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Can anyone explain what the importance is of conductivity when it comes to breeding and general health of fish? I've read somewhere on the internet a research with this (forgot what the site is) and it mentions that it doesn't matter what the pH of the water is as long as fish are transferred into one that has similar conductivity.

I'm definitely no expert with this part of fishkeeping so please forgive/correct me if I am getting all of it wrong.

pH: "A measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution that is a number on a scale on which a value of 7 represents neutrality and lower numbers indicate increasing acidity and higher numbers increasing alkalinity and on which each unit of change represents a tenfold change in acidity or alkalinity and that is the negative logarithm of the effective "hydrogen-ion" concentration or "hydrogen-ion" activity in gram equivalents per liter of the solution; also: the condition represented by a pH number.

Hydrogen ion:...

"The cation H+ of acids consisting of a hydrogen atom whose "electron" has been transferred to the anion of the acid."

Conductivity:

"The quality or power of conducting or transmitting. a: as the reciprocal of electrical resistivity. b: the quality of living matter responsible for the transmission of and progressive reaction to stimuli."

A relationship exists, of course, between conductivity and ions. That connection, at least in theory, has been brought forward and talked about as a balance that could be achieved to balance/match pH in a truer electrical sense.

I'm not sure if measurements have been achieved to forward the study.

--garyroland.

[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-08-17 11:59][/span]

Thanks Gary!

I now remember the article. It's on here http://www.characin.com/carey/articles/index.html The article is called "How low can you go"

cichlidmad

"If a fish spawns or dies in low pH, perhaps the cause is not the pH but something associated with the low pH. For instance, the spawn might have been induced by low conductivity which is associated with low pH. Or a high waste content, also associated with low pH, could be the real cause of a fish's death."

The subject matter of the article was indeed low pH and the effects on various species.

Fish breeders, myself included, have known for a long time that the slow reduction of pH, perhaps down to 6.0, triggers a spawning event.

After spawning takes place the pH is slowly raised back to the normal tank pH.

Tropical fish in the wild do live in a much lower pH then hobbyists usually keep them in. However, slime coats, important in fighting off disease, are not well developed in fish that are kept in low pH values.

In the wild where water is constantly being flushed and changed and fish are not closely concentrated, disease is not much of a factor compared to a closed environment of an aquarium.

Minerals, of course, are used to form substantial slime coats as are nutritious foods. A low pH value, lacking certain minerals, would not provide the building blocks required to aid in slime coat formation.

--garyroland.

Does that mean then that fish can still survive in a hard water environment (even if their origin is soft water) the same way as they are kept in hard water in an lfs? And fishkeepers need only to replicate their natural environment if they wish to breed them?

Natural origins no longer come into play...

Most tropicals are raised commercially in a 7.0 pH value and shipped in that pH value water.

I've tested the bag water for many species right after the fish were delivered to the store and they all were neutral pH, 7.0.

However, because some of the natural responses remain, spawning can be triggered by slowly reducing the pH to 6.0 in many egg-laying species.

It would be beneficial to ask if the fish were wild caught or commercially raised. A small percentage of tropicals are still wild caught.

--garyroland.

Thanks loads gary! As always, your opinions are very much appreciated!

And Happy Birthday too!

Hi,
For lots more information on "conductivity" as it
applies to aquariums, checkout this site and its
links at the bottom of the page:

http://www.automatedaquariums.com/teccond.htm

Frank


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