jn

Thanks for the info (Ah yess.. ok Edward Elric huh! Cute! They might have the same personality too from the looks of it!). Yes I put some food at the top this morning but she was only interested in sniffing around the bottom! Mind you She had only been in her new home for about 15 mins! (She spent the night in a plastic bin and wasn't impressed!) So funny the way goldfish nibble on the gravel then spit it out again! I've got spirulina so at least that will be familiar. I'll need to train her to come back up to the top though! Just don't want her to lose any condition before her big 'oe' to the pond The pond fish ONLY get floating food. This is to be 100% sure the tenants keep track of any uneaten food and scoop it out to keep the water clean (the first tenants we had destroyed the pond by giving packets of flake food to a grandchild and letting her do whatever she wanted) I occasionally give the tenants a tiny amout of pond flakes with shrimp in in for them to give the fish as a treat. I did manage to crush a few shrimps up for Eddy and make them sink, she found those ok ! We'll do our best with her

Hey Janelle! You beat me to it.. I wanted to give you an update on 'Eddy'. (I should ask where his name comes from.. it's definitely unique!) I did some tank 'juggling' this morning. I have a 30L tank and a 90L tank. The 90L was a bit understocked and I was going to add some fish in the next couple of months. The 30L had 3 Female American flag fish (Jordanella Fl.) and 4 white clouds. I was planning on shifting the WCMM's into my 90L anyway and buying a male Flag fish to put in there BUT.... Given the new arrival I popped all my fish from the 30L into the 90L and gave Edward the run of the smaller tank (along with those 4 WCMM's until they go to their 'summer home'). There's no heater in there but that tank has been up at 20-21 the last few days so she seems perfectly happy. (I'm pretty sure its 'she') Once the WCMM's go (maybe a week or 2) I will add 3 very small shubunkins of my own (no bigger than my pinky finger!) so that she has some company. Once the pond warms up properly, she can go out there. I know that tank is small'ish but she's not that big and we're only talking about 6 weeks or so (there's a thermometer in the pond so we'll know when the time is right!) The plants in that tank were not doing so well anyway so I wasn't worried about him eating or uprooting them! Plus the flag fish have been put to work on that string algae I mentioned to you in my bigger tank (They LOVE string algae and got right into it!) Oh.. tell me what type of food she was scoffing and I'll get him some until she adjusts to other stuff. I know you showed me but I forgot!! :oops: Don't worry about the pond. She'll be fine out there and I'll post a photo once she gets moved. Those fish at the rental are well and truly 'ours' so once you've got a spot for her you can have her right back. Maybe she'll breed and you can have her back with some 'little eddies' when the time comes!

I emailed someone at Brooklands (they used to distribute fluketabs). He replied: So definitely no more fluketabs. Yes... what are fishkeepers supposed to use for flukes? We need some help. It seems the most readiliy available stuff is formalin with malachite green but again, I've never seen this sold in combined form.. so it would be difficult for the average fishkeeper to get the combination just right. Maybe someone's fishy vet could stock some adtape and sell in in 250ml bottles?

Hey there. I think I know the type you mean. I have some in my tank too. I they do multiply quickly. I get rid of them as soon as I see any! I have a nice looong pair or tweezers so I can reach right down into the tank and squish them and get them out. They're about the size of a very small pebble right? I think they're established in the waterways here (and probably alot of ponds too!).. so probably came in on some plants.

How'd it go?? Are you rich?? Hope you had fun at least!! :bounce: What a beautiful day for it!

Do they just drop the fry while they're swimming? or do they go near the bottom or top or something?

oh.. and I'm not sure about the anubias temps. I've never had any myself but I have a cold tank and someone had once recommended some for me so I assumed they would be ok.. mind you I think at the time I was asking about plants that weren't fussy abot lighting! So might pay to poke around on google or post in the plants section

from http://faq.thekrib.com/snails.html

We can't get prazi-pro here can we? Can it be ordered via internet? Prazi isn't a controlled drug I'm guessing since it can be bought at the grocery? Here's a good bit of info re. treating with formalin (formalin will damage your plants apparently.. but you can probably strip the plants and treat them in some PP separately?) http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/FA033

