iisfaq

Hi I have a major problem in my tank: Basic Story - It is stuffed, Fish all Dead I bought 40 neons from Animates 3 weeks ago on a Saturday (fish fun day), within 24 hours a lot were dead, 48 hours almost all were dead. 72 hours all dead. Also two Zebra Danios - Dead Also other neons I had already - Dead On that saturday I saw a white spot on one of the neons so I thought "White Spot" and I phoned animates - Since I wanted it fixed ( has this problem with buying neons from them before ) and without any hassle I offered them a deal for 1/2 price on the white spot cure. They agreed. My tank is 300+ litres, I used only 60% of the recommended dose on the bottle. Within 24 hours my neons were dying, the area in front of the caudral fin were going bright orange. This was the first sign of problems. I phoned animates and was told the manager would return my call (this was sunday). I did 100 litre water change Monday - no contact, 100 litre water change Tuesday - I phoned again and got hold of the duty manager. She was sympothetic but could not really help and I should ring back tomorrow when the real manager was at work. I telephoned brooklands the makers of the white spot cure and spoke to a man there about the problem. He said it sounded more like a bacterial infection. I sent him photos of the problem. I spoke the next day to the manager and she put me contacted their purchasing person. In the end I got his number and spoke to him, he arranged for me to get a dose of Furan 2 + Metafix. To be fair he gave me about 40 furan 2 tabs + melafix and said he would arrange to replace the dead fish when the tank got better. I had to go to animates tower junction to pick up the meds. While there I spoke to the manager who said that the shipment of neons had come in the day before I bought them and they lost 50 fish. (most people would not sell to the public the next day) I took the meds and used them but it did not look to be doing anything much. This was over about 4 more days. About 1 week after the initial problem started 2 angle fish got a bloom of cotton wool type of disease near their pectrol fin. I spoke to Redwood Aquotics in Christchurch who said I should euthanize them since the tank had been having a lot of meds which did not help already. He suggested Furan 2 which is what I had been using if I was to give it a try. He also suggested that I completly strip the tank down a clean it with Janola. I euthanised the angels. At this point - I had 1 fish left, a large Pleco - I have taken him out and put him in a small tank and will keep watching him. Along the way I had to move the filter and ended up breaking a part called an AquaStop - It will take 1 week almost to get a replacement since the only supplier in NZ will not sell one direct to me. I managed to glue the broken bit together and it is currently working. Now the old tank has no fish, but snails + disease. It was sitting there until today with no heater, or filter, or air. There has always been lots of snails in the tank because of plants purchased with them on them (again Animates) I noticed yesterday a snail with what looked like a lump of gell on its head with little dots inside it. Looking really closely I noticed that this gell was now on some of the plants and walls of the tank. I took all the plants out today and washed them down but I think they will be destined to the bin. They have little blobs of gell on them again with little dots inside. I do not know if this is more Snails, a disease, or what. I am thinking of taking a sample to the vet to look using a Microscope. My tank is dead - all but one fish is dead, my plants look to be binned and I fell like taking the tank to the dump. Although I can not do that as I could never move it without 4 people and it would not fit in the car. I really am at a loss.... I do not know what to do to clean up the tank - if I throw everything away, plants, stones, etc etc etc and clean with Janola at what strength would I use. How do I know I have them removed the Janola? I have never heard of using that product before. And what if I miss one of these little gel things? can it survive and then reinfect my tank? If anyone has any ideas I would love to know. I for one will never buy any Fish & Plants from Animates ever again! ps: The tank was setup about 6 months ago after we had to have the carpet replaced (different problem) prior to that the tank had been setup for 2 years. The angels had been in there since I first setup this tank about 3 years ago and having to kill them was not nice and something you do not want to do. Chris

The part is in the original photo and is called an Aqua Stop It is like the main piece from the filter to the hoses. It is stuffed - completly broke one side off at the base. I need a new one - I can see these are spare parts online in the USA for about $15 USD Problem is the filter is NO GO without it - I need a new one. chris

