Jennifer

Fingers crossed.

Maybe.... :roll: 8)

Hmm, ok, thanks Ryan . Anyone with one of these keen for me to come have a look? I'll be up in Auckland next Wednesday so that's a possibility too.

Just take care that it might be better to do a slow transition between tanks if the water quality is very different between each tank. Truth be told, I rarely do this myself but water quality here is very good and I do lots of water changes so my fish are pretty used to the tap water. But if you want to be extra careful for your wee guy it might be good to at least set him in a bucket with half tank water and half new water from the quarantine tank, just for 15-30 minutes or so. Up to you though.

Enough air for 10 tanks? If anyone has one of these, let me know, I want to see/hear it in action.

You don't need biological filtration in the quarantine tank since you will be changing water so frequently. I rarely use any water circulation in hospital tanks, unless the water is very warm in which case circulation is needed to keep oxygen levels up. Good luck!

I just looked up the Material Safety Data Sheet for Primafix (http://cms.marsfishcare.com/files/msds/ ... 111909.pdf) and it seems to be a plant oil that can be quite caustic and this is probably not helping the fish to feel better. Unfortunately, if the fish has been struggling for a while, he may not have a lot of reserves, so just prepare yourself in case you loose him. Firstly, I would carry out a rescue procedure. Take the sick fish and put it in a quarantine bucket/tank with a heater or a floating ice cream container in your main tank. Gradually over the next hour or so, change more water in the quarantine container until it is all fresh (and approximately the same temperature as the tank). I can't see what the problem is, but honestly, without a proper diagnosis, most of the treatments that we offer are just guesses. The best thing you can do is reduce stress and hope that he can fight it off himself. There are some treatments we can suggest as topical bacterial/fungal/parasitic treatments (e.g. salt, acriflavine, formalin,meth blue, etc.) but if he has been struggling with it for a while, it is likely that these may be systemic (internal) so no a topical treatment may not work (and may actually create more stress). Treating with the antibiotic Furan 2 might be a good place to start.

I feed them every day, shrimp pellets and hikari wafers and they are in a tank by themselves with a sponge filter (well there is a mosquito rasbora in there too but I don't think he is the culprit). Today I noticed one of them only has a half of one antennae left. I have seen them really get into it rolling and thrashing about. I thought they were just mating, but now I am not so sure...

I am having the same problem. Which one of those would be the quietest Ryan? I am guessing the Hailea...

Wow, great pic. They are amazingly small!

Yeah, they only eat the dead bits....and each other's antennae. :-?

Excellent. Great to see some common myths debunked.

Hang in there Joe. That is the way it is for all of us. We ask advice and judge the advice against our own experiences, the credibility of the source and the feasibility for our own situation. As a result, we each develop our own way of doing things that works for us, and typically if we have spent any time struggling (which we all have), when we find a way that works we then make conclusions about that method and often stick to it like gospel. That doesn't mean that the same setup will work for everyone though. A large part of Luis Moniz's success is because he is talented and has a lot of experience figuring out what works for him. I am sure he could make an equally beautiful tank no matter what lighting he chose. That is why some of us are suggesting to you to start by using inexpensive, lower tech setups because if you can afford them now, you will get to start experimenting right away, and that is the best way to gain the vital experience needed to create stunning tanks, with or without fancy expensive lighting. You are very lucky to have such good advice offered on this forum. These guys are bringing their experience to you and now you need to weigh it up and decide what way is best for you.

Wow, those are truly awesome photos! Kudos to the person who had to stand out in that cold to take them!

Ordinarily you wouldn't re-dose or double dose unless you were certain that the worm burden was high or that you confirmed drug resistant worms. The problem is, without testing, you can't really be sure what the problem is in the first place so the treatment was just a guess. That said, if the fish has not improved and the signs strongly point to parasites, it might be worthwhile to repeat the dose - it certainly will not harm the fish (deaths from deworming only really occur with exceedingly large doses or if there has been a massive die off of worms causing systemic toxicity in the fish's body - it is very uncommon to see really heavy worm loads though).

Yeah bleach will work well for nonencysted microbes and is safe for all but the most delicate plants (delicate plants require a weaker concentration and a shorter dip time). It also is good for getting snails off (not jelly eggs though). Just don't forget and leave the plants in the bleach for an hour like I did this weekend. :-?

You used to be able to get Droncit injectable but I haven't seen it around for years and it isn't in the 2010 Index of Veterinary Standards (IVS) so it might not be licensed for veterinary use anymore. There are at least a couple of dozen other liquid dewormers on the market that contain praziquantel, but they almost all contain other dewormers as well (e.g. ivermectin, oxfendazole, pyrantel) as well as a number of other additives. The only apparent pure liquid praziquantel on the market is a large animal drench called Adtape. Details from the IVS are below: I do not know what the solvent is in the Adtape suspension so cannot vouch for its safety with aquatic animals. Also, since this product is apparently sold in very large quantities (5L), it could be unlikely that you would find it in anything other than equine/farm animal practices and those practices might prefer to stock other more comprehensive dewormers (that contain broad spectrum effectiveness for all worms, not just trematodes).

It will no longer be infectious 24 hours after you dose them. If you plan to redose, do that this weekend and then put the fish back in the main tank 24 hours after medicating.

Awesome. Gotta love another success story.

Since gastropods (snails & slugs) live in moist/semi-aquatic environments they are hosts for a number of fish parasites. Many of these have complex life cycles (and therefore pose little risk to some of our exotic species) but I personally wouldn't chance it.

Good work. Well investigate and reported.

Repeat now, this time using double the dose. You should see improvement between 6 and 12 hours. If no improvement, you might want to seek a veterinary consult to get some metronidazole.

Fish sometimes swim erratically when the temperature is off, although there is a pretty wide margin of error for that. Could be toxins from something else, might pay to do a fairly large water change (with a tank that small you could even replace most of it with water from the community tank). If I were you, I would get the fish out of that tank and put them in a bucket with water from the community tank while you figure out what is wrong.

Mmmm...Geos ... and/or a massive bunch of hatchets.

Awesome.