tHEcONCH

With respect, unless you are a vet you are more likely to harm him than help him by doing that. Just leave him be.

They are like Salmon - born in freshwater, they migrate as they grow downstream to mangrove swamps and the sea where they live their adult lives, then they return to freshwater rivers to reproduce. The ones you see for sale will almost undoubtedly have been caught in rivers and then transported and quarantined in freshwater, so that is how you should set them up initially. Over time you should SLOWLY change the water to brackish, or even full marine if you are prepared to buy the appropriate equipment to maintain a proper marine tank (skimmer etc.), but you need not do anything for months. DO NOT take them home and immediately dump them into a brackish set-up. They are predatory and will attack and kill most other fish etc. You need a good supply of snails etc. to feed them. I personally think 50 litres is too small for even 1 puffer because they are messy eaters and produce a lot of waste. You'll need a biggertank and a good quality, large capacity filter to keep them healthy. Here's a good little article: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... ed-puffers

I might just be diet - If it has a proper swim bladder organ (some fish don't - I don't know about mudfish) then it could just be a partially occluded intestine preventing the gas released from escaping the organ (does it poop?) - in which case feed it bloodworms or similar to help clear it out, or it could have a swim bladder infection - in which case use an antibiotic.

It can take a few weeks - it all depends upon how severe the infection was. Some may not recover at all. You should wait AT LEAST a week after all signs of infection have gone from ALL of the fish before you transfer them - that may involve culling the worst affected ones. When you do transfer them, net them out of the hospital tank - don't transfer any hospital tank water to the main tank.

What is your point? - I've never been banned. Have you? You made an erroneous and unhelpful blanket statement of absolutely no use to the person posting the question, then posted a bunch of quotes that undermined your own statement, now you want to argue semantics to save face? If you've got no advice on how to treat an Oscar with hole-in-the-head maybe you shouldn't be posting anything in this thread eh?

So... And... But... Which leads to the conclusion... That seems to be the case :lol:

Navarre, you are just plain wrong. Do you know what Anti-biotic means? Metro has been used as a broad spectrum anti-biotic in humans as well as animals for years. The fact that it has other properties and uses and is marketed accordingly doesn't mean it isn't an antibiotic. Perhaps you need to do a little more research, eh?

I'm not familiar with that, but the problem with things designed to support plant growth is that they support plant growth - including algae. Marine products generally don't which helps keep other problems in check. Anyhoo, off to do some water changes...

I wouldn't - for the reason you've identified. You just don't know what is in it.

I think water softness might be your problem - its the logical place to start anyway. Natural freshwater in rivers is also very soft, but it still contains an inexhaustable supply of trace elements, including calcium etc.. Crushed Oyster shells will help, but perhaps not at a rate that you fish needs. Here are the trace elements found in freshwater (I don't know where you'd find normal concentrations): Sb, Mo, Sn, Ti, Al, As, Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni, Se, Ag, Tl, Th, U, V, Zn, Ca, Fe, Mg, K, Na. You'll already have some (like Pb :-? ) in your rainwater, but you might want to consider adding something with readily dissolvable carbonates to your water too, and perhaps a source of trace elements. JBL's Aqua-Dur would be my choice (I used 2 teaspoons every 200 litre weekly water change), but you could perhaps use a marine product like Seachem's Reef Builder (in very small quantities) if you can't find Aqua-Dur. Seachem's Reef Plus would also be a good sourch of trace elements (again its a marine product and not ideal, but a pretty good start - just be careful not to overdose with either - your fish can only absorb it slowly anyway, but you'll need to keep replacing it every time you do a water change.

Check your water, but remember a lot of phosphate gets introduced through cheap dry foods and frozen food. - thaw and drain frozen food, and look for 'phosphate reduced' fish foods, e.g. JBL.