I broke my Aqua stop on a fluval 404 tonight http://www.fluvalparts.com/servlet/the-43/20060/Detail Anyone know where in NZ I can buy one? who is an offical dealer? I am in christchurch and really want one tomorrow! My 404 is dead - I hope my fish arn't going to be. cheers Chris

I broke my Aqua stop on a fluval 404 tonight http://www.fluvalparts.com/servlet/the-43/20060/Detail Anyone know where in NZ I can buy one? who is an offical dealer? I am in christchurch and really want one tomorrow! My 404 is dead - I hope my fish arn't going to be. cheers Chris

I will keep you posted... I have noticed in the small ( no light ) that the Discus are sort of agro at the moment. Keeping an eye on this..

Thanks for the advise. I have taken the discus out of the main tank and setup a smaller tank 24 * 12 * 18. I have filled it about just over 3/4 with water. I have moved all 6 discus into the new tank. I have got some 400 MG Trichozole http://www.medsafe.govt.nz/Profs/Datasheet/t/Trichozoletab.htm I also found a good article here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/spironucleus.php The problem is getting worse on the big discus so I hope I am not too late. The fish was eating which is a good sign, but did start to receed to the dark and hide there. I am unsure of what the drug willl do to my filters. At this time I have not put a filter on the tank, but I think I will have to do this. The main tank had two external canister filters so I can move one of them.

Hi What is metro? Yes if you want to send offline send to [email protected] Cheers chris

No iodine here, and he is big - 7 inches high. I am not sure if I can do this without killing him. here is a photo - not good - but shows a bit of the problem.

It looks like one of my Large Discus has a worm (white) It started at the top of the fish about top dead center - looked like a pimple forming - got bigger over the last couple of days and now it has a hole, and a white thing - can't notice it moving but assume it is a worm of some type. Does anyone know what I can do? I will try to get a photo if I can.....

Does anyone know where to find "the list"? I would love to know how to know what is on the ALLOW list. Chris

Thanks for that... Chris

Hi all I would like to share an expeience I had in December 2007. I went to the US for work and I bought a number of products from www.petsmart.com especially FISH medications that you can not buy in NZ. I boughts lots of flake food - Large tin of Spirulina fake from Tetra, 160 Gram - US price approx $9.99 USD isn't that about $14 NZD - around $40-$50 Ok I am not whingeing about the price here but there is a lot of markup when it hits NZ shores but we are used to being ripped off for everything! Apparently you can only import 500 grams of fish food (from memory) any more and they can throw it out - customs that is! But that was not the problem. I purchased some products from the above web site - www.petsmart.com * Tank Buddies Parasite Clear from Jungle Labs * Ick Clear from Tank Buddies * Aquarium Pharmaceuticals PimaFix * Jungle Labs Hole N Head Guard Now I declared everything to customs who probably thought what the hell have we got here. 6 Tubes of fish flake, medication, and heaps of other stuff. Now I know I took the risk on bringing them back, but I did look up online at the NZ customs and immigration sites about the products. They said that all of my products from Jungle labs and the Pima Fix were out - out as in the bin. I could pay about $80 per item to have them reviewed- yea right like I would do that for a product that cost $20 USD. Now the problem is this: The reason they threw them out was that the product did not show a NZ code on the label - now why would they - they were for sale in USA. I accepted the fact that my money and medication is now down the drain but tonight I looked at some products. OK, on a previous trip (2005) I imported some products not really medication but I did import API stress coat and MELAFIX. Now this trip (Dec 2007) they threw out the PIMAFIX and the MELAFIX becuase they did not have a NZ Code on them and all of the Jungle Labs products. Today I had to go to Animates and buy some Stress Coat - I needed it since I am transferring my fish between rooms - some would say I do not need it, but since I have stressed them to hell I decided to buy some more. I paid $26 from Animates for 450 ML. Now I looked at the labels on the bottles - the one I imported in 2005 and the one 2008 I bought from Animates. NO DIFFERENCE - NO NZ CODE on the Animates version. So I looked at the MELAFIX and also no NZ CODEs on it. NZ CUSTOMS SUCK- since their poor database does not include a product you must throw it out. They decided since their web site did not say I was allowed the product that they would throw it all in the bin. Did you also know you can not find anything that says you are NOT allowed to import it, I did this while I was in the USA Their web site is useless - do a search and all you will find is references to not being able to use some medications (that I was not allowed) on live animals that will later be exported for sale for humans to eat. I thought I would share this story incase anyone else is deciding to import any medications... chris *bad language edited (and I fixed the spelling and added a few capitals where required - I couldn't help it :lol: ) - Caryl

