sharn

i saw them too when i was up in mt roskill (wanted to take em home), they didnt have babies then but sheesh was it a small tank for a pair. i was actually geniunly surprised they were still in good shape, but i think its a bomb waiting to explode. i have heard many a story about how 'my jag gets on well with all its tank mates', and month later we hear 'it mowed the tank' it does depend on the fishes personality but its like expecting a full grown oscar to not eat a neon, it happens 99.99999% of the time :-? why is it the pretty big fish are never friendly :lol:

lol, bringin out the heavy guns suphew :lol: as long as your rocks arent too big 2 fishy silicon should hold it fine, go a little nuts with it if your wanting to be safe. its often easier to get all your bits and make your rock formation outside the tank so you can plan it all out and then put it in p.s. if you join our club it could make for an interesting article

congrats on the new purchase, definatly some of the coolest fish around IMO but i have a soft spot for monsters lol just wonder if you bought the pair or the babies? normally theyre a one per tank fish unless you breed them (which is normally thru a divider due to possible murdering of partner)? beautiful fish, but tank mates are best to only be gravel, water and possible some driftwood :lol: some people get lucky and are able to breed them without dividers, heard a few horror stories from that though, seems if one backs down the other will kill it cause 'its not strong enough to breed with me' sorta thing. highly predatory fish 8) males are spectactular, often reaching 40-45cm, seen a 50cm one once so need at least a 2 foot wide tank. i wanted to stock my 460L with one lone male but its an emergency tank females are pretty, but not as pretty, smaller too, maxing round 30-35cm i think.

seen em before, made a comment also and got told 'he knows what hes doing cause he breeds em'. im a big jag fan and they dont come in 'mini'- they dont come in 'peaceful' either :lol: . just rather stunted i would think

yip, stop feeding those clowns :lol: they go nuts over snails! i dont happen to like snails myself, ok having a few but when they start taking over they increase your bio load a fair amount (if you use snail rid be careful afterwards, lotsa dead snails means you can have water problems until you get rid of all the bodies), im sure they poo more than they eat :lol:

it aint me rogan! its hazel :lol:

yip, meeting is the last saturday of this month and subs are due then (if you cant make it and would still like to join let me know and we can work something out), we will be affiliating soon after so if ya wanna get in nows ya chance

i would suggest a half dose of meds as they are 'scaleless' unless cat experts can advise on meds that are BN friendly. that 'white spot cure' by Wunder is supposed to be quite good. formalin will ruin your filters too, not sure if the 5% stuff will (what strength is yours?) but apparently its too weak to do much in the way of getting rid of bugs im told. also upping the temp will help (probably dont do that with formalin unless your ultra increase airation) as it will speed up the white spots life cycle. hope they get better!

its sorta hard to cover your cuts with plasters... spose you guys are meaning water proof ones huh (blonde moment)?

HITH is often related to water quality and incorrect diet, are both of those ok in her tank with her clowns? perhaps a course of metro would help? it is often used for hex but also for HITH. not sure how long clowns live for but shes getting pretty old for your average fish. melafix helps the tissue heal but it wont solve the actual problem so she will need to find some meds for that, probably wont go away by itself now if shes been battling it for a long time. i hope she gets her clown better, impressive (but freaky) at that size

i think it was caryl that said 'cons that dont breed in the bag on the way home are slow' and its true alright, now theyve started they wont stop :lol: probably best to try find someone with a clown knife or something like that who will appreciate the live food or might just have to cull them yourself cause youll have em coming out ya ears soon enough

i use a electric jug to heat my water, heating 50-100L for each tank wouldnt be an easy thing on the stove :lol: thats a good point bout the copper and de-chlorinator, im not sure to be honest but i hope someone can answer that for us. i would pull the plants up out of the substrate but not remove them completely, the fish might freak not having as much places to hide as they did before. but pulling them up will make them easy to push around during the siphons but they will still be in there, just my two cents on that hope things start getting on the up for you, maybe the fishies will decide they better start getting well for a nice mothers day gift?

a while back i thought i had a neon with TB, it looked like normal ol neon tetra disease but it got a bent spine etc, i was advised that it may have been TB and to keep any cuts or abrasions out of the tank so thats how i learnt all about it.

