sharn

1 part tea tree oil 99 parts water, know people that have been doing it for years and its cheap too! just takes a hell of alot of shaking to get it to mix!!

hard to get rid of... probably the easiest way is to just setup a whole new tank and let it cycle and dont add anything that could carry snails or their eggs on it without boiling it first. im a bit hesitant to use that snail rid stuff myself but might be worth a shot also?

snails may be eating the eggs?

might not be too high! had a mate whos discus spawned at 8, more frequently than at a lower ph and eggs had less fungus? of course he said it may have had something to do with it being more stable and i think a stable ph is better than a less than ideal ph! can you somehow alter your filter so that the water going back in 'pours' into the tank more? it'll increase airation a bit. you do have a beautiful tank!! no probs at feeding time with angels?

have a look at this link- http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 455.0.html. i managed to get some photos of her but dont know how to load em on here. her eyes look like theyre starting to pop out too! im so scared for her...

nar, didnt eat my corgette i put in but am dosing the tank with epsom salts tomorrow, see if that helps, also going to be making up some food i was reccomended by frans. mush up the shelled peas, mix with a few drops of olive oil (plant oil only he said) and freeze as little disks, he said the olive oil might just get things moving. also been told maybe she got a bit of beefheart in my mix that was too big and its blocked her up so well see what happens. shes still lethargic but still alive, cruises around a little bit at night too (i spyed on her for about 3 hours last night hehehe). hoping for the best still :roll:

you can feed alot of fish (not sure about ALL) peas to ease constipation, just have to mush them up to mouth sized bits

kim and dan- do you mean operculum (sp)? thats like their gill covers, the bit you see on the outside, its hard to explain haha. ive read that if you find a fish thats been out of water less than an hour you can put it back in water, move it backwards and fowards to get the water flowing past the gills again and it could bring them back to life, of course im sure thered be extenstive gill damage if this was true

make sure if you are treating the whole tank and have scaless fish in there you only use 1tbsp per 10 gallons

i found it quite good when my oscar got beat up, healed him up pretty fast but im a bit iffy using it because it irritates the wound into healing ive heard... i know i wouldnt like having someone shove a heap of salt in a big wound of mine!

yeah, sounds like dropsy to me too best you do remove her. like lindyloo said theres not a known cure for dropsy sadly

i remember seeing that not long ago... they had to use trucks and forklifts to lift the wood i think. woulda been a mission and a half to set up... i wonder if hes married... :lol:

you dry out those little seed pods and plant them.. thats how weve got all ours

what does dropsy in plecos look like? no scales to stick out lol when i meant she gets leftovers from the oscar (worded it wrong sorry) i meant some of the chunks fall where he (the oscar) cant get them. theres normally at least 1 2x1x1cm chunk left she gets her mouth on. the oscar food consists of beefheart, chicken heart, ox liver, garlic, shrimp and shelled peas. and her algae tablets. i will put some shelled peas in before lights out tonight and see what happens, frank hates vegies so he wont touch it. i normally dont notice her eating much as she zips away when i walk in the room but i have caught her a few times but i will try moniter her even if it means sitting in my room in the dark with a flash light. thankyou for the quick response, off to shell peas now oh and i dont have a cam so i cant put a pic up, it just looks like shes super full of eggs or obese

hey all, during a water change today i caught a quick glimpse of my plecos tummy, its extremly large my first though was shes been eating too much... but she only gets leftover from the oscar (not much at all, it has to go through a Sev and a bi colour!) every second day and a few algae tabs once a week. my second thought was a tumour but its her whole area from her head to the base of her tail. lastly i thought eggs? but ive never seen a pleco with eggs so i cant be sure. all water parameters are fine, ph is 7. temp is 27C steady. shes approx 30cm long and i think shes a sailfin or marbled sailfin-not too sure as most of the pics ive seen look like her. when you look at her side on she cant sit flat on the ground, her tummy gets in the way so her mouth is a good cm or so off the ground. she has been hiding a bit more and has also been gulping air a bit which she doesnt normally do, airation is no prob as im running 3000lph on a 360L tank. she is on her own in there but does have a mate that will be going back in there once i get more hiding spots sorted out (bit of agro which is normal between them ive been told) please help! im scared for her

good idea, ill see if the petition thing gets much response but in the meantime i will attempt to start writing a half decent article... any chance of them being made illegal full stop? or only if theyre a threat to our enviroment would that happen, dont see how that one would work as we have alot of fish not allowed in that wouldnt do anything to our enviroment (ie tropicals). thanks for your suggestions bill, much appreciated

