sharn

that doesnt stop you from getting him, theyre real pretty fish (i saw shanes and WOW!!)

i would definatly raise it higher. if that glass heats up and a fish splashes the glass with just crack like that. ant has his over 20cm from his tank (i think). they really do pump out some heat (good to put your hands under in winter lol). there is probably a special height above your tank, but with lids its going to need to be higher than without lids i would imagine? i beleive 6500K is what is normally suggested. K to me is just the colour, the 14K tubes are sort of whiteish blue, while the lower K are more pinky but i know the kelvin isnt the colour (im not technical on that stuff). i have no idea on your other questions :lol:

ira- your just so hilarious :roll: :lol: ignore him timtam- hes our resident comedian

my guess is the 'skin' is his slime coat. they can shed them for a number of reasons, water quality, chemicals in the tank, parasites etc etc. what colour is your angelfish (re the pin prick dots). i have no idea what could be causing it to be honest, furan 2 is a good all round med which might be worth a shot? its a pretty mild med to use also. good luck with your angel, keep us posted

my guess is the yellows, from what ive heard they can be nasty buggers. the white fluff you are seeing is fungus, theres a few meds out there that are good for getting rid of that. are they in a hospital tank with just them or in another tank with other fish? if they are in with other fish i would suggest moving them to their own tank to be treated, that way the healthy fish dont have to be put through the stress of medications. i would imagine the fins might grow back, depends on how far down they have been chewed and what fins. if the actual rays are damaged their might not grow back to well, if it all, might just be a wait and see thing. good luck and welcome to our forums!

i got my aquatic mix from the pet shop, it looks like bag of clay. i have no idea about laterite though :lol:

one of the things i like bout you two aussies is that your not like all the others, alot of aussies dont like kiwis that much and can be quite nasty but we can all have a joke and thats what i love, jokes along with advice= a great forum, i love hearing the jokes about us sheep lovers :lol:

when i had my fighter he was ok with my neons but some neons will nip at them, its really one of those 'try and see' things but make sure you have a little backup tank or breeding net or something just incase fighters are such cool little fish, so much personality

that big tank sounds awesome! make a great house for your clown :lol: welcome to our lovely little corner of the net :bounce:

do you know what the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and possibly ph is? how long has the hospital tank been set up? is he gasping near the surface? if so i would increase airation for now, add an airstone, put the outlet of the filter a little bit above water line etc etc to get some more oxygen into there until we can try help you a bit more. good luck

those peru zebras are different fish. the zebra (L046?) is banned from export but the americans are breeding them pretty well. there were a few in nz, might still be some but no breeding colonies i dont think, even if they were they probably wouldnt be sold here- the aussies will pay mega bucks for them and outcompete most of us so would get shipped off we are able to get zebra plecos in, they are all captive bred though. because the costs of importing as so high you really have to get a massive load in to try and cover your costs for maf visits, quarentine space, losses etc etc, if youve got a large wad of cash lying around you could always try

theyre not insanely rare but theyre not as popular as say cockatoos, theyre often in some of the more specalised/large shops. shane/antwan would be able to give you more info on them though

GBAs are always popular?

ph crashes when your kh isnt high enough to buffer it i think. i have to put shell grit in all my tanks to counteract this as out of the tap we have 0/1 dgh which means big ph swings you can put some grit in your filters if you like (the stuff you get from teh supermarkets birds eat) but it will up your ph a bit. i found a handful got the ph to 7.2 from 6.8 and the kh up to 3, gh up to 4 (i think, it was a while since i tested it).

