Adrienne

Got 2 new discus last night - thanks to discus guru & friend. and Now to show my ignorance about discus. What causes the sooty look on the fish below or is it supposed to look like this. I've seen them in the shops so suppose its normal. One more question - is it or is it not a good idea to have bristlenose ancistrus in a discus tank? If not what else could I have as an algae eater. I have 5 sterbai corys as cleanup crew but may yet get a few more

Time for an update .... After searching the beaches for a suitable piece of driftwood I finally found one at the LFS and decided to pay for it! It now takes centre place in the tank and as the windelov has started to establish on one of the existing bits of wood I have moved it to the left hand side of the tank Have added some twisted val (which I normally can't grow), its taking off well and some cabomba to get something that grows faster into the tank along with some dwarf chain sword (I think). The other plants are starting slowly to grow although so is the black beard algae. Will acquire some flourise excel but am not going to double dose with the discus in there. Theres a bit of algae on the glass - the bristlenose is very lazy but at this stage I am trying to get a balance in the tank so will leave it alone as much as I can. I have added two discus so now have 6. Full tank shot

NZ Couriers are who I use - I always clearly label the boxes 'live fish'.

oh Duh - thats what a day in the sun watching motorcycles does to one, yeap a toyota previa. :oops:

You'll probably need something like a Honda Previa - we had one a few years back, it was great, kept the three kids apart easily with plenty of baggage space. Great as we were down there camping for 4 weeks. A great area, very tourist orientated so there will be plenty of rental firms but you will need to book I suspect.

Does this mean that I can join Caryls club too :bounce:

Are you flying to Queenstown and getting a rental there? How many people are you transporting?

I tried formalin once with one of my fighters but as with every other thing I have tried for dropsy nothing worked. I think its a bit like say kidney failure in humans, you can't repair it.

I'm off down to the street racing in Paeroa today. Anyone else going??? My husband and I are taking the bike down, son left yesterday on his.

I've only managed to get any of my fish to resume breeding in the last few days IMO too hot, too settled.

It would depend on how the filter system worked. The biggest risk of infection etc is when water from a tank drains into another. UV sterilizers help but don't always stop the problem - it depends what caused it. I know that HFF has gone to individual UGFs for all their tanks now to stop cross infection and a lot of other fish shops seem to have individual filters in their tanks.

I have to say that I had thought it was only contagious if the fish died in the tank, however on the few occasions that my fish have had it it was always more than one developed it over a few weeks. I also know that my fish have only ever developed it when they have been fed a diet high in bloodworms. When feeding these only once a week or a fortnight there are no problems but when trying to get fish into good breeding condition I have to risk it.

oh - I should have said today to drop a small amount (a tiny pinch) each day to help feed the cycling process.

You think there are only two :lol:, what shape are they?

pig

How bigs your tank and did you use an established filter or media to set up.

Hi I've sent you a pm

looks great - neat driftwood

I'll start with the temp - if the tank has a lid, due to its size and the current air temp in Auckland which according to our house thermometer only drops to 22 degrees at night, the daytime heat itself is going to be retained. You may find the heater is not actually coming on which it shouldn't be really. Your plant cuttings will take time to grow roots, what sort are they? Some of the problem may be linked to the time it took to get them in water especially if they started to dry out. What sort of filter do you have? You may need to seed the tank with bacteria from an established healthy tank filter first and then add a couple of fish. I may be able to help as my closest store is the same as yours.

intestine I'm guessing

oooooh... don't know what that is :-?

She looks pregnant - I had one recently that looked like a marble and ..... she produced a whole 9 fry into the breeding trap. then a week later she produced the rest into the tank (not sure how that works though :roll: )

Its not just you - its something I fully agree with as well

I can't come to the meetings but I want to join

IME occassionally they come right but more often they don't