Tracey

You should never feed cat food or dog food to fish Both are very high in animal proteins, which are difficult for fish to digest properly and can lead to health problems later in life. They are designed to meet the dietary needs of cats and dogs, not fish. The crude protein levels, levels of various vitamins and the other ingredients are all intended to keep a cat or a dag healthy. What keeps them healthy is completely different from what keeps a fish healthy.

Sorry to hear you lost him, Tsarmina It sounds almost exactly the same thing that I lost my Albino Common to about 6 months ago, same symptoms and oddly enough, mine was pretty much the same size as yours too. I couldn't find anyone who had the first idea what might have happened.

Yup, African Knife, Xenomystus nigri. It has no dorsal fin, which is how you can tell the difference between an African and an Asian Knife.

LOL, I got the distinct impression they would have taken a bite if they were given the chance. Having been in the water with smaller sharks, I'd do it with the bigger ones. The tour company I was with in Hawaii has Tiger's on a regular basis at the end of their winter..... just missed out on those

How about those chocolate bars that Cadbury does for schools and other non-profit organizations to sell? Not sure who you'd need to contact about them, but I came across a lady from Habitat for Humanity selling them, so it's obviously not just for schools (which I thought it was at first). Can't go past chocolate as a good seller 8)

I said that too, until I had the chance to try it with some 6 to 10' Galapagos and Reef Sharks in Hawaii last year. It has to be one of the most humbling and awe-inspiring experiences of my life The way they look at you and totally dismiss you as supremely unimportant....... I have met a number of ppl over the years that would benefit from that sort of regard :lol: If you ever get the chance, try it, it is amazing!!!

At only 10cm, both Royal's and Clown's have stripes. A Clown won't start to develop it's spots until about 15cm. I hope you do have a Royal.

I've tackled my local vet about getting medication for fish in the past and they contacted Massey University. You could try contacting Massey directly, there is someone in the Vet/Aquaculture section up there that does know a bit about tropical fish

I saw this same question posted by someone on another forum, mixing a Dat and Jar specifically, and the answer was a resounding "Don't do it!!!". As for other predators, my 7" Indo is quite happy living with my 24" Clown, but I have an extremely non-aggressive Clown, so I'm not really sure if it's just my dopey fish, or if it will actually work.

Believe the "nasty" comments :lol: Mine is not quite mature yet and is already showing signs of a developing temper. He's not at all shy about having a crack a fish much larger than himself even now.

They do and quite badly too They are certainly quite venomous

I wouldn't trust a BGK as far as I could throw it with Tetra's. Their mouths are quite a bit larger than they look and even at less than 10cm, it will still be trying to hunt the smaller fish down.

Oddballs..... the bigger the better, hence the Clown Knife, Silver Arrowana and Ornate Bichir :lol:

Clown Knives will often bloat after making pigs of themselves eating. I know mine sometimes looks like he's swallowed a golfball after a big meal. It usually protudes on both sides in the belly area, but I have heard of Knives showing it only on one side.

With as much food as he'll eat and weekly water changes mine has grown nearly 2" in the past 5 to 6 weeks He's starting to pack on some bulk now as well, looking less like a skinny worm and more like the chunky Bichir he's suppoed to be

There's a shop down here that still seems to be selling them, and when my partner mentioned this thread and what they actually were, he didn't seem all that interested in doing to right thing :evil: Loopy, do you have a contact phone number or name for the MAF ppl?

You'd think that with the amount of armour they have, wouldn't you :lol: They have scutes, not scales. But they don't have a slimecoat over those scutes, which makes them more vulnerable to anything in their water. It's one of the reasons they're considered to be intolerant of salt, chlorine (more so than other fish), copper-based medications etc.

Clown Loaches and Pleco's are also considered scaleless and I've never had a problem with any of them and Melafix, just my Clown :-? I don't know if I've ever dosed the tank my Syno is in..........

I'm really sorry to hear about your boy, Tsarmina I lost my first BGK to a very small injury, not in the same pace as yours, but with similar symptoms. I discussed it with someone a few years later and was told it was probably a combination of bacterial and fugal problems. It seems they are quite susceptible to them and can be hard to treat. I was given the names of lots of medications, but none that we can get here in NZ, unless you're on really good terms with your local vet and they'll prescribe them for you. The best we can do is Furan 2 and I have no idea how a BGK would react to that. It's interesting what you said about his reaction to Melafix. I've never added Melafix to my BGK's tank because I've seen my Clown Knife react badly to it. Is this a Knifefish thing, I wonder?

What was the lfs feeding him? Live food pretty much always works with a Clown, but it can be very hard to get them to eat anything else once they start on it. I was never able to get mine to eat flake or any frozen foods. He's obsessed with the sinking carnivorous catfish pellets I feed my Mystus, gobbles them up like there's no tomorrow. I'll get the brand when I get home. Other than that, I'd try him on pieces of defrosted shrimp or prawn, maybe a bit of liver or heart, something nice and bloody that he'll be able to smell easily.

I have three in one of my tanks and they seem perfectly happy in a group that size. They've been in there for nearly 5 years now, eating like pigs and (very slowly) growing happily. The largest is close to 6" now.

Youa nd me both, Farmchick :lol: I've been trying to figure out how to clean out the bottom of the pond.

Good luck, SpidersWeb, hope they pull thru for ya

Spiderweb, I have one packet of Furan 2 sitting around atm if you need it. I'm down in Lower Hutt, PM me if you'd like it. Pleco's are sensitive to salt, although not as much as scaleless fish like Loaches. You might want to go a little easy on the salt, maybe a half dose and see how the Red Spot reacts to that.

Don't we all :-? I did come up with another two possibilities, a Saprolegnia (water fungus) infection or Columnaris "White or or discoloured 'cotton-wool' patches on the skin or fins. Often accompanied by inflammation and skin erosion" Thats the description from FishDoc.co.uk http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disea ... mnaris.htm It sounds bacterial to me, which bacteria it could be, I have no idea. I don't like recommending medications without knowing for sure what I'm dealing with, but in NZ there's pretty much only one thing to treat anything bacterial, Furan 2, so I suppose it could be worth a try. I've used this a couple of times myself with a really nasty, stubborn bacterial infection that attacked my Sevs with realyl good results. You can dose up to three times the amount recommended on the packet with no ill effects, I've used a double dose with no problems at all.