sharn

i love em, have five (two leucies, a wildtype, golden albino and albino) a 17 year old axolotl is really something to be proud of so well done! they generally only live 10-15 years so i would probably put the bloating down to age. i hope the remaining oldies hang in there for quite some time

i beleive that some lesser quality carbons can leach back into the water but the higher quality ones can be recharged. warren made a post on it somewhere else i never use carbon in my tanks unless im removing particularly nasty meds. there have been theories flying around for quite some time about carbon and its role it plays in some illnesses (like HITH), i am unsure if its true or not though. when it comes down to it it really isnt necessary to maintain a healthy tank so its a personal choice

looks like some of the pieces takashi uses in his big tanks :lol:

ill have to disagree with ya on that one Lukey :lol: once your ammonia and nitrite read 0 and you have a reading of nitrates do a w/c around 30-50%, you can slowly start adding your fish then if you like but do make sure its slowly. a tank might be cycled but the bacteria still has to work itself up to handle the bio load, if you dump a whole heap of fish in you may experience a spike or 'mini cycle' while it catches up. also if your nitrates arent under 40ppm after the water change its probably best to do another in a few days and see what the reading is then. doing such a large water change after the cycle has just finished may disrupt the very end cycle and could (it might not but it could and thatd slow ya down) cause a mini one. you wana wait till the colonies are well established before you go doing large ones IMO

alot of species arent allowed even though they could never survive in our waters, there has to be other reasons id imagine. i have always wondered why we can get jags but none of the other parachromis species (one of my fav species), they are all basically the same bar size...

aging your water allows the chlorine to dissapate which in turn normally lowers your ph a bit. after aging my ph sits at 6.8, out of the tap its 7. dechlorinators dont evaporate the chlorine instantly so you would still get the drop (which isnt major but sometimes it will drop significantly)

perhaps one of your 'sucking' fish (like bristlenoses, siamese/chinese algae eaters etc) are attacking the gouramis?

id keep feeding the same, who cares if it gets a little gunky, you still need the same amount of food for the bacteria to feed on. just do a nice water change before fish are added and it should be fine

i would assume that for shorter journies (like over night) that they would be ok as long as the box was sealed well? but for long journies they probably wouldnt work that well like you said caryl, im just using them for my general 4-6 hour journies countdown might also have them as they are linked to progressive (woolworths, countdown and foodtown).

the neons we get are mass bred from asia i beleive, they're often inbred and not the healthiest and that makes them touchy to keep sometimes. a bunch of neons i had were totally ok but ive seen bunches just rife with ickies. some gold rams i bought a while ago all died of unknown causes, they breathed heavily and died with 2 days, it wasnt flukes and i exhausted most leads into what could be the cause. i put it down to poor stock coming in from overseas and wont buy them again unless theyre from private breeders.

they were 3.99 each and could be anywhere in the shop as they are a rep thing (part of korbond) and they use the hooks that are on the sides of the shelving (if that makes sence). at our store they were down in the part with the handtowels, pantyhose etc. pawz- do you know if they normally stock them at all $2 shops? i havent seen any in ours (but i do live in a hick town :lol: ) but havent been in in a while, might have to pop in and see!

hey guys, saw these at my work today (woolies) and thought it would be neat for when i transport fish. thought some of you might be interested (i havent seen these before but they might be quite common, not sure). they are a gel filled plastic thing (reminds me of the teethers for babies) and they have a metal disc inside. you bend it a few times which causes the liquid to crystalise and then relases the heat. to reuse you wait until its cold (around an hour) then wrap in a face cloth etc and put in a pot of boiling water until its clear and liquified again. i tried just pouring boiling water over but that didnt work. once its turned into liquid you pick it up and leave it to cool. snap the disc thing to start it all over again. it produced quite a bit of heat, about the same as your average heat pack but it doesnt last as long. not sure how long they would heat a poly box for heres a pic if anyones interested in some but cant find any let me know cause i can have them ordered in if we run out. i know the one time use heat packs are alot cheaper but for people like me that dont transport alot of fish it might be a handy thing to have

a 2 foot wide would be neat for one of them id think, on PC they are reported to average 40cm in the home aquarium but that takes many years so youve got a while to suck up and earn brownie points :lol:

what media is in the filter? generally you want the thick sponge first to catch the big crud, then floss afterwards to catch small stuff and whatever else normally goes after that (in my filters anyway). if the filter turns over a good amount then it should clear quickly, if not perhaps rearrange the order of the media to see if it makes a difference.

each tank is different, some tanks need twice weekly 30-50% w/c's because the nitrates get so high whereas some could go 3 weeks without one and still be fine. perhaps do an extra small one (like 25%) each week and see if that makes a difference?

you make total sense caper! i have no idea if it is contagious or not, but have always read it can be if, like you say, the fish is left into the tank and fluid leaks/the other fish pick at the body. i would however isolate it, not only for the fact your removing any possiblity of the other fish picking at it/fluid leaking if it dies, but also the stress of other fish around it. alot of fish will pick on the weak ones when they are ailing. also if you are to try medicate its best to just medicate one fish instead of the whole tank, meds can be quite stressful. i am unsure if the tank needs anything done to it or not though sorry

furan 2 is totally ok for plecos, you can double dose it if you wish, its totally safe (i double dosed on a sick pleco a while back after Tracey advised me cat experts say its fine). good luck!

and they look even better in person!! oh discusguru (silly name rules lol), guess whos got a pair starting their rituals (well i think anyway)? the pearl and butterfly have been guarding the back of the driftwood, cleaning it like nothing, wont stray from each others sides and have been shivering at each other, also their ovistawhatchaymacallits (their 'bits') are out, the simply discus description is right, it does look like a nipple :lol: quite funny to see them all buddy buddy after showing off to each other and trying to be top dog for the last week or so. well see what happens with this i suppose, i wont be removing them from the tank if anything dose happen as i dont have the time or space to raise babies, and you know how i feel bout cross breeding :lol:

im not sure if alot of the fancier plecs would go well in the higher phs?

gee discusguru, us that have visited you would NEVER guess you love spotted fish :lol and i agree, within a week or so they will look even better than they do now

neat HandS!! the lip locking is always neat to watch aye

sometimes poor water can attribute to cloudy eye, is your water ok? sometimes as axies get older they can become blind, normally happens from 8-9 years onwards (as they can live from 10-15 years). as long as its acting and eating fine, and the eye isnt fluffy it should be ok, try a few extra water changes and see if that makes a difference. if you can get a pic that would be helpful too

awesome :bounce: and now the insane water changes begin huh? :lol:

as far as i know melafix doesnt fix whitespot, just helps the regeneratioin of scales, fins etc. if you are wanting to use natural methods you can do the 'salt and heat' method which is a bit slower than meds. otherwise grab some white spot cure or something like that and use the dose reccomended, only do a half dose if you have plecos/other scaleless fish in the tank. up the temp in both cases to around 28 as that will speed the life cycle up.

and whilst your getting onto that do a water change, 30-50% is good, anything will help just incase toxins (like sprays) have gotten into the water etc. if you have aged water thats even better to do the changes with all in the same day is quite strange, angels are quite hardy fish and i would expect them to perish after the clowns or plecos if something was amiss with the water. they fish werent displaying any sign of discomfort? was the behaviour all fine prior to this? if we could get the following details it would be neat- ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates plus the details suphew mentioned and sorry for your loss, its always nasty to lose one fish let alone a bunch, i hope we can help you work out what happened