is that like the high concentration salt baths? the ones where you put em in till they float sideways then back into fresh water? i havent heard of it being used on internal probs (it could be though), only external probs but im sure someone will pipe up soon and let us know :lol:

cool, so water changes are ok. i feel sorry for the peoples fishies who only do monthly water changes it depends on how picky the fish are that you keep i suppose with heating water, some people have never in their lives heated water when they add it to their tanks however i always have. we wouldnt like cold air being blown over us when we're warm so itd be the same for our fishies :lol: i boil my jug, pour that into a bucket and then add cold water from my tap until it feels about right (finger test, a few degrees out wont hurt much at all). then i add all my other bits and into the tank it goes. the reason i dont use the hot tap is i think we may have copper pipes which can add icky stuff the the water i think. if you dont have copper pipes you will probably be able to use the hot tap. dont worry about not doing it before, half of the time its not even a problem but if they got a bit sick it might have bought on the ick cause they were stressed, im not sure. sorry bout your platy it sucks when you go thru bad patches with your fish aye, went thru it a while back but it does get better *rubs capers back* giddy up girl, everything will be ok soon enough!

ive often heard of them loving shelled peas too

i would stop dosing with Flourish just for now. was reading somewhere the other day and a person with algae probs got told to stop using ferts as your just 'encouraging' it to grow by feeding it. you want your plants to use the flourish not the algae and it looks like its enjoying some extra help :lol: and like caryl said, chuck in some super fast growing plants so they can try take the nutrients before the algae does note: sharn doesnt know much about algae so techincal terms are not used :oops:

im confused (it dosent take much though :lol: ), do you do weekly water changes or is it the people youve met who dont do them? dont beat yourself up caper, im pretty sure everyone whos ever kept fish has had a illness in their tank at some time or another. hang in there, your doing your best

if they are specifically scratching themselves on the decor or substrate you might be looking at gill/body flukes, it annoys them a bit so they scratch to try dislodge the parasite. not sure what the bobbing could be... i dont know much about goldfish but maybe trying epsom salts or shelled peas might help just incase its a blockage/constipation?

i have always used one tablespoon per 40L if you have scaleless/ultra sensitive fish in the tank or 1 tablespoon per 20L without. i think epsom salts work within four hours or something like that so as long as you can get a heater in the bucket/keep it at a stable warm temp you shouldnt have a prob, hope your girl gets better! oh! feeding shelled peas often helps in constipation, might have to crush em up for your apisto tho

plecos, being 'scaleless', sometimes need half doses of certain meds, not sure if parastie clear can be dosed normally or not though so wait for someone else on that one. ive also read that they can shed if they are stressed? not a pleco expert so not sure how true it is. hope things work out with your fishies!!

it depends on what your using the salt for and in what concentrations i suppose. what were you treating for and in what dosage? im not sure if the water would do anything, im not really up on what they put in the water and if it has any effect on meds/salt sorry. ive used salt in pretty much all my tanks, its surprising what a tiny bit of salt can help with as long as its in the right dosage for what you want to treat for

a few fish i know of can go over a month without eating if they have to, four days wont be a problem i wouldnt imagine. if your worried you can measure out special amounts of food and ask a neighbour to pop in each day. its easier to set specific amounts so you dont risk them over feeding :lol: not sure if your tanks finished or near the end of the cycle but you *might* have some problems with ammonia and nitrite build up? just something to consider, cant really cancel your trip and its annoying getting someone in to do your water changes so maybe just do a large one (50% or so?) right before you leave and one as soon as you get back, only setting out small amounts of food (if you go that way) will help too. not sure about the holiday feeding blocks myself, never used them but if they let out excess food that might be a prob. have a good time away :bounce:

oooh, clown knives are one of my absolute fav fish, when i can manage to convince mum that i need a 6x2x2 i'll get one :lol: bummer you lost yours, heard a few stories of in-lines going bust and cooking tanks :-? ya tank looks awesome too and welcome to the forums

scratching is normally a sign of external irritants, most often gill/body flukes but can be related to nitrate too i think, theres a few reasons around but those are the most common ones i personally come across. im not sure what you use to treat them, some use formalin but alot of people use the Prazi for flukes