Jennifer

I can relate... :roll: :lol:

Thanks Loopy, that would be great, and lovely to see you. But please do come on the day of the meeting (Saturday week) rather than tomorrow.

There's a huge size difference but also Guinea pigs (cavies) are nice and hamsters are not so nice. See video: Note how the Guinea pig can't access the bowl of food and how the hamster rolls on its back - it is poising its weapons getting ready to savage the poor Guinea pig!

The algae most likely was caused by the lack of CO2 which prevented the plants from using up the nutrients. Staghorn is particularly common from CO2 fluctuations. Good to hear the fish are ok though.

Looks like a wound but it is very strange. I would be interested in seeing it the next day (assuming they survive) to see if the inflammation increases.

Well said and well referenced. Nothing that I like more than good objective evidence. 8) Having said that, my biased opinion on hamsters is based on having to treat them in clinic and you have to restrain then like this to prevent getting savaged. Its called making them 'smile.' 'Nuf said. Image courtesy of http://www.ahwla.org.uk

Awesome. I love following blogs like that.

How's he going Stella? I was just talking to an aquatics vet friend of mine and asked about it. He said it could be related to dropsy and might be worthwhile trying an antibiotic like oxytetracycline if it hasn't improved already.

Could be fungal spores, or an overproduction of slime. Some parasites you can see but they are not usually as you describe. Without knowing for sure it is hard to say. Keep clean water, possibly try salt and perhaps a malachite green dip if you are so motivated.

Oh no, that's no good! Was your C)2 tank still attached after it ran out?

You just want some fur lined knickers...

Are they growing toward the window? In the photo it didn't really look like they were all growing in one direction.

They look fine to me in terms of directional growth - plants don't always grow in a perfectly straight line. If they were reaching all in one direction I would be concerned they weren't getting enough light from above.

That is so cool!

This is the dose I use, but I do half every day instead of a full dose every two days. If there is not a huge amount of light, or if there aren't many plants, they will not be using the carbon very quickly so it might pay to minimise the dose. However, I have used more than double the dose for weeks at a time with no problems, ever. I always am careful to gradually increase the dose over time (and dilute it in water before adding it). :lol: Submarines...I love that!

With regard to the sedatives, yes. I don't know about the salt though, it is just how we have received some freshwater fish in the past and is referenced in some aquatic medicine textbooks but I haven't really looked into it to find out more specifics.

There are a number of additives to shipping water including sedatives, antiseptics, water stabilisers and antibiotics. Often fish are shipped in isotonic solutions of salt (0.9% NaCl or 9 grams per litre).

I would try Comprehensive every day, 1ml per 40 L, and increase the amount of food you are feeding the fish (to gently increase the nitrates). I have found that to be successful in most cases. You should see new leaves within a week or so. If you don't want to use Comprehensive you can just dose NPK separately (I find it much easier to use an all in one like Comprehensive though). The idea behind this is to flood the water column with excess nutrients to prevent nutrient deficiencies from being the limiting factor. The CO2 will prevent algae if the plants are not limited in any way (and as long as you do not have ammonia spikes). This is called the estimative index method coined by Tom Barr. Try Googling 'estimative index' for more info. Edit: I just looked it up and found this link: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... guide.html

Whoa......those look amazing!!! Are they good? Or perhaps I should have said: Were they good? I hope you saved some for breakfast, they are superb cold out of the fridge...cool creamy, spicy custard....mmmmm

That looks absolutely amazing!!!! Well done!!

As long as you have lights going and other nutrients (which it sounds like you do), the Excel should be mostly gone in 24 hours. I have a well planted 25cm cube tank (about 15 litres) with sparkling gourami and I add 0.1 mls of Excel (a couple of drops from the syringe) each day along with a similar amount of Flourish Comprehensive. I try to do a 50% water change once a week but there have been times that I have really neglected this tank. In any case, the gourami continue to thrive! Don't you just love their little rattling sound?

+1 droolworthy I seriously want to do a tank like that. :roll:

Thanks guys. My male looks just like this: Image courtesy of: http://www.dwergcichlide.nl/apistogramma_hongsloi.htm

The female absolutely bashes the male to within an inch of his life after they spawn so I removed him a couple of times but it didn't make any difference to her success rate. Now it is just heavily planted so he can hide in the corner. I do a 10% daily water change on the fry tanks until they are a month old, then 20% every two days.

I siphoned off 17 wrigglers on day five. Still have all 17. The male has really developed spectacular colouration (I would take a pic but then I'd have to clean the glass :oops: ). The pair spawn every two weeks like clockwork since I got them, but they don't raise them beyond 8 days. When I have more room I may steal the next batch but truthfully I have five batches of fry on the go at the moment and three more laying so that's about as much as I can handle!