The Puffer Forum

Hi Guys,

I want a Hairy, but there is a nice looking subadult suvatti at a LFS. It's been there for at least two months, so he must be a fairly hardy specimen, considering he's on disgusting pink gravel with nowhere to hide.

My tank is cycled, but newly. I am in Central Indiana, and the water is very hard and alkaline. I plan to cut with RO, but I am wondering if I could get your thoughts on the ability of the SE Asian lurkers to adapt to harder water, if the water is kept pristine? I have had many congos over the years in Indianapolis tap water, and they all did fine, but the one time I tried to keep a suvatti...I lost him. I'm not sure what happened, but I don't want to repeat that with him, or a hairy if I find one.

Thanks.

P.S. Sorry to hear about the Pufferpedia. That freakin blows. I loved that thing.

They are not going to care at all.

Agree with Pufferpunk, they'll be totally fine with the water as is. Softer water fish do perfectly well in hard water unless it has an EXTREMELY high GH. Also I wouldn't even add RO water, the risk of an inconsistent pH outweighs any sort of benefit it would bring.

My GH is around 160ppm. What do you consider extremely high?

160ppm is only around 10 dGH, that's honestly pretty moderate. By extremely hard I'm referring to water over 400ppm/24 dGH

That's good to hear.... thanks