Jennifer

With all due respect, please take care with such generalisations. I do believe that most of us who have these new fish have them because we love rare breeds and we want to see them stay in NZ, not because we are interested in making a killing off them.

That's absolutely correct. Faecal formation and consistency is not a reliable diagnostic tool for internal parasites. Even the healthiest looking faeces can be loaded with worms and similarly, white or slimy faeces may not have any. You have to look at it under the microscope to be sure.

Very nice!! If I could get an enclosure like that would have repts again!

If they are eating a lot of snails they are at a higher risk for parasites since some mollusks can be intermediate hosts for worms and/or flukes. Might pay to deworm with both levamisole (2mg/L for 24 hours) and praziquantel (2mg/L for 24 hours).

Those are some very sudden deaths. I would be worried about toxicities, for example chlorine. Have you used a dechlorinator on your water? After 24 hours or so it could also be ammonia toxicity if the tank has not been cycled yet or the bioload was dramatically increased.

Very nice, that is just the sort of tank that really inspires me. 8)

Algae Rid from your LFS

Excellent.

Oooo, well it could be a tank crawl showing 'mini' tanks or it could be a tank crawl carried out by driving around in 'mini' cars, or it could be a 'mini' sampling of some of Christchurch's best tanks. But you'll have to come to find out! :lol: 8)

Oh yes, original is good, very good. As long as it's not a whiteworm cake or anything like that. :roll: That would be just a bit too original.

I like the first one too but I think the second one will be much easier on a smaller scale. Looks like a very fun project though. Makes me want a frog. 8)

No, but I thought you were going to bake me an arowana cake for my birthday! :lol:

Yes, and if you haven't decided to come because you don't think it will be any fun, well, you might just be surprised this time! 8) There is going to be lots of fishy socialising and fun including seeing some fun sights, a shop crawl, a mini tank crawl, dinners out and possibly some fun and games at Elusive Fish's cafe. No word yet as to the bake off - entries have yet to be submitted. :roll:

Hmmm, Auckland isn't too far to travel for a good meal, is it? :roll:

Who knew you were a foodie Nav, I might have to invite myself over for tea. :roll:

I have no experience with Primafix although I have used Seachem Para Guard. A lot of these types of products are useful in preventing high parasite bioloads but they won't generally kill all the parasites so aren't the best choice when seeking to eliminate confirmed parasite loads.

Wow, that was quick, so sorry for your loss. I hear that HFF might still have pairs and I belive I read somewhere that they can be kept in a harem (could be wrong though). I think it would be very prudent to quarantine her for a while, at least six weeks.

Waa? I have no idea what you are talking about... :roll: 8)

Hah! I knew it!! 8) Secret squirrel Sam, secret squirrel.

Yeah right, I am sure that's just an excuse to have yet another tank. :lol: (remembering the tank I told mum was for my brother but really was just an excuse to move the fish out of my main tank so i could get some new ones :oops: )

When the shopkeeper at your LFS says "Boy do you spend a lot on your fish hobby!" (true story :oops: )

Boy do I hear ya. With hobbies like photography and fishkeeping sometimes I think I need my head examined. :roll:

Fingers crossed! Keep us updated!

Good idea. :lol: Now that I have an excuse to bake, I need someone to eat! :roll:

That's the problem. Parasites can cause a huge array of clinical signs that are also commonly seen with other conditions. Unfortunately people assume that those signs are parasites but I have seen many fish with these signs undergo a myriad of parasite tests only to come up clean. Often the signs are cleared up when nutrient deficiencies are addressed. Based on the above, my personal feeling for discus is that you should always deworm any new fish coming in. Usually a three pronged approach is best (prazi/levam/metro). Then feed a huge variety of food but only feed live food from 'safe' closed colonies. Frozen and prepared foods are safest but you really should aim for the best quality. I am no discus expert but I used to keep a number of discus and really never had any issue with parasites. That is not to say that they can't get parasites though. The problem is that we often don't test fish so we never really know what they have or don't have.