sharn

perhaps looking into something like furan-2? its a pretty broad spectrum antibiotic or something like that. if their fins are turning red perhaps they have septicemia? im not too up on that and im not sure how fast it works but at least you could possibly rule it out of the list of possibilities. it could be the protein in the BW, during research into my sick common a while back i was informed these need a mainly vegie diet (after reading alot about them becoming more carnivorus as they age it was most likely the cause), meats seem to be more of a 'treats' food. people will often use meats to bulk up their fish so perhaps theyre just tubby from the BW :lol:

shelled peas, spinach, silverbeat, corgettes, apparently mango can be a fav but i havent tried that one haha

good on your 2fishy- your the first pet shop person that has enough knowledge, good on you! i was in the shop you mentioned doing our clubs poster rounds and there was a new girl there, we started chatting about fish and i told her about the pacu, she was really amazed (cause the chart said they grow to 20cm) but im not sure if anythings going to be done about it- after all, would you beleive some goth looking person whos rabbling on about fish :lol: craig- im hearing ya bout that glass breaking mate was telling me about rescuing 5 that had smashed thru a tank with 14mm glass or something insane like that!!! tank busters is an under statment :lol: caryl- when i get some time ill chuck a novel together :lol: i wonder why we have no laws for fish, yet we have them for nearly every other animal...

me too mystic :oops: frank ate a kribensis tail end first and he often keeps things that are too big for him to swallow in his throat 'for later', this poor fish was still alive in there so i actually had to chase him around the tank with my net (and then my hand cause the net didnt make him spit it out) and get the fish and kill it. i didnt put it in there for him to eat, that was back in the day i thought Frank was friendly to smaller fish :lol: :oops: oscars are some hilarious fish when it comes to their temperments, you will soon find she has preferences for certain food containers etc

nothing really happened, it seems MAF probably wont take much notice and putting a restriction would be too time consuming and costly. it amazes me we're allowed fish like this into the country when parachromis species arent (and other species of fish obviously). having them made illegal would be sad though, i love these fish and im sure people out there with massive aquariums love theirs also, its just the people that keep them in small aquariums (which is probably 95% of them), i guess its going to have to be an 'informing people' thing... i always make a point to go 'gee, look mum! there are those fish that grow to 2 foot long' when i see people going 'ooooh, pirahna!!' i can write an article and send it to caryl but the thing is i dont write articles too well.... more like novels :lol: if i do write one it might be a good idea to send it to campbell live- thanks keri!

:lol: you will soon find O's are some of the most sulky fish ever :lol: its not uncommon for them to sulk for weeks, sit on the ground etc when first introduced even though theres nothing wrong (if you hide and sneakily watch you will probably see her perk up when she thinks your not around lol) some will even get sulky after a tank clean. heres a link to a great recipe, i use it myself and its really good, ive adjusted it to suit me and it can be their main staple. http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 062.0.html crickets, worms, locusts, prayingmantis's etc are all good to add in if you can find them around your house 8)

agreed with Blue. an oscar can easily fit a large male BN in its mouth no sweat, and even if it isnt big enough they will still try :-? if it goes in head first and chucks its gill spikes out you could up having to remove it yourself which could potentially kill both she could just be checking them out but oscars are vesy nosey fish and often prefer to try sample any new fish that it happens to find :lol: if you provide alot of hiding spots they should be ok, but if she does get one be prepared to do some amature surgery lol. the larger pleco should be fine, most of the time they get a bit of attitude and stick up for themselves and theyve got some good armour on them. good luck and have fun with your lovely lady

i would highly suggest you either get febendazole or levamisole, these worms wont be effected by prazi as they are a differnt family of worm to tape worm i can get you some links to the sites that told me that if you wish. these worms have a vicious life cycle, constantly producing live young and they can cause all sorts of problems internally (internal bleeding, intestine infections etc etc), they are treatable from what ive read so thats good. would you like me to enquire about getting you some levamisole from the vet while im there? also if anyone else has any enquiries about getting some if you have a fish with them pm me, i know its a hard drug to get and hopefully, being from a small farming town (levamisole is a pig and poultry wormer) will come in handy for once

learn from my mistakes... it aint comforting to know you have the possibility of having one bug spread through out all your tanks and could possibly lose hundreds of dollars worth of fish, and have to start all over again especially when you could have spent 50 and prevented it

it seems prazi doesnt work with this one its a differnent type of worm than what can be treated by prazi. if you manage to kill the worms then your in a whole other field, if the fish cant pass them they stay inside and rot, and even if they do pass them there can still be major intestinal damage it just seems wierd that from the time my angel got it no other fish caught it, the rams were quarentined and its only just shown up after about 2 months of having them... im thinking the apistos (cause they sift thru the bottom), cories, BN's and khulis are going to all definatly have it as the worms constantly produce live young (they hang their bums out of the fishes bums so they can drop them out) which falls to the bottom of the tank. if another tanks going to have it itll sadly be the discus tank, i cleaned the worm tank first on saturday and then without cleaning me or the equip cleaned the discus tank after, at least if they get it itll be easier to treat (BB so can clean cases, eggs etc up, in the planted im going to miss alot and risk having them come back). well see how it goes, i have put all tanks on total quarentine now to see if it has spread or stop further spreading, im going to be purchasing a siphon and bucket for each tank which will be labeled. if only the vets were open today...

