jolliolli

Probably the best range of 3D backgrounds i've seen is at redwood aquatics, they are pricey though ($150 or so)

the limit for importing items is $400, anything under that declared value and there shouldn't be any tax applied. Parallel importing is completely fine in NZ so as long as the products don't contain any hazardous/banned/animal/plant substances then i think you should be ok

Is it possible for the bacteria to be present in daltons aquatic mix? No further deaths or signs of illness in my community tank at the mo

yeah i'd be interested to know. Interestingly enough most of the cases i have read on the net involving septicemia have involved gourami's...

Update : Honey Gourami has also died, rasbora looks ok although i won't risk putting him in the tank. I thought about the fish losses today and realised this may have been going on for a while. I lost the following 3 months ago One of the first fish i bought back in February was a blue dwarf gourami, he was fine at the shop but from after the first day in the tank he hung out near the top of the tank turning on his side, from memory he only lasted around a week and then died. About 2 months ago 2x neon tetra - not sure of age, one died overnight, the other died a few days later - neither had signs of problems so i put it down to old age (as i don't know how old they were when i got them). 3 weeks ago 1 Honey gourami died, no signs of illness, no blood, no equilibrium problems, just found dead one morning. THe same week two mollies died, also no signs of illness, all were eating well. One of the mollies had its tail and head eaten off... Last Friday, Balloon Ram died, followed by honey gourami yesterday, both had red blood streaks, equilibrium problems, not eating and lethargy. Im wondering if a) the initial dwarf gourami i bought may have had the septicemia and its slowly invaded the tank, or b) one of the mollies had it and whoever ate the infected fish had it transferred to them. I'm going to keep a running log of any fish losses and see if i can get to the bottom of it. All fish in main tank still fine, not displaying any symptoms, may find out in a week or two as i've read hemorrhagic septicemia kills in around a week.

Question, i want to treat my nets to prevent any transmission whats the best way, bleach?

Nice . Well i'm hoping for bacterial, im more convinced of it being septicemia i have a gourami and mollie quarantined, the gourami was turning on its side in the tank slightly a couple of hours ago and traces of red have appeared in its fins and the mollie just looked suspect. Quarantined them both with a rasbora (which i also didn't like the look of). Mollie i had to euthanise, it started losing equilibrium and swimming crazily round the tank (so at least that confirms it wasn't the meds that caused the ram to lose equilibrium) so i put it out of its misery. Anyone else in the tank that looks suspect will be quarantined also.

So a vet could prescribe it?

I've had a read up on and most sites on the net seem to suggest furan-2 is effective against it. The more i read on it the more i think it could of been this as the ram exhibited all the classic symptoms, redness at base of pectoral fins, red streaking in fins, fast breathing, lethargy, loss of appetite, very slight pinecone appearance and right at the end loss of equilibrium (which i initially thought was a reaction to the meds but may just have been the progression of the illness)

Hi guys, I really appreciate all the info everyone has given in trying to solve this problem. I also read a little on hemorhagic septicemia the other day and started to wonder if it was this. I did wonder if the the ram had his scales slightly sticking out and I also think one of my gouramis exhibits this (but who knows, when you stare and stare at a fish forever you start to see things that aren't there ). I will keep everyone posted on what happens with the other fish in the tank.

thanks for the info Brad that is what I thought. To answer your question above herefishiefishie the reason i treated with furan-2 was that the presence of blood streaking in the fins appears to indicate a secondary bacterial infection, therefore i was hoping to cover both bases by treating with prazi and furan-2. All other fish are fine except for the scratching. Tonight i picked up my old microscope so will take a look at the gills and scales tomorrow although I understand since its been a day or so since the death i may not see much.

