Lowering pH for Kribensis eggs?

[scifisarah]

So my pair of Pelvicachromis pulcher suprised me last night by spawning. You can see some of her eggs in the "cave" she dug out under this rock. I guess the nice plastic castle I gave them was too fancy to raise their young inside. I am pretty new to cichlids and thought they were too young yet, but apparently not! Been doing some reading and I see that I should have my pH pretty close to 7 if I want an even amount of males/females, below gets more females, above gets more males. Right now my pH is around 8.2, so it is looking like a lot of boys. The eggs were just laid last night - can I somehow lower my pH to around 7 without hurting the eggs, and still achieve a hatch of about 50/50 males/females or is it too late to do this anyway?

[linuxrulesusa]

I would not try messing with PH at this point.  What size tank are they in?  If a community tank, definitely don't mess with PH right now.  I would practice on a smaller tank (or a tank with a few less valuable/not as favorite species) before trying it with some you really like since if it goes wrong it could turn badly quite quickly.

[scifisarah]

They are in a 20 gallon with a small bn pleco. I was thinking I could possibly add something with peat in it to lower gradually. Now that I think of it, I imagine whether they are male/female is probably decided when they are actually spawning so it probably will not affect this particular clutch's sex ratio if I lower the pH.

[linuxrulesusa]

They are in a 20 gallon with a small bn pleco. I was thinking I could possibly add something with peat in it to lower gradually. Now that I think of it, I imagine whether they are male/female is probably decided when they are actually spawning so it probably will not affect this particular clutch's sex ratio if I lower the pH.

In that case it might work to mess with PH with peat etc for the next spawn. I'm not 100% sure at what point the PH kicks in as far as affecting the sex ratio...but I suspect you're right.

My main concern is if you try too hard to drop the PH and it crashes, then that could negatively affect the fish health and/or kill them if all the good bacteria die off.  So that you definitely don't want.  I'll let others chime in on the best way to adjust PH incrementally.

I assume you have a PH test kit?  Otherwise it's going to be guesswork to try adjusting those water parameters.

[scifisarah]

I do indeed have a regular and high range pH tests. Thinking floating some of the Fluval peat granules in a mesh bag, but like you said I don't want to change it too quickly. Also saw some "Tetra Blackwater Extract" that is supposed to have peat in it, and not sure if that would be a good solution?

[Michael Zebrowski]

I do indeed have a regular and high range pH tests. Thinking floating some of the Fluval peat granules in a mesh bag, but like you said I don't want to change it too quickly. Also saw some "Tetra Blackwater Extract" that is supposed to have peat in it, and not sure if that would be a good solution?

With the P. pulcher it's better to leave this spawn alone than to change the water parameters at this point even though you'll get a very high percentage of males.  You can slowly lower the pH to 6 for the next spawn and obtain a high percentage of females.  A pH of 7 will balance the sex ratio of subsequent broods.  pH influenced sex determination is typical for most, if not all, Pelvicachromis ssp.

[Michael Zebrowski]

Dried, clean oak leaves & twigs placed in the tank will acidify the water over time.  Best thing is they're free and readily available.

Mike Z.

[scifisarah]

Dried, clean oak leaves & twigs placed in the tank will acidify the water over time.  Best thing is they're free and readily available.

Mike Z.

That is good to know for lowering ph in the future - I have tons of oaks in my yard so that should not be a problem. The leaves are still dried on the branches, so I can just pluck them off. For some reason they never drop until Spring.