sharn

i think all fish can get egg/fry bound?

offer him some more varities, things like mealworms, earthworms, different brands of pellets, frozen mixtures you can get from the LFS,locusts, praying mantis (from chemical free sources) etc. its not uncommon for them to just decide they no longer want to eat their favourite foods and can be very stubborn. at 3 weeks hell be starting to get hungry by now and if he doesnt start within the next week or so i would start to worry slightly, they can go longer but if its not just him being picky it could be something more serious. i would do a nice big 40% water change to see if that perks him up a bit also. did you recently add/remove fish, change decor etc? that is often known to set a oscar sulk on

dont worry about the stress, oscars are very hardy fish. just go as quick as possible, dont hit big pot holes and once they get to their destination move them into something larger. purchase two of those 100L plastic storage bins, transfer old water into new container, top up, chuck a heater and air stone/small filter in each and use that for over night or until the tank gets set up. you could probably put one of the cats in each too. change some of the water daily as 100L wont take long to foul up. dont feed em while theyre in there either to minimise waste output. in my 70L poly bin i had two oscars that were 30cm each and it was half full, perhaps 25-30cm of water, it was very heavy though and they had been in that box for approx 6-7 hours before i got them. bags probably wont be able to supply enough water or oxygen unless theyre rubbish bags or something :lol: you want enough water in the boxs that the O's can sit up the right way (they turn on their sides during transit for some reason) and so they can move around a bit. if you can get a battery operated airpump for the trip thats wicked, i think that 8 hours should be fine assuming the boxs are large with a good amount of oxygen. if you are concerned put your sweater or something over the lid so as not to let any light in when you open the lid to let some fresh air in. good luck

wicked! good lesson for all isnt it? dont keep axies on things smaller than marbles :lol: alan- your scalpel idea is a good one but i dont know how theyd feel about having their chins slit open, they definatly feel pain.

the cloudy eye is often from bad water conditions im told (bacterial) and with only 25% a week with these fish its likely it is bad water. i would tell him to up them to around 40% at least a week (could do 20% twice weekly etc) and im sure youve already notified him those pacu arent going to be able to stay in that tank :lol: if he improves the water quality then he should see that cloudy eye dissppear in no time, if not im not sure what to treat it with, perhaps something like Furan2?. apparently melafix should be avoided with pacu, im not sure if they have sensitive skin or what but i remember reading someones pacu got 'dry' cracked skin when they used that :-? if his filter isnt doing at least 5x per hour on the tank i would also suggest he gets another also. pacu are apprently not very efficient when it comes to digesting their foods and create alot of waste like oscars so need good bacteria colonies to be able to break down all that waste with regular manual removals of it its hard to tell without seeing the oscars if its HITH. bad water conditions are one of the main contributers of it, plus oscars are prone to it. what is the oscars diets like? pacu can be nippy fish so he may have gotten bitten, HITH doesnt show up over night but slowly gets worse and worse. heres a link to a HITH article with some pics http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 911.0.html

if she thinks its not going to get it out by itself im afraid shes going to have to do some 'emergency 'surgery'' :lol: in theory it should be able to get it out if its gone in but i know that there are exceptions to that one. get her to find some powder free disposable gloves as this will cause less damage to the axie than her hands will. she will need to get someone to hold the axie in a shallow bowl of tank water, one hand around the back feet/tail and one under the belly- this is normally a grip i use if i have to pick up my axies but if another method is easier thats cool as long as it isnt going to crush the legs/damage the body and wont hurt the gills. axies can wiggle like nothing ive seen so it might be a bit of a struggle, im not sure how one would go about holding an axie head. if she cant get her fingers in its mouth to remove it i would suggest perhaps plastic blunt chopping sticks with some sort of grip thing (unsure to what you could make this out of, perhaps tie bits of plastic glove around it to give it a more grip on the marble?) and try and remove it. if she manages to get it out put it back in the tank and leave it be for a while, adding a bit of stresscoat etc might be a good idea also as the axies slime coat will be damaged a bit. i will go post this on an axie site to see if they have any suggestions, if she cant get it out pm me and ill see if i can come over and help her out

i have garlic in all my home made foods

age? i know some fish fade as they start to get old...

perhaps roll those peas in a little bit of fresh garlic? garlic is an 'appetiser' and apparently it often tempts fish to eat whatever food its on. might be a long shot but i spose it cant hurt?

caryl- you might be onto somethign there with the substrate. sometimes those iron based ones can cause probs i think. is her substrate ok? if its anerobic (black) and letting off that nasty gas when she disturbs it (which i cant remember the name of) that might be why theyre dying off.

for when i use epsom salts for constipation i use 1tbsp per 20L for tanks without scaleless fish (plecos, khulis, clowns etc), and 1tbsp per 40L for tanks with them. even the lower dosage seems to get most blockages thru bar severe ones. is it not possible she is egg bound? i have never done a short term bath for constipation, always in the tank but you would want to keep temp the same along with ph bla bla bla. if you saw something going wrong you would just want to remove her back to salt free waters. i would probably up the dosage to the ones above for starters if she looks like shell hold on for a while longer and you should see an improvement within 24 hours, if not youll wana look at trying other methods like the bath. removing her into a bucket etc is quite stessful and you probably want to try keep her as stressfree as possible while you try the less extreme methods first good luck and let us know how she gets on!

