sharn

SW- these them? http://www.painetworks.com/pages2/hq/hq1321.html theyre mega small, like baby daphnia size i would think (havent seen baby daphnia lol). i have em in my axolotl tank but no others. these dart around in the water column, the V shaped part of the cyclops is the eggs and it looks like they use them to swim. they also rest on the glass sometimes.

red bellies are schoolers, thsoe black ones are not, theyre solitary predators. i think theyre real pretty though, i love their cute little mouths and theyre so shiny (the red bellies)

*falls of chair*

vaires alot, i wouldnt get em from LFS, theyre overcharged and not often great quality. you really want good quality, healthy stock for your first discus. breeders like ronnie, ryden or nz discus have some good stock but are all in auckland :lol: average price for 8-9cmers up here from breeders seem to be around the 50 mark, depending on colour varient of course. i would suggest purchasing discus over 7cm at least, up until that time theres *alot* of work involved and i made the mistake of buying babies and trying to grow them up, it didnt work :-? i beleive that discus under 9cm shouldnt be put in planted tanks, they have alot of growing to do and its very very hard to maintain the water conditions that you have in BB tanks in planted tanks. the planted tanks have to be in total balance otherwise youll spend alot of time gravel siphoning etc. i love BB tanks, so easy to keep clean and thats what im doing with my ones who arent full size yet however they will stay in a BB (unless of course i go nuts with planting tanks and they can go into one of them lol). im not sure if agree with blue on the thing bout em being happier in planted tanks, many people, including breeders keep their fish in BB display tanks and theyre happy as, it really makes them the focus but some people like the more 'natural' look. i was told by a knowledgeable person off simplydiscus (great site btw) that where discus come from there arent many plants (like an averagly planted tank)!! but they do definatly look stunning in planted tanks. its really up to what you prefer.

well im not naming the vet or the person then :lol: how do the importers etc get all their meds which most of us cant get our hands on?

i got it off a friend who owns a fish shop and he is friends with the local vet, the vet just gives him whatever he needs without the consultation fees. i paid 2.50 a pill i think and that was 200mg or something (havent looked at them in ages). if you ring around local vets, explain the situation, perhaps gather some info on hex/HITH and some pics of your fish and pics to compare and take it down the vet might be willing to have a flick over it and prescribe you without the fees. good luck!

new isnt always best, its often alot more costly and if only bought new tanks id be in debt :lol: 4 out of my 5 tanks (60L-460L) i bought used. it depends on whether the aquarium place is using new glass, thats costs ALOT more than mint second hand off cuts. i feed all my fish differently. my discus get at least 4 times a day, the community is 2-3 times, my axolotls are every 3 days and my oscar is every 2-3 days. it depends on what fish you are keeping. i would feed goldfish once a day, im not too up on them and how fast their metabolisms are etc etc.

hahah red spots (commons etc too) always make alot more mess than they clean up IMO and they just love decorating tanks with tinsel poo :lol: not much you can do about it except hope it breaks up into less noticable bits and you clean it out haha. id also remove the carbon, its a ongoing hassle which isnt really needed in a healthy tank. its best left to be used to remove meds and such, for 'quick cure' occasions JMO

probably best to do some water changes of around 30% every couple of days to try and clear it up, it might also go thru a mini cycle if its been disrupted alot. just something to keep an eye out for, im sure with a bit of maintenance youll get it looking superb posted same time as bill :lol: also its best to keep an eye on her just incase it isnt enviromental

pacu are legal though... and once theyre big you cant pay people to take them :lol: in shops they retail for about 20 each. to have pirahna imported your looking at a fair whack of money (quarentine space, maf visits etc). i would have thought it would be fairly hard to get permits, otherwise more people would have them? id be willing to put a fair bit of money (if i had it lol) into getting some.

