Jennifer

Awesome! That is so well written and really showcases the club. Good on you all for getting the club out there. Well done!

Look right in front of you and you will see a million sources of organic carbon - microbes are just waiting to take advantage of that fuel. Add sugar to your tank and you will get the same result - an exponential growth in all microbes, including pathogenic ones. Regarding the plants, Flourish Excel is also a small carbon chain molecule (like ethanol) so it is readily available to plants, but unlike ethanol, it has antimicrobial properties*, thus inhibiting bacterial overload. It also has the added benefit of interfering with microbial oxidation of iron, thus keeping much of the iron in a reduced state so that it is accessible to plants. *Flourish Excel is a 1.5-2.5% solution of glutaraldehyde (http://www.seachem.com/support/MSDS/Flo ... el.doc.pdf), a similiar chemical as the medical grade sterilisation agent Cidex OPA (http://www.aspjj.com/customer_support/u ... a_msds.pdf). This chemical has considerable hazards in its concentrated form.

Someone needs to remove the word 'traditional' from the subject line of this thread. :roll: :lol:

Back when I was in the band we played at hundreds of weddings so I have seen lots of different types of gatherings but one of the funniest was here in Chch. Some friends invited everyone to their engagement party at the local rugby club and right in the middle of the party, they arrived all dressed up in their bride and groom uniforms and proceeded to walk down the isle, so to speak. People were texting like mad and soon there were many more people at the party but it was pretty amusing and no doubt pretty cheap. People just purchased drinks at the bar as usual. It probably helped to have the party in the middle of the day so no expensive dinner was required.

Wow. That is awesome. I love the idea of it being local species. I think that is exactly what I would strive for if I was do be brave enough to do a marine tank.

Red spots can often (but not always) mean bacterial infection. Since it is nearly impossible to determine what the bacteria is (and hence recommend a suitable antibiotic), you could try a generalised treatment such as an antiseptic bath (e.g. salt or formalin) and then treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic (e.g. Furan 2). These treatments may not be very effective but might tip the balance in the fish's favour giving its immune system time to fight off the infection.

Good on you for looking into fishless cycling. It is becoming the industry standard overseas and in my mind is more humane. No matter how you look at it, cycling a brand new clean tank with fish will expose the fish to levels of ammonia and nitrites it can be a fine line to ensure a safe environment. That said, I almost always use mature media to seed the filter so I never need to cycle from scratch, but with that method there is always the risk of transmitting disease. There is no real benefit to cycling with fish (other than the matter of getting instant gratification of seeing fish in your tank). Both types of cycling require waiting a few days to 3 weeks before adding more fish. Fishless cycling can often be faster since you can raise the temperature and get bacterial populations up quicker. With the fishless cycling method, no fish are added until the tank is completely cycled. The ammonia levels are created artificially either in the form of adding decaying organic matter or simply by adding a small amount of pure ammonia (without added detergents) from the supermarket. The following steps are carried out: 1. The tank is filled with water and the heater is turned up to 32 degrees. 2. Ammonia is added until the levels are just detectable (up to 4 ppm (mg/L) using a standard aquatic ammonia test kit. 3. After 3 or 4 days, the water is tested every day and it should be apparent that the ammonia levels are dropping and the nitrite levels are increasing (this process will be very quick if the filter was seeded first with mature media or a biological additive like TLC Smart Start). 4. After a few more days, the nitrite levels will keep rising and eventually will start to fall. Next the nitrate levels will begin to increase. 5. Once there is no trace of ammonia or nitrites the temperature can be turned down and a partial water change can be carried out (do not clean the filter or vacuum the gravel). This process will take 4 days to 3 weeks depending on the concentration of ammonia and the temperature as well as whether you have seeded the filter. A small number of fish can be added as soon as the water is tested to be stable and free from ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours. If a large amount of ammonia was added, the filter will be able to handle quite a few fish, but it is always best to take care. The number of fish can gradually be built up over time as bacterial populations adjust to the bioload.

Sounds awesome!!

Sodium chloride salt shouldn't have an effect on pH in this application. Sad that you have lost more fish. The treatment is very safe so I suspect they must have been badly affected. Most fish can handle increased temperatures (the loaches can easily handle 31 degrees) but the change should be very gradual to ensure minimal stress. Also, be sure to keep aeration up since warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen.

Looks even better (and bigger) in person. 8)

Welcome

Great photo Ant!

Nope, it won't bother them at all. You can actually add quite a bit of salt very safely but as with anything, gradual changes are best both with salt and with heat just to be on the safe side.

Caryl, the outbreak may not have been tank conditions, it could have just been grumbling along in one fish with a depressed immune system - it is easily spread from there. With any luck, it was one of the ones that died. :-? I would really try to increase the temperature gradually by using additional heaters if possible - otherwise it could take weeks of treatment for the life cycle to complete. Also, it is very safe to add salt, the fish won't mind at all and it will really help to kill off the parasite when it is in its free swimming form.

