Hi all,
I was suggesting that these fish can adapt to these water parameters and as long as they are not stressed, can breed and live happily in harder water. Its important to add that our male has the 9 soft and one hard dorsal ray and he has never had any health concerns. I think this is due to the amount of bogwood and almond leaves we provide.
Very true, this probably is the important part, "good" conditions (which don't stress the fish at all) can play a significant role in both welfare and breeding.
I'd still love to have a DNA analysis done, I'd be surprised if your fish and Elaines' is the same species, although as I don't think any-one is working on the DNA of Loricariids, we are never going to know. There is a discussion thread on these on "Planet Catfish", as well as on the "L-welse" link Elaine posted (you can get to L-welse via Planet Catfish and use Google translate).
Its also important to point out that acid water doesn't have any more 'anti-microbial organic compounds' than alkaline water its just that acidic water by nature ('super-oxidative properties') can combat against some bacterial/fungal infectious agents. So I think with the bogwood and its 'immune boosting' tannins we have provided some of the important properties of a black water environment just without the acidic/softer water parameters.
No, it isn't only an oxidative and immune boosting response (although I'm sure these are important), the "black water" really is anti-microbial. A simple test is to visually assess the rate of decomposition of a Beech leaf (
Fagus sylvatica) in waters of differing pH (de-ionised + buffer) and with the pH adjusted using an Indian Almond leaf. If you wish to discount oxygen effects you can do this in a shallow film of moving water. You can use visual assessment, because the leaf decays at much faster rate in both the alkaline and buffered water (down to about pH4) than it does in the leaf extract.
I'm hoping that I can quantify this by plating out water soluble extracts from
Terminalia catappa, Alnus glutinosa, Ouercus, Camellia etc onto a microbial lawn and looking at the "zone of inhibition/minimum lethal concentration" from differing dilution rates (using a disc assay).
I've done this for other anti-microbial compounds (from Red wine, Tea,
Garcinia indica, various Herbs, the sap from
Aloe species etc.), using
E.coli, Staph. alba &
Saccharomyces cerevisiae lawns (gram positive, gram negative bacteria and a fungi (yeast)).
Here is a
Terminalia paper:
Research Journal of Microbiology
Year: 2007 | Volume: 2 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 180-184
DOI: 10.3923/jm.2007.180.184
In vitro Antibacterial Activity of the Extracts Derived from
Terminalia catappa
Shahina Naz , Samia Ahmad , Sheikh Ajaz Rasool , Rahmanullah Siddiqi and Syed Asad Sayeed
Abs
The extracts derived from Terminalia catappa leaves and fruit following antibacterial activity directed isolation, were screened for their antibacterial activity against species of corynebacteria, staphylococci, streptococci, enterococci, escherichia, salmonella and shigella. The results indicated that crude ethanolic extract, aqueous fraction of crude extract and its sub fractions (petroleum ether and ethylacetate) possessed prominent antibacterial activity, therefore supporting the medicinal uses of this species
and a methodology one of mine:
"The anti-bacterial activity of 12
Allium species against E. coli"
Maidment, D C J | Dembny, Z | Watts, D I
Nutrition & Food Science. Vol. 31, no. 5. Oct. 2001
cheers Darrel