Dave+Amy

Did you do the open water dive Suphew? yeah we looked at hiring scooters lol ... it will be so much fun, we're going right before the school holidays so it will be one relaxing holiday. Do people recommend going to the surrounding islands?

were living expenses high?

we were advised by the Sony salesman to buy their underwater casing which tailor fits our sony cam - has anyone used this? it's meant to be heavy duty and has special lens to prevent reflection when taking pics. did think about those disposable underwater cams but thought it would be guttering if they broke or something then we won't have any pics. Also - which resorts do people recommend??

jealous of your tank DubbieBoy...wanting to have something similar to that but on a bigger scale but plants don't seem to tolerate my frequent waterchanges well my four HUGE tiger lotuses have all died

Tequila's almost fully recovered - been gut loading him with calcium powder as well as his liquid calcium feeds, seems like just having two front legs doesn't seem to hinder his movement at all lol still runs pretty fast! Almost time to let him have live insects again now that he can chase them again

So we've finally booked tickets to Raro for after the final uni exams in November, we're thinking about renting a house over there and spending a couple of nights in a swish resort. Has anyone been over there recently or can recommend any activities to do while we're over there? We're looking at getting both our scuba diving certificates, going big game fishing, maybe horseriding...snorkelling which is pretty much all there was on the travel brochure. Looking at purchasing a underwater camera case so we can take photos on dives - is there any camera savy people out there that knows where to purchase these accessories for cheaper than Sony stores? $300 for a camera case is a bit steep.. Any help/advice would be awesome planning our budget now

eeeew poor birds, just read that articles now - it's birds now but whoever it is might move on to people next, when there's no feelings attached to attacks like these usually mean a gradual build up to more violent actions..I've been reading too many crim books might not even be a kid from a bad household or gang related - I knew a guy who went to a brother school as us and his family was rich but negligent and he shot his cat for fun in 3rd form or something, parents didn't do anything to punish him and the matter was just ignored. His parents were just too busy to even care Sad world

cool thanks for that peeps ..will get a pic up of him soon so people can tell me what they think of his back and his tail in terms of healing etc. Will be popping over to the supermarket later on tonight for a bag of mesclun

it's a bit hard to feed him live insects atm - because we have to hold him flat on one hand while using the other hand to bring food to his mouth. He's been gobbling down fortified cricket pellets called Jurassic Diet - for juvenile beardys (that's just easier to hold than a live locust or circket. noticing a giant lump where tail starts (right after legs) looks like it's not aligned but that's going to have to wait until Tequila gets through his calcium before the vets will see him again. I thought Mesclun wasn't that good for them? so spinach is ok? 'cos the vets said not to feed too much spinach or brocolli cos too much protein isn't good and he can get digestive probs? he gets to lick strawberries as a treat when he's been eating his food properly - that's one thing he loves lol. where do you get kale from? Haven't seen it in the supermarkets. Lesson learned though

Hey thanks everyone, Tequila's getting used to his daily calcium meds now and readily taking to food but we're still hand feeding 'cos of his disability at the moment..he's getting too active for his confinement dragging himself around and he's getting quite fast too Mincie - it wasn't a stuck carrot but we're thankful that we took him to the vets anyway, Dave was guttered but I told him it was his fault and now I'm in charge of feeding duties. Mystic - he's looking really good (his colouring is definately back) and we see occassion twiches with his legs but there is definately one hind leg that's not doing much, we'll haven't deal with that after we've built Tequila up a bit more. Sweetysmum - did your beardy go through a similar thing? I'm finding our beardy quite resilient despite everything, hoping like mad he'll regain function of both hind legs and tail.

Hey guys, haven't been on the forum in ages battling uni and crisis at home with Tequila. We noticed that he stopped eating locusts (which he usually doesn't go without) and stopped eating altogether and thought maybe he was heading towards bromation, but when I picked him up 2 weeks ago he went bent really badly (still a visible lump on his spine) - after Dave took him to the only vets that can treat beardys in Wgtn (Kelburn) we were told that Tequila's chances were quite slim. He had calcium deficiency and his bones didn't show up as well as they should have on the xrays and he had two definate broken back legs and possible spinal injury, his lack of diet was due to his bodily functions shutting down Have been syringe feeding him his calcium meds every morning and force fed him brussel sprouts and carrots and parsley and buk choy for a while now, gut loading him with crickets dusted with calcium powder too for the last 2 weeks and he's got his colour back but still not using his legs or tail - he drags himself (in his confined container) around with his front legs and he's finally pooing again. But out of all this he's finally taken to veges and not being picky anymore! The vets can't do anything more until we get his bones back on track...we're hoping his spine can self correct and that it hasn't done him too much damage but otherwsie he's on the mend...fingers still crossed though! has anyone else's Beardy gone through this and survived? because the vets told us that this was a common problem with people's young beardys that they bring in and most don't survive.