thankfully its not the discus tank *wipes forhead*, however they were in there (the first three) for about 3 days :-? hopefully nothing has happened there and nothing was present then, that was about 3 or 4 weeks ago now and nothing has shown up on the discus. it seems funny that some of the fish that have been in there since the angel havent got it, and theyre bottom dwellers, perhaps it just hasnt shown yet (its been a good 4 months or so since the first incident) im going to get some levamisole asap and have been researching a few differnent dosages- 2mg per litre and 1ml per 7.5L and also something about it not working in a ph over 7. it seems this can be treated however it can be persistant, this is really peeing me off, that stupid angel fish has now probably cost me a fair amount of fish :evil: its problems like this that make you want to get rid of a whole tanks worth of stuff. sadly the discus wont be able to be moved into their new 200L bb tank as i was going to take the filter from the 'worm tank' off there and put it onto the new one so it didnt need to cycle, i cant purchase another filter as the existing one will be too big for the new planted tank (long story, swapping tanks and occupants around). so yeah... now im off to keep reading and am hoping this isnt going to end up one big drama, have to go and buy a siphon and bucket too now so the other tanks have their own worm free gear, its so hard keeping such a large tank in complete quarentine!

it seems one of my rams has contracted this &%%&*% of a problem now :evil: only one worm was present and i immediatly moved her out into the 'camillanus' tank (with the heavily infested angel). im really hoping that it isnt going to spread to anyone else and im going to be getting a seperate bucket and siphon for this tank, i just cant risk it spreading. none of the other fish seem to have it, the cories, BN and khulis i am not sure about so am going to have to take them out to inspect during the next tank move. i am unsure what to do, it seems the easiest way is to let them go, i cant phsyically hurt a fish so am going to have to research other methods. they are an ongoing problem i am starting to get tired of (i know it sounds cruel, and it is, but i really just cant be botherd anymore) but i am going to have to treat the main tank just to be sure anyway so might as well try help them at the same time i might just have to suck it up and go down to the vet and try get enough levamisole to treat both tanks...

congrats!!! now that hard work really starts :lol: get in as many water changes as poss once theyre off their parents, i know of people doing 80% changes twice daily on their growouts

for tanks with plecos is 1 tbsp per 40L (tincy bit off blue :lol: ), that will help if its constipation, if its something else it probably wont do much other than make all your other fish poop :lol: if hes still eating chuck in some shelled peas and see if he nibbles on them, they can also get things moving. good luck man and my fishies are sending your fishies 'hang in there' brain waves (i have trained them well lol)

the gill tissue damage should heal up, if its badly injured he might never get it back to 100% but it probably isnt too bad. let us know how everything gets on

not up on the worms but if you havent quarentined it do so asap. hope someone can help ya soon

cats are often very territorial and this could be why your seeing problems. if its not being territorial its trying to establish dominance in the tank, youve gotta have a alfa fish :lol:

you cant re-use the chips as far as i know, and if you could i wouldnt reccomend it. i think it looks like carbon, chuck a few chips in and it will absorb it on the travels, ditch it as soon as ya get it. newbies are often tricked into thinking they need it in their tanks so it does work. but i prefer the way Mrskz said, if i can get away with using no chemicals i will

welcome!! get in touch with Luke*, hes got discus babies coming out his ears from his last batch, the parents are real nice too. he can give ya all the tips and help youd need

another common sign of flukes is using/pumping one gill only, if you look down from the top you might be able to see them doing this. best thing for gill flukes is praziquintal (sp), drontal contains it i beleive so thats probably a good course of action. there was a good thread a while back on flukes, to do with goldfish i think. good luck!

meth blue will stain silicon, airline tubing, plastics etc. i dont think it will harm your bacteria but im not 100% positive on that one

yip, the air in bag trick for the plants works real well, im not up on all the scientific stuff but i suppose because theyre not getting fresh oxygen or something they wont dry up? people will often put a few chips of ammo-lock or zeolite in the bags to absorb ammonia temporarily. not sure if stress zyme would help, cycle would most likely add junk to the water.

was his spine like that when you got him? theres quite a few illnesses that can make a fish do what your describing but not many will make a spine bend or get deformities. fish can be born with bent spines, those should be culled but some of the LFS's suppliers dont. im not too up on the contraction of TB other than i know it is catchy, to humans as well so dont let any sores/cuts/abrasions etc get into contact with the water just incase. sorry i cant be of more help to you and your platty, i hope you can find the cause and try help him out. good luck

at least you can have competitions with who has the biggest tank :lol:

dont ya just love that :lol: any chance you could try get a pic of em flaring? the mirror trick works just as well for a few photos