cesarz

Hi Chris, Looks like your fish had a virulent strain of columnaris. It will (note: the word "will" -not can) kill fish in just two to three days of exposure. All the symptoms you described including the fungus like growth point to this disease. Since the lethal effect is too quick, it is better to dump everything, sterilise and start all over again. According to literature, the most recomended fix is Furan but this will only fix the slow strain of columnaris. Had this one happen to me about four years ago and tried to keep the remaining fish all that I was doing was propagating the disease. i only succeeded in keeping fish only after i let go of them and started all over again. This happened to me again same time you had your problem. Bought some guppies from some source and did not quarantine them. Straight into the guppy tank, three days later 500 guppies gone all at the same time. Good thing I only introduced it to one tank and infected the next with splash of water from the infected tank. My other 10 tank full of guppies were not infected. You would not want this disease ever in your fish tank. Sorry for your loss and mine but all we can do is start all over again. Just remember, quarantine fish before you add them to your tank for at least three weeks. Cheers, Cesar

I have used Dalton's aquatic mix and ran into the problems described by Warren as rotting and getting sulfuric gas bubbles and eventually killing my plants, also having blue green algae as well. Problem was solved when I boiled the Dalton's mix, sandwiched it between layers of boiled, clean propagating sand and rebuilt my planted tank. Since this is only a small tank, just boil the substrates you use. Or if you have extra cash just buy the laterite that the HFF guy recommends, it's really good stuff, check out Pupuke aquarium's setup to confirm, I think they use laterite as well.

Looks like Saprolegnia fungus, try this website http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Columnaris.html

All the strains (breeds) of guppies have cannibals and non cannibals, just test the mothers if they will eat their young. In my breeding setup, I test the moms if they would eat the babies by leaving them with her and if she eats them, she's gone. I have selected moms that wont eat their babies because I cannot afford to have any more tanks so I leave the babies with them. You should select them too using this method.

When the swallowtail is fixed, the result will look like these, pic borrowed from endlersrus:

Better continue with this from another post: Zeb, The gene is autosomal (not sex-linked) so it can exist on both male and female. I use the females to make more swallowtails (crowntails) and have never used the males, I now have about 60+ swallowtails. Check these girsl out! And the boys.

I saw A-town resurrected the livebearers topic, better create a new one on guppies. Here goes: Blue Mossaic Red Tuxedo

Is the male guppy huge? He must be an XX male and will only have female offspring. 27 to 29 degrees is conducive to producing mostly male offspring.

They can breed when the elongated anal fin is a hollow tube , and can be cut to the proper length. But if it does not form a hollow tube, it cannot breed. When the elongated gonopodium is cut to a certain length, it heals into a functional one. better to find a female to breed with instead because they carry the genes too.

Rozki, was he like this:

You have to do the breeding the other way around if you have the fish. Lyretail male x Hi-fin female. But if you only have those fish in the pics, observe if the anal fin (gonopodium) has actually developed a tube, you may cut this to the appropriate length and it will be functional. BUT if it has not formed a tube, the male is virtually useless.

Guessing crown tails with longer row of fins on the back? That would be veeeeerrrryyy nice:o

Here's the male full yellow, top view. Blowing bubbles, maybe he thinks he's a betta.

Or collect them and turn them into Marimo Balls! :bounce:

Stringy algae wont die on Flourish Excel and its not the same as what BK has, hes got blue green algae (more like slime not stringy). AlgaeFix will kill it but your fish would die too.

The swallowtails have trailing mutant fins, love them or hate them.

One male to at least three females. This way the females dont get streassed out, but too many females will make the male less interested. Will you be keeping a breeding record?

According to the experts the Half Black Blue Neon with platinum head was indeed not considerd a Moscow because of what the Moscow gene actually does to the colour. The Moscow version of the HB Neon Blue is actually the Blue Moscow, without the platinum head which means the half black part of HB Neon Blue covered the whole body in one colour. The only way to have a Moscow is to have a Moscow father and no other way. My young Moscow male that I would refer to Guppy Designer: Head Shot Side view

Marimo Balls are filamentous algae belonging to the family Cladophora. Its name is Cladophora aegagropila from Japan. Cladophora species exist in the South Island and maybe they might exhibit the same characteristics of the marimo. To si_sphinx, marimos do not adhere to the bottom they are free to roll around that's why they are spherical shape, that one you got from the lake might be the NZ version of Japan's marimo balls. Can you send some to wellington?

An Update: I referred the picture of my Neon Blue Tuxedo with a fully coloured platinum head to the Guppy Designer website and they said it is not considered a Moscow even if it has fully coloured head. So what is a Moscow? I asked. Will post the answer soon.

The one called just Blue Tuxedo will be the ones without full colour coverage on top of the head the Blue Tuxedo Moscow has a fully coloured head, I said technically it is a Moscow because of most people percieve the Moscow as as single colour strain, not half blacks. Moscows are a classification not a strain, so you can have a Full Gold Moscow, a Red Moscow, Black Moscow (which comes from the half blacks that became fully black), name any strain they can have moscows as long as they have a fully coloured head. The original Moscow was called Metalhead snakeskins, but the Moscows as we know them today are the ones with full same colour all throughout its body with emphasis on the coloured head, the full reds are actually moscows too as long as they have a fully coloured top of the head.

Technically he is a Moscow. Some of the Blue neons do not have a fully coloured head and cannot be considered Moscow.

Oh yes we do have swallowtails in NZ. Not a good photo but here's my female:

Moscows are those that have a fully coloured head including top of the head. Here is my Moscow version of Olly's fish: It is not evident from the photo until you get the head shot: