jolliolli

well, i'm still trying to find the problem in my community tank and today i have a few more symptoms. On top of the following symptoms Golden Barbs scratching Occasional ruby barbs and gouramis scratching my golden balloon ram has developed the following symptoms yesterday he seemed to stay in the corner of the tank and his breathing was more rapid. He still comes out for food but spends most of his time in the corner. This morning i noticed some red streaks on one of his pectoral fins and his gills may be possibly inflammed but it is hard to tell with his pale body his gills have always looked quite pink. In the past i have treated for white spot (which i'm sure its not as there were never any white spots evident) i also had the sudden death of two mollies, i don't know the age of them as they were part of a different tank setup when i got them, they were quarantined in another tank for a couple of weeks and exhibited no signs of illness. when two of the died within a week of each other they did not exhibit any illness either. So any ideas as to what this could be, a couple of months ago i treated with prazi to be on the safe side but now with the introduction of red streaks i'm wondering if these could be symptoms of bacterial infection? Any advice as to a diagnosis and treatment would be appreciated i've been trying to nail this problem for a while and REALLY don't want to lose the balloon ram as he has a ton of personality.

hmm will have to keep thinking, the mollies actually don't scratch, just the golden barbs and occasionally the gouramis (though i've just started to notice this). the barbs came in with the mollies from another tank i bought so i don't know their history. I guess if water parameters are fine and they don't show any other illness just leave it be?

ok thanks, the mollies have always had this colour, perhaps its normal colouration? can't really think of any reasons why some of the fish scratch but show no other signs of illness

hey guys, well i'm wondering if my fish are suffering from velvet. Tank parameters are 300L planted tank moderate - heavy stocking, with gouramis, golden barbs, ruby barbs, neons, cardinals, bristlenoses, corys, blue rams and black mollies. All water parameters are normal, ammonia - nil, nitrite - nil, nitrate around 10 -20ppm. Water changes every 2 weeks. So you may remember several months ago my golden barbs were scratching, i treated for ich even though i couldn't see any signs of it and monitored the pH which stabilised at around 6.8 - 7. Well the golden barbs still exhibit scratching (not compulsively but more than enough to make me suspicious) and i've seen the gouramis starting to do it as well. Anyway i remmber alanmin telling me that to spot velvet shine a torch on the fish in the dark and see if it reflects. The mollies do seem to have gold specks that reflect, plus they also have yellow splotches over them clearly visible without the lights off. So two questions, does this look like velvet? And if not are the yellow markings on the mollies normal? Also what is the recommended treatment if it is velvet? If its not velvet i really can't think of any other reason that they would be scratching, no signs of parasites (i;ve treated with prazi previously to make sure) and no sign of whitespot.

Just checked and its called Mike's Fishing Store

Hey GWH, i was having the same dilemma with the cold chch water down here. My partner bought me one of the tap filling devices for my birthday so i could do water changes on my discus tank. (he's very aware of my fish obsession). You can either buy them via trademe or the guy that sells them on trademe actually has a shop in town, called something like mike's fishing ( i will check later if you like). It comes with the faucet adaptors and tap but doesn't come with any hose. I found i needed to replace the plastic thread adaptor for the kitchen tap as the plastic one didn't thread very well and leaked. I have used it to fill my tank and it has worked very well. I had thought that i may have problems with the tank being higher than the kitchen sink and the water not being able to be pushed upwards but it was no problem at all. I haven't yet used it to drain the tank as the hose i bought is not the same diameter as my gravel vac hose :oops: so i may end up changing the hose type ( i also didn't buy a long enough hose to reach my other tank). Even just the filling the tank via this method has saved a lot of time

I have the kit listed above in the photo and i've found it very reliable, and easy to use. I also bought mine via trademe as it was a lot cheaper than in the shops. I think it was even from the same seller. (where i think the retail was around $70). One added benefit it had over other test kits i looked at was it provided two sets of pH tests. One for high pH (eg if you are keeping a cichlid tank) and one for your standard community tank

Hey candy, i can offer you my very limited experience from my own discus settling in. I bought 3 large males around 3 -4 weeks ago. The first week, i hardly saw two of them and there was a fair amount of bullying by the one discus that didn't hide. One of the hiding males, only sometimes ate and even then it was as if he wasn't particularly interested and always seemed to be beaten to the food. However after 2 weeks they were all out and about and appear very happy. As of around 1 1/2 weeks ago they now all rush to the front of the tank whenever i walk past hoping its dinner time and I now no longer have one dominant male that picks on the others, the squabbling is fairly equal. So if i was you i probably woulnd't be too worried (I know how it feels seeing them hiding etc and worrying constantly) and give them a bit more time to settle in, it can take a little bit to get used to the difference in water chemistry and surroundings etc.

My boys that I picked up a fortnight ago They all seem to have settled in now and the fighting is no longer one sided. The two larger boys are male but i'm not sure on the sex of the smaller fella. I think its a male but if anyone can advise i'd be keen to know (its the one in the photo of all three of them that isn't fighting). PS do female discus fight with others or is it just the males? Also i'm not too familar with the varieties, are they all turks?

PS mine is an internal juwel filter system too

Hi Fievels, The exact same thing happened to me last night when i turned off my filter to change the filter wool. I couldn't get it to start and like you could feel it getting power as it was vibrating. In the end i found that the impeller had become clogged (only very lightly but enough to prevent it from starting. Cleaned out the impellerand it started back up again and has been fine ever since. Try cleaning your impeller out and it should be fine

yeah thats what i''m hoping, when i woke this morning all three were out and about so hopefully they'll start settle in. I don't really want to put more in as i don't feel they would have enough space. Tank is 180L for the three of them

i have a similar problem with mine, i bought them on the weekend and have had a fair amount of aggression between them. I bought three from a person who was breaking down their discus setup, 2 are quite large around 10cm (i think 2yrs old) while 1 is around 8cm and i suspect all three are males.. One of hte males is out and about but tends to chase the other two. The other large male spends most of his time hiding and his colour is very dark. When is challenged or attacked by the other male he fights back so i'm thinking thats a good sign? He just doesn't want to come out front much though, is there anything i can do for them/him

Animates also sells stuff that is suitable for aquariums.. most likley a bit more expensive than going to mitre 10.. i was unsure about glass silicon so splashed out the extra $5 on the tube at animates and its worked a treat

well i went heater mad and bought several to solve problem, a mercury one, another aqua one digital and an aqua one one where only the probe is inserted. The result of all this is that the hailea was indeed stuffed (dont' know why only a month old) and hte original mercury one was stuffed. So now i know and i have 2 main tanks with 5 thermometers

I've ruled out he mercury one as being correct, i found a small hole in the thermometer and it had filled with water, so that ones stuffed. Im now pretty confident the aqua one is correct and the hailea is stuffed. I put them both in my unheated goldfish tank, aqua one gave a reading of around 17.7 whereas the hailea said 24.5 (which seems way too high for an unheated tank). Also seems to fit with match the heater thermostats.

Just wondering if anyone knows a reliable brand of fully submersible aquarium thermometer. I set up my discus tank today (180L with aqua one 200W heater) and seemed to be getting strange readings on my hailea brand digital thermometer, so i added two other thermometers at the same height and same position in the tank, this is what i got: Heater thermostat set to 26.5 Hailea digital thermometer 30.2 degrees Aqua One digital thermometer 25.2 analogue (mercury thermometer 32.5 So they are all very different, I'm inclined to believe the aqua one thermometer as its brand new today. The hailea is around 3 months old, i've replaced the battery but it still seems stuck around the 30 degree mark. The mercury thermometer never seems to drop past around 26 degrees. So... which brands are reliable, i suspect the hailea and the mercury thermometer are stuffed as the hailea used to display temp readings of 28 degrees in my 300L tank despite the fact the heater is wound down to the minimum. My other question is the heater in the tank is 200W aqua one, I have a spare transonic 300W heater should i use this instead (don't know what transonics are like as a brand

hey guys thanks for the advice, its appreciated. Well the story goes, i bought some stuff (sponge filter, liquifry etc ) to get a tank sorted out to transfer the eggs. However the parents were doing such a good job at guarding the eggs that i thought i would give them a chance at trying to raise them... bad idea parents guarded the eggs for two nights but this morning the female started eating the odd egg. I debated transfering them out but wasn't set up to do it properly, came home tonight after being away all day and they were all gone i guess she ate them so next time i will definitely be transferring them out.. Its nice to know that they spawn so often so i may not have to wait long

yeah i have a cf1200, but the picture made for the cf1000 makes it look like a tray, i guess its not a tray but the sponge.

Should i transfer the parents as well or just the eggs? also i have an aquaone 38litre tank with built in filter, heater, lights. If i put mesh/pantyhose over the filter inlet would this be sufficient to stop eggs/fry being sucked in or should i use a sponge filter or airline? I'm hoping to buy some microworms and brine shrimp tomorrow and make a hatchery to start raising them. Does nayone know how often the parents are likely to spawn. I've only had the parents together as a pair for a month so i;m really happy as this is only my second experience of breeding

Some Pics below. They are still spawning, so looks to be a good size, still need some advice on what to do with the spawn.

Hey guys, my blue rams are spawning as i type for the first time so its very exciting. They have spawned in my community tank so im wondering what the best option is. Try and section the tank off? Try and transport either parents and eggs to my small 38litre tank? or something else? They have laid eggs on a amazon sword leaf so i could remove the leaf and transport them. What do ppl think would be best for the eggs and the parents. They are actively trying to defend their small territory at the moment pics to come once ive sorted what to do.

Hey Casper, i have the instructions here for the various Aquaone models, the CF1000 should have the media in the following order Bottom Tray - Bio balls Middle tray - Ceramic noodles with 15PPI sponge pad Top Tray - 35PPI Sponge pad with filter wool on top. Hope that helps. If you've got them in the right order then I agree that its probably dirty gravel.

Not the red ones but they are from the same person.

Hey GWH, Thanks for the advice , the pair I'm looking at have bred together and produced fry apparently so i'm thinking they may be ok together.., there is also another male available but i'm not sure how they would be with the pair (although I think they are all in the same tank at the moment). Its strange a lot of people mention gouramis and siamese fighters having issues but my honeys, snakeskins and fighter coexist happily, no fighting at feeding time etc. Im wondering if they fact the fighter is a female may have something to do with it, maybe its worse with a male? As far as introducing the discus in to the tank are there any special precautions I should take. I've read of ppl introducing tank water slowly in to the bag from your existing tank to help acclimate the fish. SHould I be doing this to help ease stress at introduction time? I'd be interested to know often do you're doing water changes with the additional filter GWH?