# Alto compressiceps raised in "Liquid Rock"!



## JamesG (Feb 27, 2007)

I just discovered altolamprologus compressiceps fry in my cherry shrimp tank. I will explain the whole story..

In moving out of the city I had to set up various tanks at my parents house to transfer fish. They live off of the city water system in Richmond Hill so their water is from a well and is liquid rock (hardness is through the roof, I will try and get a measurement). In spite of this I set up a shrimp tank with no heater in their basement and the shrimp are thriving. 

When moving my african cichlids out of my place downtown I discovered a conch shell that had fry inside that were not quite free swimming. I didn't want them to get eaten as African tank space was at a premium so I put the shell into the shrimp tank, but I dropped it as I was lowering it in and they all spilled out. As I thought they were gonners, I didn't do anything special after this and they were not seen after a day or so. I was pretty sure the shrimp would eat them or at the very least they would die, but tonight I find about 4 (probably way more hiding in the plants) fish at about 0.75cm long! 

The purpose of this story, other than sharing my excitement, is to say that clearly Altos can survive quite well in incredibly hard water that isn't heated or softened in any way. I want to encourage someone to give these fish a try in a low tech tank where they do not fuss over their water chemistry and hopefully they will have this success also.


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## Julian (Jun 29, 2008)

hey thats pretty cool James. Hope you're able find room in a tank so that can grow.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

great to hear about survivors


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## Platypus (Jun 2, 2009)

What a wonderful story  I hope they grow well.

But to me, this shows that a lot of fish are not the fish you think they are. If you have read some fish profiles, you will see strict guidelines on the PH, Temp and much more, but a lot of fish are very hardy and do well if the parameters are kept constant.


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Yay james, I am sorry I missed this before.

Congrats


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## JamesG (Feb 27, 2007)

Platypus said:


> What a wonderful story  I hope they grow well.
> 
> But to me, this shows that a lot of fish are not the fish you think they are. If you have read some fish profiles, you will see strict guidelines on the PH, Temp and much more, but a lot of fish are very hardy and do well if the parameters are kept constant.


I couldn't agree more. I feel the whole idea of "keep pH within a X+/-0.1 range or they will die" to usually be a load of anecdotal junk. By virtue of the fact that the fish made it to the pet store or wherever and you were able to buy something still alive the odds are it is not a weak species so it can probably handle a bit of tough conditions.

I also think the constancy is really they key. It has a much larger role to play compared to absolute water chemistry.


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## Grey Legion (Mar 20, 2006)

Great story, I love hearing about tough fish !!

From my understanding it is huge temp swings that can harm or stress fish, that and of course filthy water from lack of maintenance.


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