Adrienne

My tap water is nearly the same pH is yours - 7.6. My discus tank sits at 6. I have driftwood in it but noticed that as the tank matured the pH dropped and now remains stable despite large frequent water changes.

Apart from whats you know where - my only two spawns are 6 weeks old so will be ready when i get back from europe - looking good - blacks, blues, red & blacks, white with black fins.As long as they don't kill each other while I'm gone there should be some very nice fighters available mid - late October. I only have 3 tanks running atm and will be down to 2 in another couple of weeks I hope.

I have a ten month + male fighter that has lived his whole life inside a container. He is healthy, active and appears happy. The only thing extra he does get is the occasional 2 1/4 litre bottle as a house instead of the 1 1/2 and every so often the chance to swim inside a small tank for 20 or so minutes.

Well imo its better than sticking them in the betta holders where as adults they can barely move (some of my boys grow 6cm plus). At least in bottles they can swim around and up and down. Unless you want to go one tank per fish. I've been there done that, it makes for a lot of work and filters. In saying that I don't keep that many fish for long lengths of time and most of the ones I sell go to community tanks anyway

That tank is just under 21 litres so each fighter has about 5 litres. Theres not really a lot of difference in the way I do it with 1.5 litre drink bottles sitting in my 250 litre tank. The 20 odd bottles get a share of the 100+ litres of water except that this cycles constantly through 2 cannister filters and a uv steriliser. To clean out the bottles all I do is lift them up, give them a swirl and any remaining muck comes out and up the filter. Certainly they have more swimming space in a tank but when you have multiple males they spend more time flaring at each other if they can or if they can not see other males they tend to just hang there. In the wild fighters have very little water to swim in, so keeping them is more about keeping the tank water clean and germ free.

Prime age 4-6 months imo, doesn't mean they won't breed at an older age though. NZ breds probably go longer as they haven't had the stress imports go through.

The last time I was in Mitre 10, Dominion Rd, (around christmas time), they had 3ft tubes.

You can stick him in the hospital tank straight away and if he is with other fish I would do so as this will spread being bacterial. While the other meds will help at this stage they are not likely to cure but if you are unable to get hold of furan for whatever reason you will need to use what you have. Its a nasty infection and the fish is likely to be alive one minute and dead when you check a few minutes later.

Your daughter will be fine. I work in the office at a Primary school and I am in charge of the enrolments so I get to meet all the new entrants when they come for visits and again on the morning of the first day of school. 19 out of 20 times the parents are more nervous and worried than the children. They are always buddied up and at that age children are nice to each other and caring. New entrant teachers are one of a kind as well. Know that she will be well looked after. Take her to class, give her a kiss and say goodbye when the bell goes and go enjoy your day. If she knows you don't want to leave it will be harder for both of you and should anything happen the school will phone you. Enjoy the last few days with her at home before she ventures out into the world.

Usually what happens is that when the tail or fins go red they then drop off to just above the red part so it looks like its gone. The red moves further up and it happens again. If it gets out of control you will find that when you look theres nothing left on the fish and its on the bottom of the tank or up the filter. With a ct its a lot harder to see exactly whats going on.

Hi Sam yes it is a form of finrot and you will need furan. Be careful using it though as it is nasty and a known carcinogen (sp?) - can cause cancer. Wear gloves of some sort so you don't get it on your hands. Follow the instructions on the packet and she/he should recover.

49 96% 51 for me. I really need to bring my glasses home from work to do better! Its not my typing its the fact that I can't read what I am typing :roll:

yes they can but not very good ones - more likely to be a short finned male than a female

I have one of the tap connectors - You need the metal thread. I am now on my second tap connector as the first one snapped but it wasn't new when I got it. Works well.

let her be unless you are worried. fighters will tolerate low levels of salt in their tanks on a permanent basis anyway.

I am 99% certain that this particular one is the one that is not a fully sealed continer - i.e. the side against the tank uses the tank as part of the container. If it is I have used it and found it was no good as the fighters kept getting out, as in every time I went to the shed there were none in it. There is no way of sealing to create a tight fit. Hope this makes sense.

Oooppps :oops: I was looking in the wrong place, most of my girls look like that, its when they are carrying eggs. If not spawned she will drop them herself when she is ready unless she is too fat. If she is too fat she will become egg bound but she doesn't look big enough for that. Looks like a female to me.

Sorry, I can't help. Its not dropsy so may be bacterial or has she got herself stuck somewhere. If the filter is strong she may have been sucked against it before. Is it possible to get a picture side on of the actual area or is it just on the top of her back. You could try isolating her and adding 1gm of rock salt per litre of water and leave her in it for a couple of days.

Very very nice - for one so young you are doing very well

I would have said ammonia by your description. I don't know anything really about puffers but are they not brackish fish?

You probably need to start another thread on this but if three of your females died overnight then this is not natural and you will need to work out the cause. pH of 7.4 is what my tap water comes out at. What else did you test for and also what did they look like when you found them? Even old age is unlikely to cause them to all drop dead at the same time. Whats the remaining one looking like tonight?

How old are they? I"ve noticed that any plakats I've had have always been the last that I am able to sex. They seem to be far more relaxed about living together, making it harder to tell if they are male or female. Immature males can also appear to have any egg spot.

I generally find that theres about 3x the number I see in the first 2-3 days. At about 1-2 weeks you will get a better idea of numbers and then you just have to keep them alive. The first 4 weeks is the hardest as this is when the ventrals develop.

I am female, so is Whetu.

"She" Lyndyloo "She"