sharn

id definatly go for two if you can. i recently changed most of my tanks to two heaters and not long after one failed, i was pretty thankful i had the other one to back it up :lol:

were its scales sticking out like a pinecone? what type of foods do you feed? it may be possible he got blocked up and just kept on eating? as IOU said neons of die off very quickly with the high heats, its pretty uncommon to hear of them living together for a long time. cardinals come from much hotter places than the neons do which is why they adapt better, they also grow larger than neons (an adult discus can eat a neon easily). i have rummies (not with my discus) and they are great fish and they can definatly handle the higher temps- quite a few tetra species can so do some research and you may find some others that take ya fancy

be careful with the salts, ive read discus can be picky sometimes about salt. when its swimming on its side what is it doing? flapping around? just lying there? shooting around like a bullet spiraling and stuff etc. how do its gills look? are the eyes nice and clear or dull and off colour? how were you doing your w/c's? is it possible you hurt the bacteria colonies?

i would think they would be showing oxygen deprivation if it was low o2 levels, gasping at the surface and such. i wonder if perhaps youve had a small spike and hes been effected badly by it. turning down the UG filter may have caused a bit of the bacteria to die off (im not sure, just a guess) and therefore there was a little spike? good to hear hes coming right though

get rid of that pacu too, unless you want to upgrade to a tank twice the size of course, they get to 60cm beasts and are extremely messy. its easier to rehome them when theyre young, moving large fish is hard and most people dont have suitable tanks- of course you dont wanna offload it onto someone that doesnt have a suitable tank (800L+, 1400L+ is ideal though) so you may have some problems. ammonia is probably contributing to alot of the fishs sulking but oscars are such woosies when it comes to upsetting their precious routine or surroundings so even if you get the water right they may sulk for a week or so yet :lol:

i wouldnt release them, its exactly the same as releasing fish that arent native to NZ into our waterways (gambusia are a good example)- down the line MAF may have a tanty and do something silly to them aswell :roll:

becc- thats just the way GT's are, most are pretty fiesty and will go for fish that are smaller than them

inbreeding and other genetic faults have sadly caused alot of defects like that in certain breeds of fish, it seems to be mainly livebearers who suffer from it and the guppies seem to be the worst. most breeders that get these fish will cull them though. it may be possible the spine bending is causing some internal problems? she doesnt have any sores on her body or loss of colour in patches does she?

have you tested the ph of your tap water or are you using rain water? it may be possible you have very low kh (carbonate hardness) which is what keeps your ph stable, when it is low your ph can crash/swing very quickly. perhaps getting a base reading of the tap water done at the LFS for Kh wouldnt go astray, you dont need to buy a kit if there isnt a problem with it i would up the w/c's to weekly for a while and see if that helps until you can find the cause, it wouldnt hurt to do a couple a week until that ammonia is back under control.

at nightime turn off the tank and room lights so the room they are in is completly dark. after an hour or so go back in, turn the room lights on and everyone should be fast asleep and easy to catch

as joze said, definatly do it at the beginning of the day and make sure everything is planned well, having hiccups or people getting in the way is a pain in the bum your fish will not mind being in bags for a few hours as long as they are packed well (1/3 water, 2/3 air). keep them in the polybox until you are ready to put them in the tank as the dark will help keep them calmer. fish get shipped around the country all the time, some make 12+ hour trips and they are fine, i wouldnt worry about it for a few hours

perhaps its bacterial if you dont think anyones been picking on him. is it possible he hurt himself by banging into something?

i would suspect the skinny one is getting picked on, you may find he perks up when he has more friends but he may stay at the bottom of the ranks (because he probably doesnt feel like taking anyone on as he isnt feeling well). in the mean time keep up with the clean water and good foods good to hear your getting some more too, they are really interesting fish to watch when it comes to working out the pecking orders and who ranks where in the tank, they are also more confident in larger groups.

i have had a problem with camallanus before and the method Antwan mentioned above was the method i used after reading hundreds of ways to dose. the part that varied most was the length of time for dosage, from 24 hours to 3 days. i shot for the middle (48 hours) and it worked fine. by the end a few fish were starting to look a bit grumpy though so do keep an eye on them. i think the reason for the large w/c is not only to remove the worms from the substrate but the ones free swimming, because they are live bearers you will have babies floating around the tank, some sink, others dont. if you would like i can get you some levamisole, its the most common- and apparently the most effective- med to use for treatment. i can get a 24% solution and the dosage is 1ml per 22L (i used per 20L, its a very gentle med and a bit extra wont hurt) based on the 1ml per 7.5L of 7.5% solution (i think, it was a while back i had to work it out) whic was the most common % around. piperazine has been used effectively but it doesnt seem to work as well as levamisole from what ive read. i have use fenbendazole myself and had mixed results. i found it pretty easy to get rid of. i did two treatments but i wouldnt hesitate to do more if it was needed. levamisole is generally fine for all cats and other sensitive fish (each individual reacts different though). i luckily had no internal infections from the wounds, i have read metrondiazole (sp) is often used afterwards to ward off infection. i would also advise using epsom salts if you use levamisole, if the fish are unable to pass the worms they will sit in the gut and rot which is probably most unpleasent for the fish the fish that have had it the longest will have the heaviest load so keep an eye on them.

keep in mind you need to account for air space at the top, gravel, decor etc. if the tank isnt in balance (plants using up nutrients properly) then you may find that you still need to do w/c's very often (2-3+ a week), planted tanks are harder to keep clean and if somethings out of balance water changes will be needed to remove the stuff that would normally be used up by plants

if its got gravel its probably best not to move it with it still in as the bottom might crack i have moved small tanks with gravel still in (under 2 foot). its probably safer to pull the plants up when you remove the gravel, you can always chop the roots so that they are easier to plant later on and if you remove them carefully the plants wont get damaged. you can store them in those little zip lock bags or something similar for transport so they dont dry out. if not perhaps just leave gravel around where the plants are and remove the rest (depending on size of the tank)?

it is irresponsible IMO. just cause they can breed doesnt mean they should.

commons are notorious for being territorial sadly. im not sure if they stick to their own species to pick on but i wouldnt assume so going by some of the other plecs ive read about. when i had two in my tank the bigger one would harass the smaller one every time he saw it, he even went looking for it sometimes even though i had plenty of hiding spots. the smaller one became very shy and it wasnt until the bigger one died that he became more active.

dont worry too much, im sure they will do it again

where abouts is it skinny? all over including the head (look front on at it) or around the stomach area? how is he looking and acting? dark, hiding, skittish etc. how many friends does he have in with him and how many did he have in the tank before you got him? its possible he was bullied into not eating? normally skinniness is due to either not eating or some internal parasite. is the tank he is in able to be cleaned easily and often? if so perhaps get some high protein foods like beefheart recipies etc into him and see if that helps? because the foods may be messy and fed often the tank will need very frequent w/c's (daily). i would also up the feeding to around 6x per day, not large meals, just frequent smaller ones. the cleaner water will also make your discus feel better. sorry i cant be of more help

perhaps leave them in a community tank the first few times to get their parenting skills up (i remember when mine laid they were really lax and didnt pay the eggs much attention) and then move them, that way they will be experienced at caring for them so you should have less casulties

perhaps something like furan 2 caryl? it would treat any possible bacteria (which might be making it red) and would get the fungus too.

my tanks with normal substrate (gravel) get a vac every single week (i do it with the water change)- it doesnt hurt to be vaccing it but dont be super worried about getting every single piece of gunk out, a little bit of poop or detrius isnt bad :lol: my planted tanks sand never gets the vac shoved down into it, only hovering above and most people that are doing yearly vacs will have planted tanks as they use the poop, food etc as fertilisers.

alan- mine was in with five other adult angels back when i kept them and he was still a bully didnt bother me too much though, im too lazy to raise fry :lol:

i am an oscar fan myself. oscars will need a larger tank than africans (due to their adult size and waste output) however not many fish match up to the oscar personality wise, they are very much like a cat or dog and will become part of the family very quickly. for an oscar you want a minimum of 250L. oscars are very tolerant of water params. africans are alot prettier colour wise, they can be more heavily stocked, need less room and can be mixed with more species.