Stella

I find even doing that you still wind up with lots of bubbles that stop the impeller from pushing water. Turn the filter upsidedown - does it work? Shake the filter and turn upsidedown lots until all the bubbles are removed. Can take a while.

Young Male Nude by Hippolyte Flandrin, 1855 I have an A1 sized print of this chap to give away, tis a little bit tatty from being pinned and blu-tac-ed to walls over the last 10 years, but still rather beautiful and has many years of quiet gazing to give yet. Very peaceful, introspective painting with glorious colours. Also depicts a nude dude, if you are into them Not framed or anything, just a large print on... not quite card and not quite paper. Just not needed anymore but I couldn't bear to throw him out. Pick up in palmy.

yep Neon, that is dumb! :lol: But I am not laughing at you (only a little), as I am sure I will try it one day... :roll: Happy tinkering

EW re rotting armpits and groins!!! Well, I still have one kokopu left....... fingers crossed and I hope I didn't just jinx it.... It still seems very active and somewhat peeved to be in a small bare tank. The last tablet went in yesterday, so now what? Just waterchange it out? 25% at a time or more? The instructions say use carbon but I don't have any.

Why, whywhywhywhywhywhywhy, would someone want a phone that scans barcodes? What about a phone that does a DECENT QUALITY phonecall for a reasonable fee, instead of all these silly bells and whistles to make up for the fact that they are barely able to do what they are 'supposed' to be used for, ie make telephone calls.

and please note in the photo the general lack of squealing like a girl and dropping the cray Twas possibly the biggest cray I have ever seen (for reference, the ring I am wearing there is 2cm across). Very awkward photo to take, trying to hold the cray in one hand, the camera in the other, and desperately needing a third hand to swat away the BILLIONS of gnats and moths that were getting in the way and between my eyes and my glasses (shudder). Ianab kindly lured them away by proffering his ankles... So back to his glorious boy-bits... (the cray's, that is). Between those two back legs, right in the centre, are two white lumpy things. They are kinda pointed up in the photo so you don't get much of a 3D idea, but as they waggle their legs around you will see the protrusions waggle also.... The girl-bits are ill-defined holes on the second pair of legs. Curtur, wait till your cray is sitting still, quickly put finger and thumb either side of the body, but mostly gently pressing down at this point to hold it still. While it is still you can get a good grasp of it and lift it up. It will flick the tail quite sharply causing you to drop it and need to repeat the exercise. Once you have hold of it it will not be able to nip you. The one in the photo just played dead, some waved their legs about looking rather impotent, while others continue to flick and make life difficult.

oh that was lucky! Your kitten's head looks too big for its body..... Cute though

Stu, good term Anyone else really struggle to get around to removing a body from a hospital tank? I loathe it. A good trick is to put your hand in a plastic bag, grab fish remains and turn bag inside out enveloping the fish (mush like picking up doggie doo....) I think I need to remove the last dead kokopu. The one surviving kokopu (near-extinction event) in the next hospital tank along seems rather creeped out by it....

yes, all up about three times.... :roll: at least the carpet here doesn't rot, smell or get high-tide marks. Not sure about the carpet in the other place, but it is somewhat rattier so hopefully it won't matter either. Busily packing and cleaning. Two weeks to go. By then I should have absolutely nothing to do apart from write my book.... :lol: :roll:

Only ever fill a fish tank using a hose if you: A) are actively watching the entire filling process and be ready to turn hose off at the required moment. B) have a little siren wired up and hooked over the side of the tank so it alerts you when the tank is approaching the desired level and you should turn it off. If you do not do either of these options you will inevitably overflow your tank, soak the carpets, all your spare towels and knees, and generally make you feel like a right schmuck. :roll: Repeat until lesson is so thoroughly drummed in that you might actually DO option A or B :oops:

sorry, I read "out in the sun" not "out of the sun" :oops: Too hasty. Ok, answer two: Things live where there are the means to let them live. In the case of algae they roughly need: Lots of light Lots of nutrients General dampness or water Get rid of one or more requirement and you get rid of the problem. In your case maybe increase the frequency of waterchanges and look closely at how much you are feeding (both reduce nutrients). FIlter wool might make it clearer, with the problem of clogging up the filter wool. If you remove the likelihood of solid muck (inc algae) floating about in the water, you increase the functioning of your filter, which is the bacteria action, not mechanical de-murking*. Treat it as a mechanical de-murker and you need to clean it out often. *hehehehe 8)

There are a lot of good articles on the net explaining the difference between the three media. The problem is every person does things differently. I don't do any chemical filtration (carbon etc). Not going to be farting around every week or so changing the stuff. I have the ceramic tube thingys and filter wool. The ceramic apparently does most of the biological filtration, and the filter wool does the finer filtration getting some of the gunk out. However I also have a sponge-filter sponge on the inlet for the filter, so that stops most gunk getting in, which means I hardly ever go into the filter to rinse it as it doesn't gets clogged. Other people will tell you they rinse their filters out every week. Others will say they replace their filter wool every week As far as I am concerned, if your filter is well-set-up and your tank well-maintained, you should very very rarely need to do anything to the filter. Now onto your green water issue: The tank is sitting in the sun. There be your problem. No sun, no green water.

I'm unemployed. No stat holiday pay. No extra pay if working stat holidays. Actually, make that no pay at all. Sigh. I am sorry you are working those days though, Silvia, that really sucks.

