# what does high ph do to a betta



## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

i just tested my water. it is at a very high ph like 8.4ish. i dont know if i can adjust it if it is that high. what will it do to my fish?


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Honestly, nothing. as long as the fish has time to adjust to it. Bettas are very adaptable creatures and while a more neutral PH would be better, He should be fine as your PH isn't extreme.


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## lwstinkinsweet (Aug 2, 2005)

okay thanks. i got him into his tank very gradually and i do it the same way with every cleaning


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## [*][ShelBy][*] (Feb 11, 2006)

He'll be fine, they are incredibly hardy fish when it comes to his water conditions, as long as it's not craaaazy...lol


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

It's more about hardness than PH, but the two are related. The concentration of disolved salts in the cell's of a fish's body is different from the surrounding water. Osmosis is a natural law that attempts to neutralize this concentration. Fish have to work ( a process called osmoregulation ) to counter osmosis. If they didn't, they would die. Evolution has prepared each fish to fight osmosis based on the water they naturally encounter. If a fish is subjected to water that is either much softer or much harder, it has to fight in a way evolution didn't prepare it to. 
The debate is still open, I guess, as to how much change is too much. Many people argue that a particular fish species has been in aquariums for several generations, so natural water parameters are not important. Well, it seems to me that evolution took thousand's or million's of years to create the inner workings of a fish. A few generations in a tank is not going to change that. 
I choose to keep my fish in water that is as close to natural as possible.


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## [*][ShelBy][*] (Feb 11, 2006)

What do you mean as close to natural as possible, how do you manage that? I use Well water, No chlorine and it is FULL of minerals, that's about as close as natural as I can get...


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## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

[*][ShelBy][*] said:


> What do you mean as close to natural as possible, how do you manage that? I use Well water, No chlorine and it is FULL of minerals, that's about as close as natural as I can get...



meaning as close to their natural environment as possible.


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