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I would like to say so - but no - the substrate is basically the same as this photo It was setup for about 48 hours with cold water and then bought up to temperature. Then discus put into it Chris

Hi Thanks for the offer but I still have some Trichozole at the moment (I may need it in the future - but I have a good relationship with the vet - with Two Rotties, and 2 Abbysissians + Fish - about $600 in the last month - not just fish) My Discus are all large - about 5" or more top to bottom. They hate being moved and I hate it too. Does't that cause more stress? I just did the water tests in the new aquarium PH : 7.2 - 7.4 (somewhere in there) Amonia : 0ppm Nitrite : 0ppm Nitrate : 0ppm A quick search online produced this: Discus are very particular about pH. Keep your pH below 7 and above 5.5. The ideal pH for discus is 6. At pH levels above 7, discus are stressed. So I need to get the PH down. I have heard that drift wood can lower PH? The article below refers to peat moss but I do not know about that stuff. " Discus are very particular about pH. Keep your pH below 7 and above 5.5. The ideal pH for discus is 6. At pH levels above 7, discus are stressed. Below 5.5, the pH is inclined to plunge rapidly, so I find 6 to be comfortable for both the fish and the fishkeeper. Alkalinity and pH are closely related. Hard water naturally tends to be alkaline. Soft water naturally tends to be acidic. This is because of the buffering capacity. Buffering capacity represents the presence of alkalinity (carbonate hardness) and the ability of the water to maintain high pH. It is a chemical balancing act. Just enough carbonate hardness and the pH remains at the desired level, too much carbonate hardness and the pH will remain high, too little carbonate hardness and the pH will crash. Maintain your carbonate hardness at around 10 or 15 dH and you should have no problems with pH. Check your pH with every water change until you are able to get a feel for how your water behaves. If you notice that the pH drops quickly, you must add back carbonate. If your pH resists change to lower values, you must remove carbonate. There are many methods of lowering your pH, most with some form of phosphoric acid, from drops to powders, but one of the gentlest and safest methods is through the use of peat moss. Because the peat adsorbs carbonates and acidifies the water, you should be able to maintain desirable pH and carbonate levels through the use of peat alone." http://www.netpets.com/fish/reference/f ... water.html chris

Basically true - how do you do 100% water change - there has to be room for the fish? Well the discus has funny poo, nothing else looked sick. The catfish was only put into the hospital tank after the discus left the hospital tank. Last time I checked the water in the main tank prior to the hospital it was 100% chemically correct. Never heard of this treatment but I will do it. Should they be fresh pumpkin seeds? Should I do this in the hospital tank? I will do the pumpkin and garlic. And i will do a full water test in the new aquarium. The original old aquarium is now Empty. So just to make it clearer: 5 Discus + 1 Catfish in a tank 14x20x27 inches They all sort of had funny poo especially the catfish - sometimes 12-20" long (catfish only) Moved the 5 discus to a hospital tank and treat them with 6x 400 mcg trichozole per day for about 2 weeks. Water change about 50% per day. Then kept changing water at about 40% per day for another week,. Moved the 5 discus from the hosptial tank to a new aquarium. This aquarium (freshly setup) had the external canister filter from the hospital tank. Now I moved the discus from the main tank(still going at this time) to the hospital tank with the filter from the main tank. He is still in there. He was treated with 3x400mcg trichozole per day for about a week. His colour is more uniform than it was previously. I think he is happer except being cramped. Original aquarium now empty. Disc now in the newly setup 350 Litre aquarium. I will do some water checks tonight - not enough time this morning before work.