Thanks so much for all the support, guys. It really matters to know that there are people out there who Get It. I pretty much spent yesterday in bed feeling wracked with guilt and sadness. These fish were my Absolute Pride and Joy. Got up at 4:30 when I got hungry.... Sounds pathetic I know, but it was just too much. There is still one left. It seems quite feisty (um, like the last one that died...) but I feel it may live. It only has one area on the fins (pelvic fin) and it doesn't look active. Looks like all the manky tissue has fallen off and like it simple suffered a bite, not acute necrotising fin disintegration.... I am intrigued as to how this disease came about and would like ot understand further. So presumably there was some sort of injury (bite?) that allowed infection into the first fish's tail. That spread into the body and killed him, I get that one. Then do we assume that the bacteria from the tail then infected the edges of the fins of the other fish? And do we assume that somehow the other fish got internal infections as well, or maybe it was the onslaught of medications that did it? Thankfully I can't look back and say I should have done anything differently. As I did everything I could with the advice I had at the time. Possibly the only thing I could have done was remove the first fish that got sick, but I didn't know how serious it was going to get, and at the time it was bloody hot and it probably would have cooked in a smaller tank. Am now in the process of doing a million waterchanges on the main tank to clear out the salt and mal/form completely. Good time to clear out the accumulated murk prior to moving (two weeks from today). A little bit worried about putting the fish back in the tank, a little like how Dave+Amy's niece's tank killed half her fish after a major waterchange stirring up murk... HaNs, I am glad I didn't read your message when I was feeling more upset about it... Yes it would be interesting to know about the livers, no I do not feel particularly up to cutting into my pets out of curiosity. However I do have two bodies in the freezer and I might see if one of the scientists I know feels like doing an autopsy. I don't even know what a fish liver looks like, let alone a fatty one.

Hi Silvia, I can relate, just had my own big fish death catastrophe. It sucks Sorry for your loss.

Right, another kokopu down, one to go. I wish I could use all the colourful expletives here that I really really want to use right now.

weird.... I thought I replied to this.... in detail......can't be bothered re-typing. males have backwards-pointing protrusions off the bit of leg that joins the body on the last legs, when you look at them from underneath. That is about as much sense as you are going to get out of me right now, sorry. Pick up a lot of crays and you get the idea.

Wow, scary stuff! Glad you are ok and that you had such good support from all! Good reminder to be extra careful

Three dead fish. Two live fish. Two of the dead fish were the ones I thought were not really affected! Could have been meds of course. Too much for them. Too much for me. Who knows what will happen with other two. Might survive. Thanks everyone for your help and support. Sometimes these things happen. Alan is right, when it doesn't work at least we learn. Still completely sucks at the time.... and every time I think of it in the future.

What is everyone doing on Christmas Day or is it just another stat holiday for you? Stat holiday, only this year I am unemployed so it doesn't even count for that. Don't even know what day it is. Who will you be with? Me Where? Home, Palmy. Though am in the middle of packing to move, so home is chaos. Does your family have any special Christmas traditions? Nope, though I seem to have developed a tradition of getting my sewing machine out on xmas day and working through my pile of alterations. What did you ask Santa for? Santa who? I am most entertained/pleased to note that three people, counting myself and the original writer, fixed the 'your' in the fourth question

Well the most affected fish died in the night. That leaves three. Feeling kinda bland about it. I think I have invested so much stress that I have no more stress to give. Thoroughly tired of it all. I now have two fish with medium-sized rotted areas in one tank and one fish with a small area or two in another tank. (And a dead 18cm fat fish in another tank. What the hell am I going to do with the body?! Not worth specimen-jarring) The two fish seem quite perky. If the Furan clears up their infections they should be fine. The solo fish looks a bit dodgy. Its mucus coat is really thick in a few places and slight clouding over an eye (presumably mucus?). It generally isn't looking terribly happy. Will continue with the treatment and hope whatever happens, it gets on and happens quickly.

Hi Kerry, Thanks for your input. Makes sense about it being internal. Only the fish I have put the photos of has the internal infection. The others have it more as a fin-rot type thing, where it starts on the edge and nibbles away at the fin. Tonight the remaing four (including the first one) are still alive and behaving much like they were when I first put them in the Furan. I really can't afford a vet right now, still unemployed.... May be possible to do some begging with some people I know at Massey, could be handy that this is a threatened species... will see. Not good now that it is the weekend. Do you know what antibiotic I need? Would help sounding like i know what I am talking about. Probably a really really really long stretch though. Fish aren't really feeding. Haven't injected a fish before. Or anything else for that matter. But been a dental assistant so not squeamish about needles. So if the infection is affecting the fin edges on the other fish, do you think the Furan will work, as it is working externally? I am guessing the internal infection got in through a nip or something, then the extra bioload started the other infections...? Thanks again.

Great now the banded, who had NO INFECTION on it, has STRESSED itself to DEATH. THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Imsmith, the photos are all of the same fish. Who is currently sitting quietly under a rock NOT stressing itself to death. ARGH!!!! The other fish have smaller, much less aggressive-looking areas on other fins. But those area are growing nonetheless. I have had these fish for two years and this is the first real disease they have had.

gawd, now the least-affected fish is getting buoyancy issues and looking like he won't survive the night! looking for nearest rock to crawl under.... not coming out until at least February

Right, one hours later and I am SOAKED!! Seeing just how much Furan it would take to treat my big tank (and just how unemployed I am) and how like most meds it is more effective with less misc other life for it to work on, I have put the fish into hospital tanks. Conveniently I have three two-foot tanks cluttering up the place... One tank has the worst affected fish, the next has two medium-affected fish, and the last has the two least affected fish. I put in a couple of rocks for them to hide behind but that is all. They are now looking rather startled and sitting on the bottom of the tanks. Gawd I hope this works! Apparently tomorrow I put another capsule in each tank (each tank has exactly the right amount of water for one capsule) and the next day I do a 25% waterchange and add another capsule. Hopefully by that time things will start working......! Hell, now I need to grab an apple and head into town for an appointment!