i agree with ya bill, while many goldfish do die a unesscessary death it is much easier to properly house a goldfish than a pacu, they just really should not be sold to people, its like selling a small stingray to be kept in the average household aquarium. alot of fish have this problem but pacu are the main ones i see around and i am only willing to give it a go, even if it fails it still may make some people take notice, and then later on maybe another person would give it a go and carry on and on until it gets changed. even if i am the one insignificant being among millions, its worth a shot. i have already turned my back on one of the LFS's down here, i rung them up and told them how irresponsible they were, needless to say she got rather angry at me, with so many fishkeepers not in the know (like on forums/in contact with alot of other 'fishy' people) its hard to get the word out... ill give it a couple of months before i close the petition thing, is it too much to ask for it to be made sticky so newbies can have a read any maybe post their veiws? i understand if its a no-go though. if i get less than a couple of hundred ill pack it in... i will be travelling around all the LFS i can get to to see if they would like to also put their names down. thankyou to all who submit details, every little bit counts and i dont mind putting in a small amount of effort to see what comes of it

id take the ammolock out, its just slowing down the cycle. in a established tank you dont need it cause the ammonia will be kept in check by other bacteria. take it out and just keep and eye on your water, should settle down in no time. also your fish are hardy so it should all be ok. keep us posted!

good point, was talking in the chat room the other night and someone mentioned how they took some pacu off a indian resteraunt... the diddle then went and ordered 20 more! maybe they could also make a submission along with the petition... will give our local a ring and see if they can point me to head office... cheers for the suggestion, i think its going to take all the help i can get!

thanks so much for your support mystic. im thinking the details i will need will be your name, address and phone number. also if you wish you can add a reason why you agree with the petition and at the end i will go through the reasons and make a list of why we think they should be made permit only which will be put up the 'cover page' so to speak. thanks to all who support this petition in advance

hello all im wondering what your views would be on me starting up a petition on pacu to have them made a permit only species in nz. the reason im thinking of doing this as i see so many idiots buying these as pirahna only to have them grow 2' long and try to re-home them. because you need a minimum of 1000L, most people just dont have the room (and normally people with 1000L+ know their stuff and dont want pacu). my theory is that if you had to pay to get a permit (not sure how much thatd be, the price of someone to come around and have a look at your tank) you would be dedicated enough to provide them with a good home and would really want them, money wouldnt be a factor. if they had permits not so many dicks would go and buy them for their standard 4 footer because of the costs involved. i know this would be a large task which would probably consist of people who would like to see pacu made a permit only species PMing me their details and i would put them into a list. would i sumbit this to MAF or something like that? it just breaks my heart that people would be so silly as to buy them for the 'cool factor', ive read of many that have had to be killed, eaten or just died due to problems arising from stunted growth and i want to do something about it... let me know what you think guys

tanksman your right, that cycle is a waste of money. the reasons you said are right, and the only bacteria in a bottle that will work is refridgerated stuff. they have to refridgerate it so the bacteria lie dormant, dont need to feed hence not producing waste. dont think we have bio-spira over here but they do in the US and its great stuff apparently. you have to add it to your tank the same time as fish (not sure on the rest of the specs sorry). the handful of established media/gravel is a good way, otherwise you will just have to wait the rest of the cycle out (water changes!!!). as tanksman said dont add any more fish, it will over load your growing bio load and cause a ammonia spike. once its all finished you can add more (slowly, a few at a time). HTH even if i was just going over tanksmans posts lol

if its your decor id say it was leaching something that is poisoning them. if you feel its really got through your whole tank and will only keep causing havoc i suggest you break down the whole tank, however your tank will need to re-cycle and the fish will need to be housed else where in the mean time unless you can do approx 30%+ water changes daily. if you think the problem can be remidied by less drastic ways take out what you think is the problem, stuff with the smell on it. then do alot of partial water changes to get rid of any traces. if i was you id go back to your LFS and tell them what their decor did and get them to refund you the price, and the price of your dead fish. their decorations are supposed be safe for aquarium use (have to sink their driftwood obviously). HTH

COOL, i would just love a fish that made some wierd noises, not sure if i could handle it being in my room though, i love to sleep too much

i dont think theres much parasites that smell, the main thing that causes smell would be a ammonia spike it sort of smells like eggs. also when i was feeding shrimp pellets my tanks would smell, what food are you feeding? or are you meaning the decor itself stinks? whats the decor? im sorry for your losses, it really sucks to lose fish. i cried for hours when my angel died, she was my first ever tropical so i know how ya feel. giidy up though, things will get better!