i have aquatic mix and sand, some have aquatic mix and gravel, some have just gravel/sand etc etc. i like to have the ferts under my substrates, its especially helpful for heavy root feeding plants. i also push the 7's balls by the plants for the greedy ones and use excel. if only my light was sufficient they would be growing wonderfully :lol: i find its best to set up your tank and plant it, then wait for it to cycle with the plants in it and no fish, that gives you time to fiddle around with everything. doing a cycle with fish in is alot more work and isnt that great for your fishy buddies. congrats on the new tank and have fun planting and stocking it, make sure to post some pics of it too :bounce:

haha, i could imagine the sides and back of my oscar tank being mirrored :lol:

apparently if you shake the bottle and it gets bubbles its not pure ammonia. i have read alot about people using this method but im not too up on it, i dont take much notice cause like blue i have other tanks i can run filter in on etc before hand. apparently increasing the temp of the tank (as long as fish and plants arent in it or are able to handle it) can speed up the cycle as it speeds up the bacteria, im not sure if you will be able to finish the cycle in a week though

for external problems i will treat via water, for internal problems i will try my best to treat via food. for example hex- it is best to feed the meds as it goes straight to the gut where the problem is but it can be treated by water (which is normally used if the fish have stopped eating). im not sure if eating meds would hurt them, it depends on the meds i suppose, via water enters the bloodstream right? does eating it do the same thing (into the bloodstream)?. treating internally for a external problem seems like it might take longer but on the other hand might be more effective- im not up on how the meds work :lol:

oh i meant cause you say they average 89-102 (89 is close to three foot) and i see the ones around 65 and i thought that getting closer to 3 foot meant youve got a bigun on your hands and it isnt very common

i thought 3 foot in home aquaria was going darn good? most of the 'adults' i see are around 65cm or so, are they stunted? i thought in the wild they got around 4 foot? i think if they grow that big i might not be up to housing one, thats a 1.8m wide tank at least (going on the 4LX2LX2L (L being length of fish) but on the other hand its a REALLY good excuse for a bigger tank...

i agree, the person i got my metro off has been in the hobby for yonks and is good friends of the vet. the vet knows if the guy wants it he needs it, its not to hand out willy nilly and its never large amounts, normally only enough for one or two treatments. vets dont often know much about fish and most of the time when we need these hard to get meds its for problems you cant often see in a fresh bag of water. what if the fish isnt doing white poops when your in the vets room? what if the worms (camallanus) have gone back inside the fish (which they do). i know theyre supposed to see the fish, but if you dont know anything about it how are you supposed to be able to diagnose it? i would do as much reading as possible, google heximita (sp) and go through it, print out pages and highlight the symptoms your fish has, take pictures etc and pop down and see if they can do anything. if not at least you tried if you know what your talking about it shows your more legitimate and have done your homework

i think (not totally sure) it is due to the muscle doing something funky? theyre made to look up and when they look down alot (they like to keep an eye on their lower tank mates) this can cause the muscle to sag or something? i think i also read it was bacterial but like i said, im not sure. i am unsure if its fatal or not but it doesnt look that nice.

mmm plecos can be nasty buggers :lol: commons very rarely tolerate each other with the bigger picking on the smaller (happened when i had two in one tank), as youve seen hes picked out his spot and its all his now :lol: i used to watch my big girl push round my oscar when Frank had something she wanted to eat, the O didnt know what to make of her and sometimes nudged her back only to get pushed harder :lol: i am unsure about the whole carbon removing urine thing. fish excrete ammonia (which is their pee i think) in their waste which gets taken out by the good bacteria.

SW- these things are mega mega small, perhaps . size. only fry about baby swordtail size would see them as a snack i would think.

at 12cm hes still pretty young, add 50cm and hes nearly full grown (if hes a silver) :lol: ive heard aros are like clowns in the fact that if theyre not taught to eat prepared foods when theyre young they often wont change their minds. i would imagine worms would be a alright food for them (not sure on that one) and theyre cheap and easy to culture. at least hes eating prawns (which are dead) which means there is hope :lol: if he was one of those ones that wants to eat only live things you might have a prob. i would try and vary up his diet heaps while hes young, i would imagine it could make feeding him when hes older easier. if you get pellets get good quality floating ones, aros feed naturally from the surface i think and some people beleive sinking foods can play a part in drop eye :-? im no aro expert, this is just what ive read on forums. i wonder if theres any home made recipies like there is for discus etc? if he accepted that you could probably make that a good staple cause you can mix in all the necessary stuff.