Kim&Dan

Sorry to hear about your loss, Grizzly. Are you sure about this? If that is the case maybe we have to euthanise our Guppy too... And, for the record, we're not having fun trying to prolong its life - it actually involves a lot of work and us worrying about it every day...

Can you upload some pics? Maybe that way it can be diagnosed more easily... Also (and this is the 1st time for me saying this :lol:) if you add your location to your profile people near you might be able to help...

It depends how heavily planted the tank is I guess but, yes, you probably have to replant some... at least the fish don't get stressed though I fully agree At Pet Planet in Dunedin we're allowed to catch and bag our own, if we want to Well, I give you that - of all fishes we ever had Kuhlis loaches are probably the hardest to catch especially because they dig themselves in :lol:

Good point sharn! Had forgotten about that... So far our treatment is not being excessively effective - however, our Guppy is slightly less swollen and the visible internal bleeding (red stripes on the sides) seems to have become less. He's still bloated and the scales are still sticking out though. The odd thing is that he eats and swims around fairly normally :-? Will keep you posted Grizzly: How is your Guppy doing? Any news?

Thanks sharn! That's exactly the word I was looking for Jimmy: Wow, that's an impressive story there! Glad the fish made it! :lol: Next time I'll put on one of those green suits with the matching green hat and a mask! :lol: By the way, our Guppy is doing great! :bounce: She eats and behaves normally again! And she's still pregnant and looking really healthy again! :bounce:

Sorry to hear about your algae problem I don't really know what to tell you apart from what has already been said... :-? I agree with Caryl. We never had a UV filter and always had crystal clear water. The occasional bacterial blooms were dealt with without it. Never had an algae bloom though. You were wondering about the block-the-light part: from what I know you actually try to cover the whole tank in order to avoid ANY light getting in there for a few days. You can use cardboard or something that will cover the sides of the tank. I don't think you have to worry too much about the fishes getting depressed in the darkness IMHO - it would only be for a couple of days. They might however loose some of their colouring in the dark - this will soon come back after they are exposed to light again. The amount of water you have been changing (20%) sounds right to me. If you want to try something less drastic for a start: try reducing the lighting period from 12 hours to say 8 hours. Usually one should have the lights on for 10-12 hours, as Quack correctly pointed out. Maybe your lighting is very strong? Don't worry about the prize. IMHO a helpful piece of advice should be free on the internet

yh88: Sorry to hear about your loss... But congrats to the bubbas! Well done As the others said - it's still a bit too early to sex them I think This is a little out of left field... but I think the same is happening with our Zebra Danio male. Didn't want to create a whole new topic about it... He gradually has lost all the characteristics of Danio males and now just looks exactly like the female... :roll: :-?

Regarding the catching-the-fish part: I don't want to sound like a smart aleck but I usually don't find it very hard catching the fish... Do you guys use two nets do catch them? It makes it a lot easier to hold one net still and 'drive' the fish into it with the other one. Also, the bigger the net (reasonably bigger obviously) the better. Just a thought for next time

I am glad you found out what fish you have :bounce:

Not as far as I know.

Sorry to hear that, Mitch! I hope your other fishes are doing fine, Mitch! Good luck Caper, no worries - I am sure there's a lot of people that would consider dropsy incurable as well... I just like to believe in those few instances where it actually has been cured. I guess, it really depends on the strength of the fish, an early diagnosis, a correct treatment and obviously a lot of luck! Our Guppy is still hanging on even though the initial signs of getting better are slowly fading away now

Hey Trinity! A warm welcome to the forums from us too

It's been a couple of hours now and she seems to be doing fine again. We'll feed them in a bit and hope that she's going to be hungry again :-? As far as I know, fish can last surprisingly long out of the water - if I remember correctly under a minute is usually fine (not sure!). Some can even breath air, like gouramis but obviously being out of the water is not benefitial to any fish. As I love fishing as much as fish keeping (weird isn't it! :lol:) I know quite a lot about fish anatomy - even though I have to admit that I hate cleaning fish! If you ever buy a fish to eat - just have a look at it more closely and you'll see that the gills are just under two 'lid-type-of-things'. When out of the water the 'gill-lids' (no idea what they are called!) of a living fish are usually open as the fish is trying to pump water through them. So i inserted the needle past the gills without hopefully damaging them. Describing the gills in words is not very easy... best is to have a look at a fish you buy as food or just ask if you can have a look at one in a fish monger's shop if you don't eat fish. Just for the record, I love fish and respect every single fish I catch as much as I respect the ones I keep!

WOW that is cool! Imagine you drop something in there and have to get it out! :lol: Well, I suppose it could be worse if it was a coldwater setup - at least you don't have to worry about the water being cold when you put your bathing shorts on :lol: :lol: :lol:

Have a look here: http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melanotaenia.htm There is a whole list of Rainbows and a pic for most of them too - maybe you can find yours! Good luck

A warm welcome from us too And happy belated b-day :bounce:

Welcome back and nice to meet you What colour are the eyes of your fish? Are the fins long or short? What is the shape of the body - is it long and thin or wide? Without a picture this is really hard to do :lol: This is a great new game for the FUN section of the forum :lol: Dan

Hi Mitch! A warm welcome to the forum from us too! Sorry to hear about your losses! I am not sure why everybody says that there is no cure for dropsy - I've read in several places that it is VERY hard to cure but not impossible?! Maybe I am wrong hoping there is a cure :-? Anyway, have a look at this topic: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/dropsy-vt11395.html Maybe you find something I wrote there about treating dropsy useful Dan

A warm welcome from us too Would love to help but don't know anything about saltwater tanks... :-? I am sure you'll get some advice here though

Any news about your Pleco? Hope she's fine... :-?