I did not notice it waving in the water - it was slightly more firm. The photo I took was too bright - and that was without the flash I had some frozen flake with Trichozole I made up and they are all eating that Chris

Thanks Biblo Do you think it is Hex? The reason I ask is that when I got home from work the white has gone and there is now a whole in his head (or more a pit as you say) I treated 5 discus in a hospital tank for over 2 weeks in 50 litres of water. During this time I treated them with 6 tablets a day of 400mg trichozole and generally 40-60% water change per day over two weeks. I would hate to think that hex has survived that - generally it is pretty expensive to buy the pills etc.. I currently have a large catfish in my hospital tank he had funny poo as well. He used to live with the Discus and now I am not sure exactly the process to take. I am off to the US in 3 weeks for 10 days and I would like some sort of stable tank for the "fish feeder" Maybe they are all best in the hospital tank. But I would have though that 6 x 400 per day was a lot? chris

I have been having problems with my Discus tank. I found they had funny poo so I moved them to a hospital tank and treated them with (Trichozole 400mg tablets * 6) for 2 weeks or so. This seemed to help this problem.. I then setup a new tank, and using the original filter moved the fish to the new tank. Then I noticed within 2 days a small white spot on one of the Discus. I did not know what it was so I treated with Machalite green. This seemed to cure it with a couple of doses. Now another discus has a white lump / cotton style thing. This time it is a lot larger, and in the last 24 hours it has probably doubled in size even though I did a 30% water changed and a new full treatment of Machalite green - 1ml per 20 litres. Any ideas what it could be and what to treat it with? The tank is 350 Liters... Cheers Chris

Hi I think since he was feeding fine last friday and nothing stood out and then died on saturday that the PLECO attacked him. I guess I will never know. I think I should get rid of the pleco - but not sure what avenue to take - sell him, give him away etc... I have no idea of his "perceived" value! I think I will setup the hospital tank again tomorrow. Thanks for your advise. Chris

HI I have problems with my Discus Tank - been setup for about 18 months. Last week one of my large Discus 6" top to bottom looked really bad - almost black thick 1/2 body wide stripes. I moved him to a hospital tank (setup in 10 mins) but died in 1 hour. I think my big PLECO 12" killed him as he was fine the day before. Every feeding time this pleco takes off after the Discus and tries to take them out. Now 6 days later another Discus has a problem I have had this Discus for 4 years and he has what looks like fungas growth on his Ventral fin. It was not there last night and tonight it i there for all to see. As always I can never get a decent photo but the following may help - see the bright bit on his ventral fin. Any ideas appreciated about what I should try to do - should I move them all to small hospital tank and then treat with (something you recommend?) There are now only 5 Discus (4-6" top to bottom) and 1 Pleco 12" in the tank. Even the Discus seem agressive towards each other. The thank is about 180 litres, it has 2 Ehiem 2215 filters, and a UV Filter. Two heaters, and two airstones. It gets about 25-30% water change per week Chris

I telephoned them today and they said that Mike was redoing the web site and there were lots of broken links. They did not seem very interested in knowing about the problem. Infact all they tried to do was point me back to trademe. Chris

I assume from the python specs it has 7:1 suction and can be used to vacuum as well. Their product includes a vacuum attachment. This is the part I do not fully understand. I think the unit that MikeFish sells is the same as the python unit (just a different color) I beleive (I could be wrong) that you actually turn the tap on to syphon out water. I assume that if you are using a normal hose 13 mm then over a distance of say 20-30 meters you would not get much suction and hence may not run the vacume very well. I made my own vacume with an old water bottle and a larger 18mm hose - Far better section that the commercial unit I bought from the LPS. On his trademe ads mikefish mentions videos on his web site that shows how it works but I get a page not found error. Chris

Does yours do it both ways fills and empty's? Does yours have much suction when emptying (the python one says 7:1) but I really do not know what that means? Chris

Pics would be great - maybe open a new topic and send me a link or reply with the link. I saw something similar (possibly) on line - see http://www.pythonproducts.com/aqprod.html I like the idea of this product - but seeing pics of yours would be great

How about doing even more than 25% but less often? Generally even twice a week is quite hard work. Not removing the water but putting it back as it takes me ages to fill a bucket of water to the correct temperature. Our hot water pressure is very low. DOes the UV filter actually reduce the amount of water changes needed because it destroys more bacteria? Chris

Thanks for the advise. I went away for a month in April 2009 I had a guy come in and do 2 water changes during that time. I did a water change before I left, he came in at about 10 day intervals and then I returned. I do not know however what % he did. I normally do about 65 litres at a time so about 25% water change per week. I have recently (last weekend) purchased a UV Filter (it sits below the surface and has a small pump) and it looks like it has made the tank clearer. I will increase my water changes to twice a week. The tank is about 260 litres from memory and has 6 large discus, and 1 large pleco - 14" Thanks agian for the advise. Chris

