joliet

Hmm just looked that up, and these are the symptoms liste; "the fish becoming darker or even black, the fish start swimming backwards, the head sinks in (becomes thin), weight loss and the fish starting to hide in small corners with its head facing downwards" He has none of those. He just looks really thin, like the thin picked on clown loach at the pet shop, type thing. But he's happy. He swims around fine, still dances and flirts with his partner, still eats (sometimes looks as though he's chewing it but then spits it out). He is just thin, and his poo is stringey and looks empty. It's almost as if he's anorexic or something. I don't know what it is, I'm completely lost, and I'm worried that he's not actually absorbing anything he's eating, or something inside him is eating the food without him getting any (hence the empty poo). :-? I will try and get some pics tonight

Hi all, I need some advice. My Sparkling Gourami is looking rather "wasted" (not drunk!) and his, err, poo, is all white and stringy. Still has a good appetite, and is swimming around happy, just looking a bit skinny. From what I can gather, he must have some sort of worm infestation? Whats the best cure for this? What's worked or not worked for you? Thanks in advance P.S None of the other fish in the tank seem to have it. :-? he really does look a bit silly next to his lovely, blossoming female companion.

We're struggling to find any more Sparkling Gouramis around Christchurch. Looking forward to seeing the pics

In our AR380 we have two Sparkling Gourami's (male and female) and a female Bristlenose (doesn't get as big as the male). They all get along fine and it is so cool hearing the Gourami's croak. Plus they're beautiful fish and really inquisitive and will come up to the front of the tank and look at you looking at them :lol: I've found most anabantoids to be like that. Good luck with your project

Quality assurance is the key thing when hiring staff. Animates is a store that specialises in specific areas so should be hiring staff who have knowledge of that area or should at least be training staff to have knowledge in that area. There is a massive difference between someone in an Animates store and say, someone behind a supermarket counter who doesn't need to know the stock inside out or answer specific questions asked by someone who is trying to care for a pet they have or are looking to purchase. I worked for a jewellery company for a long time and the first thing I was given when I started was a thick training manual that told me everything to know about the products we stocked and how to sell them to the right people. Without that knowledge or skill base there is NO way I could have had so many customers and so many sales. And I wasn't even dealing with a subject so close to so many peoples hearts (i.e., pets.) Some staff, SOME staff, at Animates are under-trained in both the products they're selling and customer service in general - and this is across the board, not just in the fish department. Now that I know it's not a franchise, they really have no excuse not to have a stock standard training manual that goes out to every employee so they know at least some basics, or hire a specialist person for each area of the store so that other staff members can go to them if they don't know the answers to a customers questions (I'm aware of maybe one store in CHCH that does hire a specialist, who never seems to be around anyway .. ). There is no doubt in my mind (because I'm a customer and a trained sales person) that Animates are losing customers every day due to poor customer service - not to mention the amount of fish that are dying due to poor advice given to customers and lack of upkeep in the stores displays. I'm not having a go at you I'm just trying to explain why it's not fair to just fob it off to managers only 'managing' people and staff members only wanting a pay packet when there are so many fine elements involved in working at a pet store.

For anyone interested, Organism have 4 in at $39 each and John thinks there are two boys and two girls.

There's 3 Animates stores in CHCH and we get mixed experiences from all of them. Town (Moorhouse) is an absolute joke, you never get served and I can't actually recall buying much there except the $399 Blue Planet tank or a few accessories when they're on sale. When we bought the tank is was ex display but only the water had been taken out and not even all of it. We had to scoop the stones out by ourselves into plastic shopping bags while 3 or 4 staff members stood around doing not much at all. Papanui is alright, though again I don't think we've bought much from there either. Never really dealt with the staff (because they never approach us) except when asking about a tank that was on special .. which turned out to be on Layby for someone else anyway :-? Tower Junction are awesome. The guys in there know their stuff, recognize us (we're weekend regulars :lol:) and greet us when we come in and have a good joke with us about stuff and are happy to do us deals. Plus we entered and won the Pimp My Tank competition so have a $120 voucher we're trying to spend there. The fish we've bought from there are always happy and healthy and never have any issues. So yeah, I guess the point of my message is to not only vent about the town store because they're useless :evil: but also to say that it really does depend on the staff in the store. We tend to mainly shop in Organism or Redwood when we can because they're cheaper and we like to support the smaller shops too. Does anyone know if animates is a franchise? It might explain the lack of consistency.

Been using it a couple of months and yet to see any downside to it. We bought a new one this winter and like I say, no problems with damp or mold and no bad headaches.

Yeah maybe if you have it running for 8 hours a day without opening the windows a bit during the day (when you're out of the house) to air the place out. Honestly, we have no problem with dampness or mold. Actually this is the first house I've been in (in New Zealand) that DOESN'T have a damp/mold problem. The windows are wet in the morning and dry when we get home at night. No problems. I honestly find this hard to believe. It costs us $21 to fill a 9kg bottle that lasts us 3 weeks of heating, if we us it every night for 4 hours which we don't because it hasn't been that cold this winter. We have a small flat so it doesn't take much to heat the place up.

I know Phoenix is a guy, because I've seen his .. bebo? He likes to eat Rainbow Lorikeets!

Our power bill came in at $104 this month after the 12% discount, and we (were, as recently as Sunday) running 4 tanks on that (80L cold, 2x 60L heated, 34L heated all with 8 hours a day lighting and all day filteration). I've put big fleece blankets over the tops of the heated tanks and drape them over the front at night when the lights are off. That way we have one 60L tank sitting at 28degrees with a 50w heater. Aside from that, we use a gas heater to keep warm with an electric blanket on 3 at night to warm the bed, eco bulb lights to see, a washing machine to wash and an oven to cook, computers, a TV and a gaming console for entertainment. I honestly have NO idea how a house could use $900 worth of electricity a month. Even my cousin with her young family only uses $300 a month. How is everyone else using so much power?! The mind boggles :lol:

He's completely back to normal now he just slowly deflated. The peas must have helped but he certainly didnt go back to normal the day after. Must have just been 'one of those things'.

his scales are starting to stick out a bit so I'm getting really worried it may be a case of Dropsy. But I've fed all the fish some peas tonight and hopefully the CAE got some, some floated down in his direction and there's still some sitting around so he should get some. I also did a big water change last night and will do one again tomorrow night. Fingers crossed! Sorry to hear about your CAE it must be a lot harder when you've had the fish for such a long time.

No, that's the weird thing, it was a day after feeding and I haven't fed the fish since and he is STILL that fat, maybe even fatter.

I'm not having much fun with fish recently - my female fighter passed on with Dropsy, my male Gourmai seemed to die of a broken heart (they were both in a different tank to the CAE) and now one of my CAE's has a fat tummy. I might be jumping to conclusions but knowing my recent luck with fish, he will pass too! (with and without flash) So is he just fat? Has he just found some abundance of Algae to munch on? Or is it something else? Water parameters are fine, feeding them every 2nd or third day and he shares a tank with 4 small Kribs, a female Bristlenose and a juv Whiptail. Any ideas?