Stella

I used to use malachite and formalin against most things and just use salt for strong brief dips. Then I discovered (the hard way) that it is rather toxic to mudfish I went off it after that and used salt for most things. The handy thing with salt is that it can treat bacterial AND fungal diseases (as it can be difficult sometimes visually distinguishing them). Then I had a few disasters from salt not working as quickly as needed. Sigh, it is a long and painful road getting to grips with fish diseases and which treatments to use when. I do prefer using specific chemicals rather than general purpose 'tonics' that treat bacteria AND protozoa AND fungi. I guess it takes the trial and error out of the equation, but it adds even more nasty chemicals for an already strained fish to deal with. As always, prevention (water quality and disease knowledge) means you don't have the nightmare of treating things.

I can't recommend this article enough for people dealing with ich: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml It is long and involved, but means you really understand this annoying parasite and includes the *actual science* and blasts the multitude of myths surrounding it that get in the way of really eradicating it.

HAHAHAHAHA that is classic, Supasi!!!

That is awesome!! Thanks for posting this. Do you allow the males to guard the eggs or do you remove the adults after spawning?

Regarding spreading disease: You can only get sick if pathogens that cause disease in your species enter your body in appropriate places/numbers/times. If a sheep died of a sheep disease and I ate it, I would not get the sheep disease. Also most disease pathogens die pretty soon after the host dies. Disease (etc) microorganisms are not the same ones that cause decomposition. Your stomach (and that or most animals) produces kickass acid, one of the main reasons is to kill off microbes. Ever wondered how a dog can eat rotten muck and faeces and not get sick? So you are not going to introduce disease to your tanks in any way other than by introducing the microorganisms that cause disease, which were shed by another fish. Of course some pathogens are everywhere anyway (eg fungal) in which case they are... everywhere anyway.... So you aren't going to get a fish sick by feeding it a wild terrestrial insect (in the vast majority of cases). I don't know if there is a legitimate reason for needing to empty the gut of a maggot, but I doubt it (I know it is often stated that it must be done, but I would like to see actual science) Charles Mitchell, the 'whitebait farmer' in Raglan hangs possum carcasses over his ponds and the maggots fall off into the water and get eaten. My understanding with flyblown sheep and maggots only eating dead flesh, is the maggot initially eats bacteria living in the wet wool. The maggot secretes acids which eat at the flesh and kill it, creating maggot food.

might be a problem, given his current unlaundered state.

You could try hiding something in a filter, but you might need a really massive filter to house enough to get much effect... If you had a dud filter maybe you could plumb it in-line and have that filled with peat in a stocking? Actually, I wonder if peat can work as the actual filter medium??? I suspect I may have heard of this before... Otherwise the 44 gallon drum might be your best bet. Extra thought re leaves: I have a small tank with a thick leaf substrate and get almost no colouring out of that.

Ira, do you know what causes the surinamensis to change colour? Aggression, mating displays, environment etc?

My understanding about how the colours can change intensity is that the pigment contracts and expands.

I have a tank with peat and leaves as a substrate, makes the water lovely and brown. The fish are pretty slow most of the time, but maintenance stirs things up pretty seriously. No filter etc because of that, but the water is always in pretty good shape. Seems to work like a pond, and has various self-sustaining populations of tiny critters. If that is not the look you want, you could always have a 40 gallon drum with water and peat and use that for the waterchanges. One thing to keep in mind: the tannin does soak up the light, so you will want to use brighter light than you expect to see.

It is amazing how quickly fish can lose colour or brighten up. But that is the intensity of the colour. I mean a completely different colour: my bully's dorsal fin went from orange to green and back again several times over a few weeks. And not in relation to blending in with the background or lighting either. Tis weird.

ok, the new flatmates can stay, we don't want you getting all stinky and underfed!

I understand honour, however you agreed to all this without all the information you needed, and with your arm twisted behind your back. There is a big difference between being honourable and being a wuss. Stick up for yourself! Really, what idiot tries finding a new flat without revealing they have pets and NOT expecting trouble! So they are only staying until November, or that is when your tenancy expires and you can move out if it doesn't work out?

