sharn

the reason most LFS stock run of the mill fish is because they sell well. not every person is able to fork out 150+ for a fancy pleco or a baby arowana so normally the special ones get ordered in. also some of the larger fish dont get in much because they are so agro and cant share a tank, also if they dont get sold quickly the shop could end up with a very large fish that they dont want. if your after something in particular ask around here, alot of people have contacts or know of the whereabouts of quite a few less common species welcome aboard too by the way :lol:

generally yes, but there is many levels on how bad it could be. i have seen fish that look stunted come back out of it so im not sure i think he will be fine in the 70L until hes around half the width assuming water quality is fine, you could keep him in there longer but its always nice to give fish some extra fin space when possible

look em up in the ph book under HFF i spose? which one had em fishboi? all 3?

Luke* has it growing very well, we gave him a fistful or so and its covered half a four? footer now at the front. he has co2, a 400W metal halide and all the fancy bits that go along with planting :lol: it seemed to change its leaf size a bit since being in the tank, theyve gotten larger which was interesting to see

metal halide :lol:

Damiana- are you the lady that makes the pretty mini-ecosystems?

thanks fishboi

an interesting thing i read recently was about a person (cant remember his name for the life of me now, some famous fish dude, i can try find it if anyones real curious) did an experiment, he had a 75 gal tank and put X amount of oscars in (cant remember amount but it worked out they had 5gal of room each) he massive daily water changes (at least 100% i think)and they all grew wonderfully and his theory was it isnt always room that stunts a fish, its poor water quality, these oscars had very little room, hardly enough to turn around but all grew perfectly. just thought id mention that as i beleived (along with many others) that the tank size was the biggest contributer to stunting but more room is better just because its easier to keep bio load wise. JD's get about 25cm or so, depends on the dimensions if it would be ok long term, you might be pushing it bioload wise and might have to do twice weekly w/c's

its not hard to beat them if you dont have to put a markup on like the pet shops do

it looks just like all the other royal varients, i think i read theyre all the same species? but come from different parts of the rivers and sometimes develop different colours/features? i wonder why they class varients as new species/L numbers? itd be like classing black mollies as a diff species from white ones

probably the biggest species we can get is the plain old commons which get bout 60cm. royals (L190) and papas (L090) both get around 40cm but ive seen bigger. they take alot longer to grow. NZDM had a full grown L090c (a variant of the papa, looks like a royal with long tail filaments) for a very nice price. im half happy we cant get TSN (or all shovelnose in general), red tailed cats etc here. they get very big and if allowed out to general public that dont know much about them its more disasterous than pacu etc. if they commanded a very high price then perhaps itd be ok cause generally people only spend alot of money on higher priced fish if they know alot about them. theyre definatly beautiful fish but only a few people would have tanks big enough to house em

i am not too up on fish and scar tissue :lol: oscars often get 'callus' type things which are just from rubbing against stones, glass etc, do you know if your clown does this? if the callus was frequently irritated by more digging etc it might turn into scar tissue (if thats possible) also if he ever hurt himself it might have healed and the scar left a little bump. if it hasnt gone away i would assume that it will stay there, it might get worse or better, theres not really any way to be 100%. its easy to see scars on the actual fishes body but its probably a bit harder to tell for sure if the lump is or isnt i know its not much help lol :lol:

i have always known JD's as some of the slower growers (compared to oscars for example). i have also read a bit about them being picky to start eating once theyve been moved but once you find their fav foods you wont be able to stop em eating :lol: for now add some extra hiding holes and let him settle in, drop some food over his way too. the higher the temp the higher the metabolism which means youll need to feed more but id just let them grow naturally. keeping the water clean, and feeding good nutritious foods will help with their growth. i am unsure what the 'ideal' temp is for JD's but would assume 26-27? sexing oscars is a very difficult thing to do bar seeing them do their business. venting is possible but should only be done by pros as its very stressful. there are theories about looking at their vents, one sex will have a vent that looks like oO, the other will have OO (cant remember which though). external features arent very reliable when it comes to sexing sadly. and thats all i can help with

HA! ill second that man!

if your ph is around 7.1 and your kh isnt insanely high then your right on the money with not messing with it. discus are actually pretty tolerant as long as youve got clean, stable water

depends what the lump is i spose. if its scar tissue it probably wont grow, if is like a tumour type thing then it might

mines at about 7.2 at present. my tap water is very soft kh wise and i get swings (and risk crashes) if i dont add bird grit which increases kh (and ph a little), i have found 7.2-7.4 is the ideal range for me as thats when the kh gets to 4 degrees. a lower ph (and kh) is better for breeding though

oh, just to add about the ph down thing. the reason it isnt staying down would be your kh is probably quite high, it will work for a while but soon your ph will jump back up and that will upset your fishies. i would get a base line test of your tap water done at the LFS and see what its at (both kh and gh). kh is what keeps your tap water steady and if your gonna alter water you will wana keep tabs on it just to make sure all is well

use peat. discus love peat and it lowers your ph naturally. just put a bit in a stocking and hang it near your filter inlet/outlet, wherever it gets good water flow. i think it can be used for around a month but not too sure. it will turn your tank a slight tea colour but it is very natural and apparently its quite relaxing for discus. also it might pay to start aging your water so you can put some peat in the aging bin too so your not putting hard water into your tank each change, discus prefer aged water too as the ph often drops after the water has degassed (chlorine evaporated). i know of people who keep and breed their discus in 8+ but peat isnt too much of a mission to use, it is a bit trial and error until you get the right mix so add a little, if its not soft enough add some more until its right (best to do this before the discus are added) and then when it needs changing youll know what amount to use. you dont need exactly 6.5, 7.5 is fine, but try for lower than 8 hope this helps

i have seen them and always wanted one but they have never been able to fit into my setups they are awesome looking fish indeed, very prehistoric looking mystic- what fish did you find yours went ok with?

nope but done ALOT of reading on them as i did want them at one stage. definatly cool fish but dont seem to be that common around my way

i normally get a largish rock and just tie a slice on with a rubber band

dont worry about the colour changing, they do it all the time with their moods, its only if they stay the 'wrong' colour for a long time that youd wana worry about it

theres probably a specific med out for them but furan 2 is an alrounder so that might work (not sure). other than meds keep the water nice and clean and perhaps add a little melafix to aid in healing. a google on fin rot will probably bring up a few articles and pics to help you diagnose better

are you sure they havent just torn themselves up being silly guys? if it is fin rot you will first want to treat for that then use melafix to help heal the remaining tears. no chance of posting some pics of them and their fins?