As ryanjury says, do a trawl of the internet and make up your own mind, but this is what I'd do: Are you 100% confident it is Hole-in-theHead? This is Hole-in-the-head This IS NOT Hole-in-the-head (Nares Pores / Sensory Pits) Measure your water parameters including pH and 'hardness' (measure the kH and/or dH). Hole-in-the-head is more likely to occur in very soft water (because its associated with mineral deficiencies). Fish can absorb minerals through their gills - but not if there aren't any present in the water, so if your water is very soft add something like JBL aqua-Dur to make sure it has some 'hardness' and contains some calcium and other trace elements. Don't overdo it, because it will affect your pH. Assuming your water has a low pH Aqua-Dur will raise it toward nuetral - not a bad theing for an Oscar, but the change has to be gradual. You could also treat for worms as a precaution (not going to do much harm if there aren't any - you can buy (Orange flavoured) de-wormers for humans from your chemist - Trawl the internet for the dosage once you buy something and know the drug content - crush it up and add it to food) and neither will it hurt to add variety to the fish's diet. Try feeding smallish snails - full of goodness! JBL make a range of vitamin enriched foods that will help, and you can add a vitamin supplement to your fish's other foods (you can't actually get good fish vitamin supplements easily in NZ, but Flukers (via Hothouse Turtles) make a reptile one that is better than nothing). Keep up the water changes. I wouldn't treat for a secondary infection unless you are confident it has one - fuzzyness around the holes etc, or a bloated gut. If it is bloated, treat with Metro for a gut infection, if it has fuzz or skin problems use furan2 (Evil stuff, read the warnings). Be patient - I've only treated it once (co-incidentally in an Oscar who is an extremely fussy eater) and it resolved after about six months of hardened water and a better diet - I didn't use any drugs). Best of luck.

No good marine tanks use filters - they use protein skimmers. A lot of tanks claim to be suitable for marine (in the sense that they won't corrode if you put saltwater in them) but in reality they are totally unsuitable for all but the most basic of corals and hardiest of fish - they really are a waste of your money. If the sump idea sounds too hard then you can buy an 'all-in-one' like a Red Sea Max, but be prepared to pay a premium for the convenience. Conventional tanks with a sump is still the best way to go, and with all due respect if you aren't prepared to learn about them and other marine specific equipment and techniques you are unikely to have much fun with a marine tank. Keeping marine animals (fish and corals) takes a far greater commitment in terms of time, money, and knowledge than freshwater, but in my opinion the rewards are greater too. Take the time to learn about it before you start and you will make better buying decisions and enjoy a lot more success. If you look for a cheap and cheerful budget 'shortcut' you'll either end up with very disappointing results, or end up having to chuck it in the bin and buy decent gear anyway.

That just demonstrates that the interweb is a great way to perpetuate out of date knowledge. Hole-in-the-head is a symptom of mineral difficiencies, which is more often caused by inadequate diet than some mythical bacterial infection. Metro also kills off gut bacteria, further reducing the fish's ability to take up nutrients. If your fish has a worm infection that is consuming the nutrients before the fish can (unlikely) then you need to treat them with a de-wormer (Droncit derivatives etc.), not an antibiotic. If you treat with Metro you might kill off a secondary infection, but you still haven't dealt with the underlying cause. Think about it.

Manly looks? You probably don't want a goby then - perhaps a Lion fish. Personally I don't think you should put any fish in a tank that small, not even a Goby. There is no way a Bi-colour (or any other) will get enough green algae to eat. Get a bigger tank if you want to keep fish (healthy ones, anyway)

Some of that info is pretty out of date. There is no point using antibiotics to treat a deficient diet. Think about it.

Unless your Oscar has worms (unlikely unless they are wild-caught) Hole in the head results from a deficient diet, not a pathogen. You could give them a dose of Metro just in case it does have worms or a secondary infection, but this will also kill off gut bacteria, which will worsten the problem. You need to feed them a more varied diet.

Check your PMs

Because you aren't trying to keep freshwater creatures. Filters are a very bad idea in a marine set-up because they trap crud within the system, they don't remove it like a skimmer does. You simply cannot cut corners with marine - if you are unsure of the technology, buy a second hand Red Sea Max or something

OK, the corals and fish (which don't go into my new tank) will be sold off (check the other site), the standard skimmer refitted, and the tank sold as a bare, but cycled unit (i.e. with some live rock and sand but nothing else). PMs only please.

Will be for sale in the very near future - pick up only - either as a bare tank or as a going concern with a nice little ecosystem in place (including a whole bunch of corals). It has been well maintained and recently refitted with new tubes, cooling fans, Ballast, and has the upgraded timer etc. It could also come with a Deltec MC500 if the price is right, otherwise it will come with the standard skimmer. At this stage I'm after expressions of interest / offers to see whether I keep it running or just shut it down / part it out. I'm looking for around $750 for the bare tank/stand - if you want the Deltec and/or corals as well we'll negotiate. PMs please.

Yes, and I go all wrinkly and horrible looking too! Unfortunately the kind of flawed reasoning my example was supposed to illustrate crops up quite often in this hobby - people like to second-guess nature for some reason.

That's just rubbish - its about as scientific as astrology and often used as a weak excuse to skimp on buying salt and doing proper maintenance. When all is said and done the most successful keepers reproduce as close as possible the natural conditions of the fish / coral, and keep them that way - maintaining water quality is paramount. Boring, but paramount.

I agree - humans are 90% water - maybe we would all be happier sitting in a luke-warm bath?