hi I have to check with the Carpet People + the Insurance and see what I can actually get and not get. at this point they have not been out - so they may not be happy with replacing heaps of carpet. I will PM you tomorrow after I have spoken to the people involved but I really do appreciate the offer and I think I could accomodate your tank. Looks are not important - I am only after keeping my fish alive - you grow very attached, especially the large fish, especially Discus Cheers Chris

The carpet problem is not related to the tank, but to a carpet we bought from Morocco and is about 30 feet from the tank, but it is an open space with the same carpet and basically it is the same room. Chris

Hi cichlid7 My 300L with plants is sort of looking small these days. My tank is a corner tank - Aqua One 880 - 300L I assume I would need something similar sized - I assume I would also need around 1 month for the transitition, maybe bring up the new tank for 2 weeks, carpet gets done, 2 weeks for the original tank to come back to life again - maybe neons by themselves to start with. Do you have something like this? I feel sort of strange asking but I really appreciate your kind gesture. Chris

We have had a major accident with our carpet and the insurance company has by the sounds of things aggreed to replace the carpet. The problem my tank! The tank has been setup for 2 years, hold approx 300 Litres and contains 8 large discus, 6 large angels, 20-30 neons and a large Pleco. There is also quite a lot of established plants. Now what am I to do? Should I hit the Insurance company up to help out with the movement of my tank? I really need to rent a second tank I suppose to hold my fish + plants + Filter Eco System. Does anyone rent tanks short term? in Christchurch Should I have to pay for the rental or the Insurance? I assume I could build up a new tank, bring up to temp, and hopefully use my existing filter to keep the biological filter system going. My fish are large, not small do I do not want to introduce an amonia problem. I have space in another part of the house for another tank. Any thoughts, and ideas are welcome. cheers Chris

So what is the trick? Please expand on your one liner!!! Chris

See my post at http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/warning-to-anyone-who-purchased-neons-from-animates-chch-vt22932.html Chris

I purchased around 25 neon tetra's on Sunday from Animates at Tower Junction - from their Aqua Fun Day promotion. The Neons came from the tank near the frozen food and they are infected with White Spot. Normally I checkout everything I buy but I was in a big hurry and actually only there to buy Frozen Blood worms. I went into the shop today and told them that their Neons were infected with White Spot which they did not know. So incase you did buy some and you now have a problem hit them up for some tonic at their expense. I ended up getting some tonic + melafix for free! Chris

Good idea, suppose a clean may be in order!!!! chris

i have noodles as well. My 404 has 4 compatments. 2 are carbon 2 are noodles I think the carbon is good, why do you say remove it completly? chris

Hi All I cleaned my Fluvol 404 yesterday and noticed that the bags of filter carbon have all split open and the carbon is now sort of floating around. I gave it a quick flush with water but not too much and thought about buying some more. I went to Animates in Tower Junction, Christchurch today and my God the prices are stupid. A box which contained I supose about the same as a litre of milk was $40 This was carbon that was just carbon, no bags etc. My partner Pam suggested I think about the Chemist who sell carbon. Has anyone used Carbon from the chemist? If I got some carbon either from the Chemist or from a Pet Shop can I make my own bag. Do I actually need a bag? Cheers Chris

Well that is a bad example - you must have seriously broken through! Chris

I assume nothing bad, but dirty water certainly. I have broken through a few times and put more gravel/sand back on top. I do not think it is bad, but just can kae your water bad. Chris

The PL was part of the spec on the manufactures site. http://www.aquaone.co.uk/prod_details.php?id_no=52093sv The ballast unit must be right inside the lid as it is not visible without dismantalling the unit. Cheers chris