My Discus seem to have a small fungal growth on their tails. It is hard to actually photo but I have tried to take a couple of shots. Any ideas what it is, or what can be done? I put some salt in the water last week but it has not done a lot. I find most chemicals in NZ are pretty useless generally. Could this be bacterial? or fungal? I know the photos are not the best. cheers Chris

Hi Thank you very much for the offer, I really like guppies, and have not had any for 20+ years (I had a long gap in between tanks) I will have a good think about what I am going to do in regards to fish as I know their lovely little tails are in high demand by other fish for their diet. I really can't say how much it means to me the generosity of others when people like me go through bad times. Thanks Chris

Hi this sounds very much like I had. I can understand how a company could get bad fish and on sell. But in my case when they had 50 out of 150 die prior to their sale this says something to me. It also makes you wonder why they really have these days - obviously sales is the key. But 40 neons at $100 has cost me more than $100 in plants, let alone fish, and the stress. My tank is dead - now cleaned with bleach. I have no stones, no plants, no nothing except 1 pleco which I moved to another tank. I fore one will not take this risk and the fact that I know the original source of infection was Animates which got them from Brooklands means I will NEVER buy form either of these companies again. But we all know that marketing will work and others will be put through similar problems again in the future, but I do not know how to help them. For ME - they have cost me far more than the cost of the fish.... It is all over for them by me. chris

Thanks for that - good to know - never want to see it again. I do find it bad in NZ as you are basically stuffed here for meds. I have travelled to USA and gone to Pet Smart and there are lots of drugs for lots of things that you can buy for your fish. Here in NZ we are so limited and they say go to the vet who charges you like $45+ just to speak for 10 mins. I tried to bring a lot of meds back from my last trip to the USA - I declared them all and nice little customs man took them all - $100 down the drain. All be cause it did not have a NZ code on them. ps: They also do not like you bringing food back - I bought 6 300gram tetra flake, tropical crisps etc and they told me that if any I was only allowed one - but in this case they let me have it all. Probably since they took all the other stuff off me. one can see why people do not declare goods. I even checked their web site prior to returning home to NZ - this means nothing - no NZ code - basically NO GO. Why would anything you buy in USA have a NZ code! Chris

You sort of can tell if they are old or not. If they look large for a neon (as in what you see other people have) then I would say they are older. But saying this even 1 week they grow a lot which shows how little they get fed prior to purchase. chris

The tank had been up for 6+ months, prior to that 24+ months. Chris

Wow, this is really bad news and I wonder how many people who bought 3-4 got this and everything died and they just thought they stuffed something up. From what I can determine: Animates buy their neons from Brooklands and sell immediately. Brooklands buy their neons from somewhere but normally do quarantine them. Since the NZ market for general fish is pretty small I assume most fish come in via the same sources. I suppose it is a matter of finding a good source. I was very lucky at the time as I had 6 large discus which use to live in the same tank but put them in another tank prior to this purchase. I use to have just the one, but currently I have 3. I really only want one. Thanks for your comments and I too am sorry for your loss but there is one source that should be sorry - very sorry....

My fish certainly looked a bit like the images in the http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/02/neon-tetra-disease.html page. What ever this disease was, it was fast. Chris

Thanks for the offer of the guppies. At this point I am going to take it slow... I stripped the tank right down today. I have bought some bleach and will dose it tonight and then clean it down with water, and maybe repeat tomorrow. I think I will wait until next weekend or even later before I put any water in it. Chris

As you say the pics do look similar although the text says the skin turns white - but mine was orange. Also some of the neons looked like somoene came and cut a section of skin off. You can see this in the neon at the top left ( the big one ) Also everyone got agressive. The Zebra danios ripped a neon to bits. Then the smaller Zebra was attacking the larger one. Even Neon on Neon - it was quite terrible for a fish that is normally so plassid. chris

Here is a pic of the neons before dying. http://fish.crowe.co.nz/Images/fish_crowe_co_nz/deadneons.png Chris