Adrienne

It must be the weather at the moment, I have females in all the tanks releasing eggs. Think of it as an easily obtainable food source for the rest of your fighters.

I find that if you can catch the fish and put methylene blue directly onto the fungus it just falls off. As to what the cause of it was in the first place, well if you can work it out you might be able to eliminate it.

Vacuum only until you get down to the substrate i.e. vacuum only the gravel. To get around my plants I use an airline instead of the gravel vacuum. I also tend to stir up the gravel slightly to allow the airline to pull out all the mess. Shouldn't upset your biological filter as what you are sucking out isn't going to go up it anyway. The only thing likely to clog it is the substrate.

I've got the whole cf range, 500, 700, 1000 and 1200. They are great. Pretty much the same as the atmans.

Is it a female, is it the only gourami in the tank. Could it be egging up. I don't know a lot about gourami but my female fighters egg up regularly in case they meet a male. Drop the eggs eventually if they don't spawn.

Heres a pic of one of my females barred up and theres no male in sight, if you're still not sure IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q96/adodge_photo/barred.jpg

Hi, don't put a male fighter in with fin nippers. You might be alright with a female fighter but males don't look very good with the fins and tail all chewed off.

Breeding traps only work if you place the female in right when shes ready to deliver her fry. Have lots of floating plants at the top and lots of hidey holes on the bottom of the tank as well. The fry pretty much always sink when they are first born until they get their balance sorted out. Ianabs suggestion is good as is fishtvs.

It can be hard to tell, I have hundreds of fighters and in one of my tanks I have females and ? (they're the ones I don't know what they are). I had what I thought was a definate male a couple of days ago going around attacking my other 4 mth old males so I jarred him (or so I thought) to walk out to the room last night in time to see him! dropping eggs everywhere. My IT fish as I call them, if people want them I very clearly tell them I don't know but in saying that the bulk I can tell whether they're male or female.

Sorry change that, when he/she is out of the net can you still see the horizontal bars like in that pic.

When he/she is out of the net can you still see the vertical bars on its sides. Looking at it I'd say a female. Do you have a male as well?

Go have a look along the Temuka riverbed next time you're heading that way. Thats if its rained lately. If you're looking along beaches have a look around the Normanby? Sorry I think thats what its called, have been out of Timaru for a while, but anywhere thats exposed would do.

Have a look along the coast line. Caroline Bay won't have any, its too sheltered.

Really great pics. Good luck with the hatchings.

His tail will grown back and at a pinch I think its probably a gourami, most likely a male in the tank that did it.

Depends whether its caused by a bacteria or something else. To be honest I'm not really sure. I haven't had it in a tank for a long time but it didn't seem to cause infection in other fish but I always removed the fish when I discovered it.

Some of my very young males show vertical bars and some of my females don't. Can depend on the colour and age of the fish. You can get very pretty females, but generally the males have much longer fins and a bigger tail. A pic might help. Can you see the egg tube?

Dropsy is when the internal organs of the fish shut down causing the fish to retain fluid. Eventually they fail completely and the fish dies so IMO yes. Generally its a good idea to euthanaise the fish. However, if the fish is still feeding and swimming around it might not be dropsy as when I have had a fish with it it has stopped feeding and just floated in the water. If this one is still feeding etc I'd wait a bit longer. I'm assuming its not in a tank with anything else now?

Heres the latest shot of one of my fry, all growing well and also mum and dad fighter. Fishboi - sorry when you were out today I mixed up my males. The big red ct you saw is the father of some of the other slightly older fighters. Mum Dad

This spawn has about 60 fry, now 11 days old so as they get bigger might be more. Just looked at them and their fat tummys from all the bbs. Just one male and female paired up for this. Both first time parents so really pleased.

The biggest fry from a fighter spawn are generally male. Jar up your bigger ones, if males they will definately have longer fins and tail. Then jar them up as they start to fight. To find out which fish are causing problems look for the ones with torn fins and tails - they are not so much the ones being picked on but actually the ones causing trouble. Unfortunately once you start moving them in and out of tanks the trouble will really start so if you just set up another tank and put the big ones in there will most likely be an all in brawl! You will find that the fighting starts and stops, if there is a low pressure system in the offing or over Canterbury they will fight more.

I have a 9w uv sterlizer (internal) inside my 4ft tank. Seems to work well, I haven't had any problems with green water or disease/bacteria on the fish but then again I haven't had trouble in any of my other tanks either. You really need to find someone who has added one to their tank when their fish have had problems to see if its helped. There seems to be differing opinions on this. I don't see how it would stop ich on the first fish but it might stop it spreading by killing anything moving through the water. I think if your fish are healthy and not stressed they are not likely to catch much.

to be honest (tbh) I've tried again and also sent an email this time as well so hope you get one of them.

I've sent you another pm

look at www.hagen.com.usa, go to the table of contents and find the diagram for the filter. Its an excellent site and you can download instructions for all the fluval filters