ryanjury

lol I took the shell and the babies out of the tank before the tropheus that are there tank mates could have a feed And yeah they were not too impressed by it, I am not used to fish so small being that protective..

What do you want to paint? Do you want something to go inside your tank or just paint the back or something like that?

I got 3 Lamprologus ocellatus Gold a few weeks back when they came into the country, was a bit disheartened when I lost one straight away but still held hopes of having a pair.. I noticed their behavior change a week or so ago but wasn't sure if it was normal or if they had laid so started daily "shell watching" was pretty excited to see a fry pop out when I did this today I have managed to count 15 but there may be more hidden in the back of the shell. http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f183/ ... 1Large.jpg Bloody aggressive little guys when they have eggs/young as well both of the parents attacked my hand when I stuck it in the tank so much so that I actually felt it and got a fright, which is pretty good for a 2-3cm fish. No doubt others have bred them but thought I would share

I used a saw like this http://www.talktalk.co.uk/shopping/imag ... -70x70.gif when I cut all the poly to make my fishroom it is quite easy to cut straight but a bit rough.. Otherwise use a very sharp knife, I believe the proper cutters are heated wires, but that gives off nasty fumes..

Those are good box type filters I find they suck up alot more crud than the sponge filters that Zev linked to although I have and use both the single and double versions of them too. You will find something like this http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 723395.htm is very quiet as it has an airstone in it and the ones that Zev has linked to are just air rushing down pipes and it can get noisy if you don't get exactly the right flow through them. Are you planning to breed in this tank?

Most sponge filters and box filters are created equal.. Box filters will suck up more crud but will suck up young fish etc as well, sponge filters wont suck up as much crud but wont suck up fry. I use sponge or box filters on all of my small tanks upto around 100L with no issues

I don't think you can get metro in a liquid form I have heard of people buying liquid prazi (adtape) from HFF. The may well have metro as well, it would certainly make sense for a fish shop to stock it. Sorry that noone could help you source some I didn't realize noone had mentioned it was a prescription med. I am with Phoenix I cannot see how a salt bath would help, from my limited understanding discus usually go off their food when they get Hex so a UV or salt bath won't kill the bacteria in the gut.

Yeah there have been alot of issues in the past with these things not lasting long after being imported. Alot of the time they get ulcers on them or dropsy like symptoms it just seems to be the fish are quite weak etc. Of course you cannot guarantee that every one will be like that as one importer may get some good ones in you just never know. Females aren't usually imported because apparently they get egg bound quite easily in quarantine and die resulting in extra fees and hassle for importers, plus as Caryl has said they aren't very colourful. There would be a good market for nice healthy NZ bred dwarf gouramis

As per usual I would say if you were planning on breeding then do it in a species tank. If they would cross breed or not would depend on dominance if your livingstonii were more dominant then they may breed with all the females in the tank, if the empresses were then they may breed with all the females. Sometimes they might be level and might breed with the right females it is just a guessing game in mixed tanks.. In saying that I would think (but of course you can never guarantee it) that livingstonii x empress would be very distinctive fry and by 1cm you should be able to tell if something is amiss (if you have bred both as pure fish and know what you are looking for).

It can give them places to hide but rocks can do that too I have had limited success with plants in african tanks most of my fish eat them

If the worst comes to the worst you can even float a bucket in the tank and treat in that..

Daily when you do your metro treatment, there is no point having a filter on it just an airstone as the meds kill the filter anyway.

Problem with sticking a 300W heater in a 30L tank is the water might be boiling by the time the thermostat actually registers the change in temperature because the heating element can heat alot faster than a smaller one. But usually it is ok.. 150W in a 2ft should be fine. I would probably treat the fish with metro, it is quite common for discus to get these symptoms and metro usually clears it up. Probably something to watch in the future is the number of discus you have 3 is usually a bad number as the bigger 2 will both pick on the smaller one the more you have the more the aggression is spread out, sometimes it can work but others not so well maybe this is what has happened in your case. Metro is treated one 400mg tablet per 40L of tank water temperature around 30C lots of aeration, dose daily for 4 days with a water change. If the fish is eating you can treat metro orally. Good luck

I think you should get a colony of taiwan reefs for your birthday

This is really confusing I have no idea what is happening.. Do you have any other cycled filters or even spare filters lying around? I would get another filter or 2 going on there ASAP..

lol the worst part was I did find them easy to breed Just had other things that were hard to get and I only had 1 pair of and I wanted to breed them first.. Oh well nothing that can be done about it now

Like I said above I had them but managed to loose them despite having 2 pairs in 2 separate tanks.. Unfortunately I had to go away for a month lost one male and the batch of fry I had given to a friend to raise as well. Then the second male died a week later. The male I was going to source fell through as well so no luck there

Good start here viewtopic.php?f=13&t=45745 And measure your KH of your water first if your KH is high then your PH wont go anywhere unless you start using the nasty stuff like Bilbo has suggested..

This might be a good start. http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html but as Phoenix has said it might just be stress or damage from transporting. Keep a close eye on it and if it gets any worse then you will have to treat it otherwise the eye can get so badly infected the fish looses it..

Yeah sounds like spawning or territorial type behavior to me, should be plenty of room in a tank that big for them to hide in if things get a bit nasty.

Blue green jack dempsey, a cross between the electric blue dempsey and the green dempsey.

You could maybe use a solenoid and a timer?

Ditto I have a female here as you know Nav you are welcome to her if you want her

Just bear in mind that not all worms are treated with prazi (ad tape) so you might have to treat with levamisole as well like Jenh has suggested if there is no change in the fish..

I grab fish out of nets with my tanks as long as your hands are wet it is fine.. No need to worry about these fish anymore they now have a name and another new strain of stuartgranti is in NZ :roll: