[Dive Photos from Raro (Warning 32 of them 800X600)]

great photos, what type of camera are you using?

[Furan 2 or Droncit??]

+1 on ryanjury, scratching is usually a sign of gillflukes and prazi (or droncit) is what would usually be recommended. Furan 2 will do nothing for gill flukes or external/internal parasites. I have the dose rate for the liquid form of prazi (prazipro) here but can't remember the dose rate for the tablet form, someone else like discusguru is likley to remember though

[Underwater Cameras/Housings]

Im petty sure the ixus 700 is one of the models that have an underwater setting, cant be bothered looking it up as ive finished work for the day,lol

yip has the underwater setting, i'm planning on taking it when we do some diving on the honeymoon next year

[Underwater Cameras/Housings]

I've bought the Canon Ixus 700 and the underwater kit to go with it but i haven't had a chance to use the underwater kit yet. I think i got the kit for around $100 brand new off trademe in a clearout, they are usually around 300 i thin

[where to buy bulk salt?]

i have also seen instant ocean for sale, but red sea seems to be cheaper

[NZ blennies]

the blennies i've seen around chch are bicolour, canary, lawnmower, and i think starry blennies, but finding fish stock in chch is a bit of a mission at the moment

[new salty? Or Freshy?]

marine... go to the dark side .... I wouldn't say maintenance is less on a marine tank though and you need to keep an eye on more parameters than in a fW tank, e.g. salinity, calcium, mag, kh.... It really comes down to personal opinion, mine is hat if you can afford to go marine then you probably won't regret it... Alot of ppl go from FW to SW but i don't know of many that go from SW to FW

[Discus - dark and hiding]

yeah i think its up to hte individual, lots of ppl have used PP successfully, im just a bit wary because of a bad experience

[Discus - dark and hiding]

its more the measuring accurately i was referring to. Unless you have digital scales its pretty difficult to measure 0.2gm

[Discus - dark and hiding]

i agree need to do something but I wonder about using metro as its a bit easier to dose with

[Discus - dark and hiding]

be aware you need very accurate scales to measure PP to make sure the correct dose is given. I had a bad experience that resulted in me killing a fish with it so have steered clear and used gentler meds

[very bloated cherry barb - help]

if you copy the photo address in to the address bar (minus the img tags you can view the photos). Almost looks like some sort of obstruction or sudden tumour

[Discus - dark and hiding]

i'd be very careful with potassium permanganate its very easy to overdose as you are using such small amounts. Its a very powerful oxidiser so if you overdose the results can be lethal

[Help with Algae Eaters]

Have you checked to make sure that your test kit is working correctly? what is the ammonia reading of the water straight out of the tap?

[What causes bright, active fish to drop dead?]

i seem to recall somebody else having problems recently with cardinals from the lfs that had columnaris

[Spawning Bully Pics]

that is fantastic, those are awesome photos

[MR FISH is sick!]

any scratching? with whitespot the fish often scratches against gravel and objects due to the irritation. If you've got a photo that would help, whitespot should look like very small grains of salt

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

yes thats why i was thinking with angels, i haven't ever heard it with rams though. Oh well i will just keep watching and see

[Fluval or Juwel (Vicenza or Vision 180)]

i know what you mean about the brown scum, its annoying. I used very thin perspex to slide down the side of the filter and remove the scum. In one of hte other tanks i removed the filter box as i was using it for a marine tank. To get the box out you need to use fishing line to cut through the silicone dots. Takes a while and you break a lot of fishing lines but it works

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

Thanks for the pics lmsmith, i agree i don't think that second black smudge behind the black dot has anything to do with it.. but i'm still not sure about my fish. Does anyone know if two female blue rams will pair up and lay eggs together, or is it strictly a male/female affair? Also are two females likely to fight or remain placid together? I haven't noticed any mating behaviour yet between the two, i think i remember X fighting with what i thought were other males in the fish shop though.

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

hmm that's interesting about your thoughts on the dorsal spike, he's a pic of my previous pair. I witnessed this pair spawning, but the female unfortunately ate the eggs

First the male

And the female

A couple of things i thought were interesting comparing these pics to Billaney's and my above unknown pair:

Billaney's male has a large dorsal spike, my male in the pic above demonstrates a large dorsal spike but my female's spike in the above pic actually appears larger in proportion to the other dorsal rays. My unknown male which i'm going to call X from now on has a very sport spike.

My male in the first pic has a black matte spot, with slight blue flecking on the outside, X is similar, Billaney's male i can't tell due to the angle of the shot

Billaney's male, my male and X have longer pelvic rays, the females in all three pics have blunt pelvic rays shorter in length.

All three females demonstrate a pinkish hue behind the pectoral fin, this isn't evident in Billaney's male, my male and X

Billaney's female, and my female show a small black smudge behind the main black dot which isn't shown in either pics of the known males. X shows this black smudge in one photo but not the other??

So just some observations, I'm still pretty unsure on the what sex X is, maybe it's a transgender fish :lol: or a hemaphrodite!

I thought this would be any interesting discussion so if anyone else has pics of their known sexed pairs please post them up so we can compare

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

hmm you could be right Billaney I usually go by the flashes of blue in the black spot. The photo below makes it appear like there is a lot of blue speckling in the black dot, but when i look at the fish in the flesh, the black dot appears quite matte without the reflective quality the smaller female exhibits. The previous male i had never had a very long dorsal spike so i haven't really used that to sex them before. Is there usually any other sexual dimorphism between the sexes? I notice that the 'unknown' sexed one is much larger and the behaviour is much more territorial than the smaller one. Oh well guess I can only wait and see .

BTW love your pair in the photo below

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

no, take 2 as in a previous pair of blue rams before but i didn't get the eggs out in time, so im hoping this time something might happen

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

thanks , will be posting updates as they happen

[Blue Rams breeding take 2..]

Right, i've decided to give breeding blue rams another go. I've had a male for the last six months or so and seeing as i'm closing down my main FW tank i've setup an AR3880 which i'm going to have as a planted tank with a pair of blue rams.

Picked up a female ram a week ago and decided to add the male to the tank tonight. So fingers crossed they might 'get jiggy with it' and i'll have some blue ram fry to raise. Here are some pics of the introduction tonight, tank still needs some planting so its a bit bare at the moment.

Male Blue Ram

Male and Female Introduction

Male and Female Together