ryanjury

It looks like an awesome place Hopefully giving directions to it wont mean everyone goes there to catch all the crays for their fish tanks and ruin the place

Pinecone scales is not a good sign it is generally called dropsy but can be caused by any number of things, I have managed to "treat" the fish before using antibiotics and I say "treat" because the fish usually don't last long due to internal damage.. Antibiotics are a guess because without knowing exactly what is causing it you have no idea what to treat it with so you could be wasting your time, or the swelling could be caused by an organ failure etc which is fatal. Best bet would be to move the fish to another tank or bucket etc and lots of water changes maybe some salt and furan if you have some, but if it is dropsy I wouldn't hold much hope for the fishes recovery sorry to say

I always use nz couriers down here.. And we used the north shore branch (took them in) when we lived up there and never had any worries with them. I think fish are one of those gray areas for most courier companies it seems you can ring them many times and get different opinions on if they are allowed or not. NZPOST (even though we refuse to send with them anymore as they loose too much stuff) here wont take my fish but plenty of others send through them so who knows? If I was you I would start dropping off at the depot if that doesn't suit you then you may have to find another courier that will pick up from you?

Sponge/box filters work well, they are all I use in my fry/guppy tanks and I have never had any problems.. Guppies are pretty tidy fish and stay small so don't create much mess, also with a bare bottom tank you can just suck out any gunk that you see with your water changes so a sponge filter will be fine

I would have stuck with the apistos it can take a while to figure it all out but once you have figured it out they do well for you and look so awesome.. Failing that you could try some daffidol brichardi or standard brichardi, blue acaras, firemouths maybe even a trio of peacocks or something like that if the africans are what floats your boat.. If you liked kribs and wanted some of these http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Pelvicachro ... niatus.php they are absolutely stunning, before I cooked my tank full of them they were my favorite fish. Amazing colours even at 2-3cm long..

Good work I am always nervious when I get fish shipped or ship fish there is always that big risk that things will go wrong or couriers will loose them etc, hope these guys settle in well for you..

Rox's ribbon fins (both the blues and golds) are awesome she has been working on them since I first met her so it is good to see how well they are going

Those are some big fish I hope they ship ok.. At least you have a shop that knows what they are doing packaging them for you.. I would hate to think of the size of the box and cost of freight to the south island, the things you do for fish you really want aye

Cool My giraffes are maturing and have just got their own 4ft breeding tank.. How big are yours and how many are you getting?

I have a nice strain of neon blue tuxedos.. And would be very interested in a fry exchange to strengethen the genes of both of our breeding programmes

From the things I have seen with the ones that died of mine I would go down the anti-biotic route too, it is very hard to figure out what to treat with when you have no real idea what is wrong

Sounds like you need to be treating them with metro/prazi.. Do a search on the forums for discus or sick discus or metro or prazi and you will find all the info you could ever desire on it.. How many fish do you have? What size tank is it? And how many water changes have you been doing?

Here is red racers fish.. Click to make it bigger..

I have never thought of why, but phoenix's idea sounds feasible. I always thought they were just munted because the body was shutting down so they kinda forgot how to swim etc..

Your tank is big enough to start off with small fish and let it cycle by itself, any ammonia they produce will be processed and the tank has enough volume to dilute this ammonia to a safe level. Alternatively come out and see me or any other local fish keepers and we can give/swap you for some new media for some cycled stuff and then you will be away..

I have had tanks of africans go down as low as 12 and when they did get up off the bottom where they were laying they swum in spirals, turned heaters back on and had all (or at least most as they were grow out tanks and pretty full hard to count them all but I noticed no obvious bodies) recover fully I hope your Tropheus are ok, keep a good eye on them for bloat after a major stress like that..

Gutted mate I have had some issues with apistos as well, they seem to randomly do the gasping and not eating thing and then dropsy kicks in, I am yet to find any cure for them have tried a few things.. Feel free to email the pics to me but I won't be able to post them until after work, maybe lunchtime..

I am no good at sexing these guys sorry I am fish sitting Ollys breeding pair at the moment and cannot see any difference apart from size in them, mind you I haven't looked very hard, if you wanted to call through and see them and see if you can tell you are welcome too next time your in town

Id say they should be sex able and breed able at 10cm.

Agreed It is just a sign of dominance and they will do it when breeding as well to see if their potential mate is strong enough some sort of evolution I guess.. This should probably happen within a group of fish and the best 2 will choose each other but if you only have a pair they will do it with each other. Are they male and female?

Oic Have you tried your local hardware store to see what they have in the way of shelving units that you can just clip or bolt together?

What is a breeding setup?

I wouldn't have suggested them if I didn't think they would I have bristlenoses breeding in my african tanks at high ph with the big guys cruising around so I take this as an indication that the fish are happy in there..

Sounds like some good advice, I would treat every fish in the tank though even if you can't see the worms they are probably affected as well, I would also be concerned about any worms/eggs that may be in the tank that you haven't treated and will be sticking the fish back into? But I don't understand the worms livecycle well enough to comment too much on that.. The article seems to suggest treating at weekly intervals and doing 3 treatments followed by water changes, I did think of the issue of leaving a half dose in the water but had assumed that maybe it had a half life and all decayed by itself? It would be good to find out!

I don't bother tumbling them if they only have a small egg sack and are swimming around, you will soon tell, if they are all lying around the bottom they need longer if they are actually managing to stay up off the bottom under their own steam they are ready to go into a small tank or guppy trap. As per usual start feeding when egg sack is gone but they will eat some food with a small one still there so not as dangerous as other fish when you feed too early and the tank fouls.