Yes, formalin (usually a 37% formaldehyde solution) is used against fungi and external parasites in fish. It is also a fairly good topical antiseptic so it can help prevent bacterial colonisation where there are fungal lesions present. It is carcinogenic so humans should avoid contact with it at all costs (wear gloves and avoid fumes). It will also remove dissolved oxygen in the tank water so increased aeration as well as lower temperatures may be necessary to keep oxygen levels up during treatment.

Again, this is just a guess, but with the brownish tinge I would treat it as a fungal infection. A strong solution of Malachite green, as I mentioned above gently applied with a moist cotton swab to the affected areas (avoid the head). Then place the fish in a salt bath or salted tank as above. The cory should be ok but work the concentration up gradually over time to be sure. I would definately salt the main tank as well to be sure that it doesn't infect the others as well. Keep salting for at least 3 weeks. Fungal infections can be persistent. You can also add Malachite green to the tank water. Bacteria can accompany fungal infections so it would be beneficial to consider adding formalin to your treatment regime as well.

Any other details about the fish's behaviour? Any recent changes in the tank? Are other tank mates normal? Without knowing more, I can only guess. Some possibilities include fungal infections (like Saprolegnia), or parasites like Costia or Chilodonella. Malachite green and formalin would be a possible treatment that could help either problem. You could also bathe the affected area in a concentrated solution of malachite green (100mg/ litre) and then use salt. Salt offers the safest route if the gills are affected. A salt bath treatment (20-25g/litre for 20 - 30 minutes) can be used and/or it can be used as a long-term immersion at 1-5g/litre.

A swab could be a good idea to rule out pathogenic microorganisms but the risk of surface contaminants is high so it may not yield anything useful. If the fish was exhibiting signs of ill health (e.g. lack of activity or abnormal rheotaxis) I might consider following that up but if he is otherwise fine it may pay to just treat conservatively. Salt might be a good place to start.

Aviverm is a 24% solution of Levamisole hydrochloride. In practical terms the manufacturer says that it contains 200 - 300 grams per litre of levamisole (have a look here if you want to see for yourself: http://www.ermanz.govt.nz/hs/transfer/vetmeds-list.html) When I work this out, I get 200-300mg per millilitre of Aviverm solution. At a dose of 2mg per litre of tank water (the most common accepted dose) this is 1ml per 100L of tank water (rounding up, in other words assuming the medication is a minimum of 200mg/ml, so the maximum dose would be 2.5mg/L). That is about 0.1ml per 10 litres of tank water so for an 80 litre tank, you would add 0.8mls of Aviverm. The dose you were using would have probably been safe but it is more than 5 times the recommended dose. The problem with giving such a high dose is that if you ever developed a resistance, you might need to double or triple the dose to effectively minimise the worm burden and if the dose is already high, you would have a narrower margin of safety. If I were you, I would treat with praziquantel and levamisole at the same time and if you don't see any improvement in two weeks, do a repeat dose. If still no improvement in two weeks from then, I would consider treating for protozoa (usually with metronidazole which requires a veterinary consult). Prazi and levam will not harm your filter and metro will only kill some anaerobic populations. If you want to protect your biological anaerobic filtration from antimicrobials, take the fish out and treat in a hospital tank for three days during the treatment.

Excellent photo Stella, you can really see the cephalic canals of the lateral line. The swollen canals look inflamed to me. I have seen similar symptoms in two cases where the fish had a bacterial or fungal infection of the lateral line system. It was very hard to diagnose and we had to anaesthetise the fish and swab the canals to get a sample for testing. Once we were sure of the causative organism, the treatment was successful in one case, but the other case died after a week of treatment. Unfortunately I don't really recall what we treated them with. Is he otherwise normal in appetite and activity level? Are you able to determine if there is any discharge from the canals?

Ha ha! I knew Sam would get into it. 8) I might give it a go too...if I can find some time. :-?

Cats are domesticated animals and there has been decades of research into their nutrition. The premium diets sold by veterinary clinics are developed to keep animals alive and healthy for longer and they are very good at that job. Some animals do better on some brands over others so it is impossible to pick one brand over another but as long as the food is AAFCO tested, you can easily feed it for the animal's entire life and they will be healthy. If it were me, I would feed my kitten tinned foods from brands such as Hills, Eukanuba, Waltham, etc. You can give treats as long as they only comprise about 10% of the total diet but I would advise staying clear of pure meat (without bones) because these foods are virtually devoid of calcium, not an ideal nutritional balance at all.

Current research supports the use of moist foods for feline kidney health. Get the best food you can buy as the main part of the diet. Foods that are AAFCO tested are scientifically sound (e.g. Eukanuba, Hills, etc. ).

Just to be clear, it is the Frontline spray that is usually recommended, NOT the spot treatment.