Well, what can I say... Our fishes are really full of surpises! Every day they think of something new :lol: Just walked up to our Guppy tank and noticed one of my favourite females (who is also pregnant at the moment) with something too large in her mouth! I thought that it was the usual case of excessive appetite but we quickly realised that it was a little stone in her mouth!!! Here's what it looked like (best shot I could quickly take): We promptly decided that something had to be done and prepared the tools for a little surgery intervention: Needle, wet papertowel on top of towel, net. I wetted the papertowel, the net and my hands with water from the tank. Copped her out of it and REALLY gently hold her down with my thumb on her tail. I tried to get behind the stone from the side of her mouth but instead of getting it out I would have pushed it deeper in! I have really calm and still hands, so I decided to VERY VERY carefully insert the needle from her gills in order to push the stone out from behind. This did the trick and was done without harming the fish - we hope! :-? This is a shot of the operation: This obviously all happened very quickly - less than 40 seconds out of the water! Here's the corpus delicti: Indeed a small stone she probably would have died for! We will keep an eye on her but she's been fine so far (this all happened in the last 30 minutes :lol:)! She obviously looks a bit stressed now but I am hoping she'll be fine :-? Just wanted to share... no idea if we did the right thing! Dan

We are currently treating a guppy with dropsy too. It's not true that it never has been cured - it's just rarely been cured! :roll: Even though there is different causes for dropsy and it is not always contagious, it is definitely advisable to separate the affected fish from the others. This is a good idea anyway so that you can treat him properly. This is the treatment we're using at the moment: 1. We put him in a quarantine tank (which is just a big glass container with an airstone in it). This sits on the lid so that it gets the heat of the lights (make sure you measure the temperature so that it's not too high...). 2. Get a bag of Epsom Salt from your local chemist - make sure it is not Tonic Salt. For dropsy (internal swelling, constipation, etc) you need Epsom Salt, which is pure magnesium sulfate and not sodium chloride (aka Tonic Salt). A bag cost us $5.50. The recommended dose for salt baths is 1 tsp per gallon (~4litre). We used a fraction of this because we didn't just want to dip him in the salt bath but keep him in there. So, I'd guesstimate our dose to have been a pinch for 2 litres. The Epsom Salt will help the fish deflate, ie get rid of the excess liquids caused by the kidney malfunction. With the bag of salt you purchase you will have way too much salt for treating your fishes... so fill your bath tub and bath yourself in it - it's supposed to be good for your skin etc :lol: 3.a This step is crucial if you intend to eliminate the dropsy rather than just slow it down. You have to use an antibiotic to try killing the nasties causing the internal swelling. We're using very small amounts of Furan II dissolved in the water. We're talking about a few mg per litre - so just open the pills and pour a tiny amount of the powder in the water. (Read the instructions!) It would be ideal to use other antibiotics but Furan II was the only one available in the LFS - you can ask for a few pills (if your LFS has them in bulk) and a photocopy of the instructions, rather to buy the whole pack, to save some money. Make sure you get one that treats both gram positive and gram negative bacteria (it should read that on the packaging) - ideally a so-called Broad Spectrum Antibiotic. Good ones would be (in order of preference): Spectogram, Kanacym, Tetracycline, Maracym-Two. 3.b If you're really worried about this spreading on to other fishes you can try getting some TriSulfa or Bettamax and add the recommended dose to the main tank. I would wait for now though. These two products are pretty good for preventing and controlling diseases, especially the TriSulfa but I prefer to NOT add chemicals to my tanks if there's no apparent reason to do so. 4. Do daily small water changes to the quarantine tank and make sure you keep the salt/medicine levels up (don't overdose though!). Treat the fish with antibiotics for 5 days and if you're lucky (I guess with dropsy one should say REALLY lucky!) the fish might make it. Don't forget to feed him obviously... Should he get better, keep him in the quarantine tank for a while until you're 100% sure he is healthy again. Quarantine would indicate 40 days... Maybe someone else can suggest a reasonable time frame for this. An alternative to helping the fish to get rid of the excess liquids is to use a syringe and suck it out. In another thread someone mentions this. I guess doing this on a small fish (like a guppy) is not advisable though. Lastly, bear in mind that we're talking about a guppy and some might say that going through all this hustle for 1 guppy is exaggerated. IMHO a fish is a fish like any other and if I have the time/money to help him in a situation like this - I do it! Hope this helps, Dan

Great looking fish! Congrats

Well, I am glad that after my post the other more knowledgeable folks of the forum managed to see your initial post and help you out! :lol: I'll leave it to them to direct you any further I hope you'll succeed in curing your fishies - Good luck! :bounce: Alan: Regarding the salt dosage - Firstly, I just went by what it says on the tonic salt package we have and was just trying to provide some sort of helpful advice to MCT as everybody else seemed to have overlooked this posting. Secondly, I believe Killies are reknown for demanding saltier water, however, I am not aware of this applying to Glowlight Tetras or Tetras in general. Apart from this, as has already been said, the dosage used by MCT is even higher than the one you use for your Killies, thus most definitely being excessive if not used in a quarantine tank for specific purposes IMHO. I think, even an unexperienced hobbyist like myself can see this. I will however try having our tonic salt bag sitting next to the tank (touching it) and see if the effect is the same as adding the suggested dose

A warm welcome to the forum from us too