black banded sunfish water parameters.

Hey guys...
I've read that blackbanded can be rather fussy about water type.
Does anyone have experience with these you can share, as to what type of water? My tank is very heavily planted...but my local water is also quite hard(and all the rest of my fish are used to that). Is this still a feasible fish? (still trying to decide if I want to add some black banded in with some eventual blue spots!)

Hey guys...
I've read that blackbanded can be rather fussy about water type.
Does anyone have experience with these you can share, as to what type of water? My tank is very heavily planted...but my local water is also quite hard(and all the rest of my fish are used to that). Is this still a feasible fish? (still trying to decide if I want to add some black banded in with some eventual blue spots!)

I've kept Blackbandeds in acid water and my local hard, alkaline water and they can do well in either. The bigger key is feeding them. Once I started using live blackworms and other live foods as available they did great in either water. I haven't raised any fry in my local water yet though they have spawned in it but at times I was not able to mess with them. Good planting and care in choice of tank mates are a couple other things of importance.

When I spoke with Smbass about this, he said that Black Banded Sunfish can tolerate pH's in the upper 8's. I've had one for a year and a half that has been living it's entire life in water with a pH in the mid 8's. Although, their native habitat is one where pH can range all the way down to around 4. Although Smbass was quick to point out that they seem to thrive when pH is more or the acidic side. Like I said though, my fish is in great shape in hard water. Keep in mind I haven't tried to spawn it or anything, and they may be more suited to spawn in water that has a pH lower than mine.

Edited by NateTessler13, 23 February 2008 - 09:35 AM.

If you want to lower the hardness and pH, dead leaves work excellent. They also make it look a little more natural. The only drawback is that it can "tea-stain" your water if you aren't careful of what/how many leaves you put in there.

I kept a group of these that spawned in the same water that Nate is using (we lived in the same apartment complex at the time) but they were in a tank with a lot of drift wood wich probably caused the PH to come down some but it likely was still above 7. I also was not feeding them anything live just a lot of frozen blood worms. I have a nice adult pair of them right now under almost the same conditions and they were showing some courtship the other night and again I am only feeding them frozen blood worms but a lot of them.

One of the members here is going to send me some bluespots in the spring..but I am really thinking of adding these or banded. In the end..I may ad a pair of all 3(the tank is that heavily planted!)