbie

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 2:43 pm**

I had heard the conditions fluctuate in the Amazon too. I spoke with a discus, ray & pleco importer who went on a trip down there about two years ago. He took readings and found pH levels ranging from 3.0 - 9.0. I don't know exactly where he took the readings but it was within about 100 mile area. The 3.0 reading took me by surprise but he says he checked it three times.

When our water system went haywire and my pH dropped to 3.0 I almost lost everything I had before I could stabilize it. My poor fresh water flounder looked as if someone poured acid on it.

We can try to simulate the conditions the best we can within reason. As Barbie said...

According to Shane Linder there's a pretty serious variation in the conditions through the seasons and I've even read that they fluctuate just by the time of day that you test, due to sunlights reaction with algae and plants and what not. All of which are happening in water much softer than any of us attempt to keep stable in small quantities Wink

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 5:40 pm**

Fair point,

I guess the main thing is happy, well fed fish... We couldn't possibly hope to perfectly recreate the conditions that mother nature sets down in the wild...

But having said that, I will try to dig up more figures... I guess if eliminated all the extreme figures (that don't apply to the areas that L46 is found... don't know if that will be possible without a trip to Brazil LOL

) we would have a "range" that is as closely matched to the wild as possible.

This post could serve as a starting point of what to aim for.

Kind regards

Bader.

ZebraPleco.com • The complete Hypancistrus zebra resource

Water Stats In the Wild.

Water Stats In the Wild.