Ouch! That one helluva lot of prazi!! The stuff is terribly expensive. Any way you can crowd them into a smaller tank for about 2 weeks? At a decent temperature that's probably long enough to rid them of the parasites and and eggs. Also if the temp is high enough in your tank any parasites in there should die from not finding any hosts I think. You might want to investigate fluketabs. I dont' know if they're any cheaper but they might be (and they might need fewer treatments). There are some references to using potassium permanganate for flukes.. but some websites say you'd be crazy to use it (anyone ever tried?). It would be cheap as.. but apparently it's very hard to get the dose right as it depends on a lot of factors, pH and the amount of organics etc and apparently it can go very wrong if everythign isn't just right. This website doesn't mention any of the cons. I guess to get 10mg/L you'd have to make up some sort of stock solution and dose from there. Not sure how it would affect your plants and I'm guessing you want heaps of aeration... http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/flukes.php Seems like you could do a farmalin/malachite green treatment too... Your best bet might be to do some googling!!!

if you're really worried about parasites you can use bleach 1 part to 19 parts water (plain bleach with no additives) soak for 2 mins. OR potassium permanganate a teeny tiny amount diissovled in water to make a dark pink colour, soak fir a half hour or so. That will also kill snails. Dunno if bleach kills snails? I expect it would...but I think the bleach may be harder on the plants. I've never tried either with oxygen weed personally though but its fine with other plants. I think someone here once recommended anubias also? Basically the stuff with tougher leaves

I'm glad you posted that caper! Everytime I see one of those I get the heebie-jeebies!! Anything slithery gives me the creeps!

You might want to add that in this thread about "Lessons you learnt the hard way".. I reckon thats going to be a good thread for reference! (and read it too to make sure there aren't any other mishaps you might bump into!) http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/what-l ... 23475.html

And yes you can buy iron test kits. Your local shop should have them.. petplanet.co.nz also sells them and I'm sure there are others.

Do most red plants prefer more light than green plants?

Sorry to hear is too.... Really good though that the other is picking up.. keep us posted

Hey Janelle? How's this minnow doing? (I haven't forgotten about those pond plants BTW..just didn't get around to dividing them yet)

hang on actually.. I seem to recall someone saying once they floated an ice cream container in the tank.. that would keep it at the right temp at least. Dunno how you'd keep if from floating around in the current though?

well thats good news about the one other at least. Can you try the worse one in an icecream container with shallow water? Might be easier to keep him upright and keep him very close to some food (dunno what temp they need or if it's warm enough up there yet to keep him without a heater) Might be best if it doesn't die in the tank and contaminate the others with whatever he's struggling with. (edit: my what poor typing that was on my behalf...better now!)

If your nitrates are 0 you might want to consider a bit of nitrate fertilizer. It might help keep it away (or add more fish? Someone here could tell you if your tank can handle more)

Had you added anything to the tank shortly before the problem started? Or did you just move house and do nothing else? Are the snails new? If so where did they come from? If they came in on plants you added there may also have been parasites (also snails can host some types of parasites I think). How did you move the tank? Did you empty it or just drop the water level? I'm wondering if maybe some bacteria could have been stirred up from the gravel? Do you use a gravel vac? Sorry.. no answers.. just lots of questions/food for thought. A picture would still be helpful althugh I know its hard to get a good shot of a fidgety fish!

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm

Actually salt was what I decided to go with... salt and very hot water. I ran the heater on max in a bucket of very salty water and then slowly added some boiling water to the bucket (being careful not to pour directly onto the glass). The very top of the heater was not submerged cause I was worried about the plastic and rubber.. but I gave that a good scrub with the water when it cooled enough to handle. I was probably being over cautious but treating fish gets expensive so a bit of prevention was well worth it if it saves me any other trouble! The fish are thanking me for it. Obviously it was warmer at Wilson's place! The temp is set at 19 (they're cold water fish but presumably not acclimatised to VERY cold temps ie: 12-13 degs!) and they've gone from VERY pale to 100% normal! Phew Thanks for your advice

Have a read here: http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/

Could you put them into their own tank so you can keep a better eye on what they eat? Will also be easier if you ever decide to try some form of treatment since no one else seems affected.