move all aro out once he gets to around 45-50cm and the pacu around 45 as they require more room and 'turnaround' space cause theyre quick. the oscar would work in that tank indefinatly if you wanted to. your pacu will need to move out the soonest as it wont take long before he is 45cm or so, and your aro is only a baby so you probably have a fair while till he needs a bigger home (not sure how quick they grow)

the thing even cheaper and better for oscars is the beefheart recipe i use it on my O, you are able to mix enough stuff in there for it to be able to be used as a staple diet. my last recipie was a little less than half heart with shrimp making up the rest of the main bulk with a good handful of shelled peas (oscars are prone to constipation), some boiled spinach and a fair amount of fresh crushed garlic. garlic is an appetiser for fish but also helps clean their insides and keeps parasites out im told. agar agar is a good binder as this recipie can take a few goes to get perfect- oscars are very messy eaters, half the time it seems they only eat half of what goes into their mouths and the rest comes out their gills :lol: a good quality pellet is also reccomended, i use the JBL sticks and even though they look like a 11" O wouldnt look twice at them he loves them. they also LOVE bugs like praying mantis, locusts, worms etc so if you have any of them from a chemical free source those are often a great treat. http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 062.0.html dont worry about feed your O's for around 3-4 days once theyre in the new tank, they make ALOT of waste and you want to give the tank time to catch up bioload wise. dont be fooled by their 'im hungry' dances either- oscars think theyre starving 24/7 :lol: adult O's only need feeding every 2-3 days too and can last over a month without a meal so a few days wont hurt em (though they will think its the end of the world :lol: ) be prepared for a bit of fighting as they are in a new tank and might fight for dominance again, as long as its only a few bumps and no missing eyes, torn lips etc dont worry about it- im not saying it will happen but it might also they might sulk for a few days to a few weeks, this generally consists of sitting on/near the bottom looking pouty and not being all the interested in food. dont worry about this, they are very good sulkers and will often do it any time their tank/lives are altered :lol: i hope you enjoy your new fishies when you get them, oscars have to be one of my favourite fish and really are like cats or dogs in a tank with their personalities :bounce:

i have always been told its a protein film, salties need skimmers cause they must get really bad ones on their tanks but normally freshies are ok.

its really up to you in the end. a pair that arent bonded and mating will run into probs, the dominant fish is probably going to be pushy and not want the other one to eat. also if theyre not closeish to adult you cant expect them to grow massive, they should still grow (though many slow down to not even noticeable growths in unbalanced tanks). it comes down to whether you want average discus or big stunners and whether two discus can co-exist happily with each other in a tank with other community fish.

nope, we are definatly done and thru hazel said at our last meeting that everything was good and im sure we woulda been kicked up the bum by now if we hadnt :lol:

if your in a club thats affiliated youll get one automatically, otherwise you can purchase the AW seperatly (year book only goes out to people in affiliated clubs). fine with me caryl

heres a plan made by a friend on mine for his 180gal. if your handy you could make one based on something like this- youd have no doubts it was strong enough :lol: http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 455.0.html

a few people in wellington should be able to help you out if you cant find any. perhaps go to your local woolies/supermarket and ask for their meat ones, they are just the right size for an oscar with some room to spare :lol:

i get this from time to time if i move my outlet far below the surface. i find increasing surface agitation normally knocks it right back, if not the paper towel method works fine

the sevs will, they normally max out around 25cm but ive seen ones oscar sized they have pretty big mouths when they want to :lol: unsure about the acara, theyre not massive fish but a neon is quite small and not hard to snap in half if it wanted to... i would move them out if you want to definatly keep them out of a fishies mouth but if you dont mind risking it just leave em in there

petey- its not that common in shops (im told auckland prices for this plant is out of this world!!) but it is pretty common amoung hobbiests. i am unsure if it would handle a pond but it would be fine in your 600mm deep tank if you had sufficient lighting. those leaves dont always get like that, they are normally submerged and spotty, i believe they send those leaves to the tops when they want to send out runners or something like that :lol: it just depends whether you let them stay like that or chop em

i see both sides of the stories but i choose to play safe and wont house them together- besides i only like one species of 'flat' fish in each tank angels can easily carry intestinal worms/other nasties that dont bother them at all and show no apparent signs of harbouring them. if you passed the same amount of parasites onto the discus it would handle it much worse and can even kill them however- all fish have the possibility of harbouring such things and hiding them well so its really up to you what you choose to side with. IMO if you quarentine and your angels and give them a good worming for round worm, flat worm and internal nematodes then it should be ok, after all a new discus that isnt quarentined can carry the same things as an angel.

dont bother about bags for fish if over 20cm. just get some large poly boxs and put one oscar per box (cuts down on waste during transport). you could probably put the USD catfish in a bag if hes small enough, or a poly box will do for him also (i wouldnt reccomend putting him in with either oscar as the O's can get pretty snotty and jump around with transport and might hurt the USD catfish). if the raphael is able to be put into a bag thats ok, but make sure its a thick bag as their spines often pierce them, im not sure if he would be able to go in the same box as the USD cat? i prefer to transport large fish in poly boxs, no bags as it is very hard and stressful to fit 25cm+ fish into bags unless theyre very large (dont normally find bags that size) and its even worse to try and get them out :lol: just make sure the inside of the poly box gets a good rinse first. you wont need to open them as there will be enough air in the box to last a fair while.

congrats you two! a 300L for one oscar (and even a pair of FM's if you would like to put a pair in there ) is a great size, once hes hit 10" youll see why they need all that room :lol: invest in heater guards for your heaters in his tank also (only a few bucks each), while most oscars are ok you get the few nutters (like mine) who go nuts at nightime or just be their usual clumsy selves and can crack them with not so nice things following that