Gutted Got home tonight and didn't make it. All other fish are ok. I'd really like to try and determine what he died of and i've heard of ppl doing skin and gill scrapes and analysing under a microscope. Has anyone had experience doing this and directions on how to do it?

well last night was a very stressful night, got home after a stressful day at work to find the little fella head down in the grasses and having equilibrium issues. After reading the back of the furan pack it mentioned it could be used with antiparasitic medications so i medicated with prazi. AIIIEEEE after 10minutes of adding the prazi my ram's equilibrium issues became a lot worse, he swum crazily around the tank and ended up upside-down and had trouble righting himself. I quickly removed him to a small tank of freshwater and he seemed to recover after around 10 minutes. During this time all other fish in the tank were fine except for one dwarf gourami who appeared to be not moving much (now though i think he was just being gouramish and hanging out at the top of the tank like he usually does). So.. unsure as to whether it was the prazi or just a worsening of whatever disease the ram has i slowly added medicated water to his new tank and he seemed fine. After around an hour i decided to see if he would tolerate the water again, again he had balance issues and i removed immediately. This morning he is in his own tank sitting at the bottom and doesn't seem to have recovered very well. Seeing as he's one of my favourites it was quite distressing and i'm hoping when i get home tonight from work he's still ok but i'm not holding out hope for a long term recovery. To top it off i'm still not really sure as to what the problem is and last night saw the ruby barbs scratching

well i dosed with furan-2 today came home toight and he's looking worse. Now appears to have trouble swimming, he sits on the bottom and is unable to swim straight and either lands head down or head up in a bunch of grass most of the time. What is the correct way, from looking on the net ppl seem to suggest that a single treatment is correct and then redosing in 3-5 days. Also is it safe to use prazi and furan-2 together or should i wait until the furan-2 treatment is finished?

The label on the back of the bottle says : a single treatment lasting 5-7 days is normally sufficient, retreat as necessary but no more than once very 3-5 days. Reading this the first time i took it to mean treat once and then treat again in 3-5 days, is this incorrect? Reading it again i see it could mean to treat with 1 tsp/20Gallons for 5-7 days. Is this how it should be treated?

Hi there, Am buying furan-2 today and dosing this morning seeing as the melafix hasn't worked, from what i've read it can be used safely with anti-parasitic medication? When i dosed with prazi i didn't really have any symptoms in the tank apart from scratching. It was a couple of months ago and from memory i dosed once, and then retreated 5 days later. So i would be ok adding the furan-2 and the prazi at the same time?

Update : I've been adding melafix the last couple of days things but haven't noticed an improvement in the balloon ram's fins, in fact the redness/blood in the fins has now extended to the base of the anal fins and now is present on both pectoral fins whereas previously it was only one fin. Also the tail fin appears a little raggedy. I think tomorrow i will dose with furan as the melafix doesn't seem to be helping. Below are some photos if anyone can identify what they think might be the problem before i go down the furan-2 route that would be helpful

btw would gill and skin flukes be visible to the naked eye? I can't see anything on them.

problem is im still not sure what the problem is.. i have treated with prazi in the past which i would have thought would have fixed gill flukes if it was that but didn't see any change in the scratching. I have to say the balloon ram looks happier today, he's out swimming around the front and i think (though i could be imagining) that his inflamed nostrils look a little better. i did a 40% water change treated with melafix and added extra filtration which has improved the water quality (previously i seemed to have a lot of fine particulate plant matter floating which the internal filter system didn't seem to handle well).

did you use flourish or flourish excel? only flourish excel will work

I had the same sort of black algae on my plants and like smidey only used a single dose of flourish excel to treat it and it went away completely (and stayed away)

I waterchanged my community tank today using water straight from the hose. Performed a 40% water change on 300L so I guess thats around 120L and temp dropped from 26 to 20 degrees. Fish were all fine and happy but i wouldn't be happy risking that sort of drop on the discus tank (hence the reason i have a tap adaptor for the tank)

thanks for the info, i've dosed with melafix tonight and will treat for the next seven days and see how i go. I bought some acriflavin as well but i'm not sure how wise i would be to add it at the same timeas the melafix. Failing this working, i'll look at maybe furan-2 or wundertonic. it would be nice if i could definitively determine what the problem is. None of the fish look particularly stressed but the appearance of those symptoms is enough to make me slightly anxious

went and saw john at organism and he recommended melafix as its less harmful on the plants than furan-2 (I didnt know furan-2 could cause your plants to melt ). So i'll see how that goes and if there is any improvement. i;m also going to add an additional external filter to the tank to improve water flow (aqua via 700 i think) as i don't think the internal juwel filter does a crash hot job. Will see what the outcome is

Also i've heard formalin being used as a 'cure-all' for tanks has anyone had any experience using this, i'm wary of it as i've heard it could kill the fish, do you treat the fish and tank or just the tank? My tank parameters are 300L, planted, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels are all fine. pH stable at 7.