the bigger the tank the less work IMO, sure, you need to change more water (in some cases this doesnt apply) but its easier to keep everything stable. with a small tank your needing to constantly watch the water to make sure you dont over do anything. i run 3 tropical tanks (300W,200W,150W,100W heaters, a 40W canister, couple of internals, and 72W worth of lighting, couple of air pumps etc) and ive seen the power bill go up perhaps 10 bucks a month? if that! thats approx 800L worth of tanks. in winter its obviously a bit more (maybe 20 bucks) but theyre all in my room so i close the door and it heats up and reduces the heat loss, some people tape polystyrene to the backs and sides during winter to insulate a bit more. my weekly schedule for my 'normal' tanks (the not normal is the discus tank which is daily lol) is a water change of 30% and feeding twice daily. the gravel siphon is taking out water so thats killing two fish with one stone (bad joke, i know lol). turning on and off lights isnt a major, i could put them on timers if i wanted.

it could be something more but ive often read of fish coming from poor conditions that develop cloudy eyes which go away when the conditions are improved? there is 'disease' called cloudy eye, im not too up on that though, it seems its normally bacterial. sorry i couldnt be of more help but good luck with them p.s. keep those RTS out of neon etc enviroments- theyll eat em :lol:

might have to break open the worm farm (to feed i mean), apparently they can be picky when theyre older so id assume theyre even worse when theyre young :lol: ive heard they also like bloodworms and tubifex too. no chance of any pics? fire eels are cute when theyre big, theyd be mega cute when theyre that tiny *lovey look*

yeah, apprently theyre pretty nasty buggers (disease wise), if you dont want to feed them live freezing them might help to make it a bit safer?

haha cute! my kitties will 'run' on the glass to try and get to my axolotls. good taste in names too, i love the Norse names

im a big nasty fish nut, and IMO pirahna are way overated. they hardly ever do anything like what you see on the tv, unless you starve them for a long time they just dont go into feeding frenzies, they would rather spend their time being skittish and hiding. red bellies are sociable and need to be kept in schools while the black ones are solitary and very evil so youd have to sort out which species and all that. i did some research on them a while ago and they seem like one of those fish that are pretty (imo they are pretty) but are alot of work, their food requirements were insane, needing stuff like fresh fish etc. i worked it out to cost around 30 a week to feed some here on the diet i was reccomended by the pirahna fury team im not sure even if you work at a zoo if they will get them in. zoos arent really 'fish friendly' places, i went to auckland zoo and i was surprised they didnt have them (i spose im a bit silly assuming zoos always have the cool illegal animals) it seems to be more aquatic specialists that are the ones that are able to have them. you can most definatly try, theyre really cool fish and itd be nice to have more on display around NZ

many many luke *also starts drooling* :lol:

you need a fair amount of space for your golfish, they can easily hit 20cm very quickly and make ALOT of mess. id go for a three foot aquarium for two, you might even need to upgrade still :lol: im guessing its a 450L tank (going by the name lol) and that would be great for discus. however- i do advise doing some serious reading, your going to need to do water changes at least 2-3 times a week on the tank as discus are picky about their water quality compared to weekly with most other tropicals. im doing daily water changes on my discus tank and when i upgrade to my 216L BB im going to be doing 70L every 2 days. much more work and pickier to house but definatly work the effort when you see your stunners gliding around like the kings of the world average 60L 60x30x60 go for around 30 bucks here, auckland is normally cheaper (damnit lol). it depends if you want new or second hand too, sometimes its even cheaper just to make the glass company make you one with their offcuts (or if you know anyone that makes tanks). offcuts are a real cheap way to make tanks if your handy. it also depends on what you want in a tank, a real flash tank with all the bits and bobs or just your plain standard glass tank and you add the rest, youll see the difference in price beleive me but in the end its up to you how much money you can afford to spend on them, but keep in mind they will get a good size (the goldfish) and need some really good filtration. hope that helps and welcome to our forums! :bounce:

should be, males can get agro and i normally suggest females with O's. as long as hes got a spot the O cant get into he should be sweet. if he has babies with him you might find the O might get attacked a bit, probably wont do too much damage as long as the O gets the message

Multiple Tank Syndrome :lol:

a good diet is also a great help in curing this, often people who catch it early will clear it up with nice clean water and good food with lots of vitamins but it does need meds sometimes. good luck

i had none *does a happy dance*

i saw a real stunner on an aro site once, cant remember what it was called but i think it had red scales with green fluro outlining. it was retailing for 30,000 US

have you looked into columanaris (sp)? im not too up no it but its known as 'cotton mouth' disease

they were