Hi Phoenix, man, what a horrible situation! What I don't understand (maybe I didn't read close enough) is why these people are still moving in? If *you* have the final say (ie signing the forms releasing the old tennants) why are you agreeing to this? Are you just feeling honour-bound? Why are the new flatmates not aware of what is going on? And finally, you are officially insane for letting someone move in that you hadn't met, even if the girl seems nice (so glad I live alone. Can't afford it really, but refuse to put up with this kind of hassle to same on money)

Does anyone know of (healthy) fish that can change their fin colour? Actually *changing* the colour, not just the intensity, or go from colourless to coloured. I have had a fish start to change a colour on one of its fins, from orange to green and back again, sometimes visibly changing over a few minutes. Just wondering if any other fish are known to do this, and why.

Just found this on an American native fish forum. I had read that crayfish mate face to face but had never seen a photo showing it before! http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/ ... entry62834 I am guessing the female is on top, with the tail curled under. I came across something recently that said if too many males tried to mate with her she would wind up with fewer eggs (due to them being knocked off).

That is brilliant!! I think my fridge is possessed, it has started BREATHING.

My camera has awesome macro capability thank you 8) But if the camera is right up against the glass it will only record brief blurs of the fish shooting past up and down the side of the mirror.

Dude, those stingrays are TRIPPY! Are they fresh or salt water? And what type of fish are those fry? Awesome, thanks for posting

I contemplated that, but it works best having the mirror right up against the glass (that was it is an INTRUDER, not just and intruder), and the camera needs to be about 10cm away to catch all the action. I will try and hunt down some sort of shop that may sell this tinty stuff. Hopefully it will be possible to get a scrap. (bullies are actually not so-called because they are such aggressive little posers. The name is a contraction of 'bull-head', describing their stocky or even bulbous heads, and I think is a name borrowed from European fish)

To my knowledge (which isn't overly extensive), most glaze is made of silica (ie sand) so should be fine. Lead is ok in an aquarium (just not copper, the opposite of what works for people) You are probably right about any metals being sealed within the glaze. Old terracotta pots are unlikely to have much in them by way of metals, arty pottery might have more. Chances are most stuff is safe

Bingo! It also depends so much on what sort of fish you are feeding. Try to find out what their diet in the wild would consist of. (Indeed learn as much as you can about your fishies' natural habitat, much easier to work with nature than fumble about in the dark) Alanmin is right about the figures potentially being dodgy or meaningless. 'Crude fat' is pretty meaningless in my book - there is a big difference between saturated mammalian fat (non-desirable) and the various others. My fish completely object to commercial foods (apart from one fish liking the carnivore pellets that Zev sent me ) . I feed ox heart as a staple, daphnia and wrigglers when I can get them, earthworms for my giant kokopu (and meanworms but he isn't a huge fan), bloodworm only for the fish too small to deal with much else as I find it isn't overly nutritious, and whiteworm when the culture works.

Yeah, I am really interested in their behaviours. They are stroppy little fish but most of it is in displays and slight chasing, rather than all-out physical aggression (usually). I noticed one of my male upland bullies was attacking another quite a lot last night, and using the mirror can help distract a stroppy bully and diffuse the situation. (By being 'mean' I kinda meant teasing him, he gets all agro at the glass for nothing) Male bullies seem to have quite different displays for use on males or females. When they are wanting to entice a female into their nest they go all black (like a black moor goldfish!) and with a brightly coloured dorsal stripe. When trying to show dominance against another male only the fins go dark, and they flare out their gills to make themselves look much bigger. They display side-on to other males. The upland bullies have different coloured dorsal stripes in certain catchments. Since the males display side on, the stripes are probably significant for this. I would love to do some experiments to see if males recognise males with different stripes as reproductive competitors, and if the females recognise them as potential mates. These are some photos of male Cran's bullies displaying to each other: In the top and middle photos the boys are flaring their gills at each other. The lower photo shows them immediately after but not flaring (mostly). They were not displaying for long enough for their fins to go dark, but the fins are also flared up to their full extents.

mmm, that window tint stuff is probably ideal. I am sure I can find a spare bit of glass to stick it to, then I could prop that in front of the tank Now just need to hunt some down...

Where could I get hold of some kind of mirror that you can see through? I was just being mean to my bully, holding up a mirror and watching him got nuts at his reflection. I would love to video this, but it doesn't look so dramatic when looking at the fish doing this sideways (ie holding the mirror to the end of the tank, while I look through the front) I would love to video it *through* the mirror, as that is where you get to see the displays from the angle it is intended. Some kind of enormous mirrored sunglasses that don't cut the light down too bad could do the trick... Or a bit of that mirror-coated glass window stuff. Any ideas?