I think at least 3 X 30% waterchanges a week and that's on the slack side..I personally can't go without waterchange even one night without feeling horribly guilty and I swear my Discus all give me the evils

Carbon can't bind to plant and food decay and poo and stuff the van der waals forces are not strong enough for plant, food materials...it doesn't 'polish' water it retains atoms and molecules small enough :roll: the breakdown stage is on the bio noodles etc..really not that a difficult concept. if you want to keep water clear try a UV filter on top of your original filter for algae control or find a canister with inbuilt UV light.

you'll be sweet with 5/6 adult Discus in there but if you want to stock more you simply have to do more/often waterchanges. I find Ron's discus really good quality - robust/strong etc they adjusted better to my tank than my imported ones..not sure about breeds - thought there were just different strains bred from original wild caught Discus to the variety available today.

no whitespot is targeted for fungal infections..don't dose especially if you're unsure

if it makes you feel better having it in there then keep it for comfort, but water cleaning-wise it doesn't have much to do with water quality that you can see (like dirty water etc) it only goes to the level of removing things like chlorine etc that water treatment plants have to add to make water safe

they're talking about removing solutes (right?) small enough to fit in those tiny lil holes etc? the articles talk about removing harmful chems from water so it's safe for public consumption, but it's talking about water already chemically treated and tricked through a water processing plant not organic breakdown and poo. Funny that people from a petshops would encourage activated carbon use? The removal of organic matter is via the first part to water processing but huge layers of pebbles to the same effect as bio noodles which I've learnt from Microbiology and had to do a seminar for so I'd rather stick to my textbooks than websites for info

HOW does the carbon keep the water clear? how does it chemically change dirty water when it's a relatively inert substance? it's only purpose is to clean up excess meds..waterchanges keep water clear!

fins are usually not munched as a first choice by others..if he was muched they would've gone with the softer parts you'll find eg. body If it's fast it was probably bacterial - especially Loaches are susceptible to dirty water conditions, keep an eye out on others..

why bother with activated Carbon? - you only use that to draw out the leftover medication otherwise carbon is pretty much useless. I take out the carbon and add more bio noodles in its place. biff it..and fill its space with more useful stuff like bio noods. I have a 2000L/H filter as well as a Fluval 303 on my 450L Discus tank with daily w/cs and I have crystal clear water I'm thinking about getting rid of the fluval and getting another 2000L/H filter since the fluval looks to be at the end of its natural life lol

I think it's time for tough love LyndyLoo...we're doing that to our beardy at the moment. My Discus would be SO envious of your swordtails...this would be the look on their faces I had about 30/40 Guppies (started with 5males:2females ) in my 60L tank with swordtails..but I did big waterchanges to balance the stocking level

is it me or are all his fins gone? dirty water conditions maybe contributing to fin rot? bacterial?

wow really? Mine know NEVER to turn down food lol..I guess that's way they keep over eating ending with me having to give them epsom salt baths. that's funny because mine won't touch tubiflex worms or freeze dried bloodworms it has to be frozen foods or granules. Have you tried making home-made Discus tucker? mine love it but I haven't had the time lately to make it.. When my Discus were smaller (4cm) they loved fresh guppy young (tiny ones) - I had to keep them in my livebearer tank for a week before their own grow out tank was ready from cycling - so it wasn't me sadistically selecting baby guppies to feed them lol. I'm waiting on a White Diamond from Ron for a different splash of colour BTW LyndyLoo - your tubiflex was picked up this morning, should receive it by friday!

I threw in some feeder guppies 1cmish (bent backs etc) for my Discus as a treat..one survived! and now I have a horible bent back guppy in my tank thought it's beaten the odds of eating eaten it might as well enjoy the rest of its life

good on you