Jennifer

Fantastic. Great photos too!

Yes, busy... and I forgot my password for a while. :oops: Apistos again? Hmm, tempting...I do have two spare tanks... :nilly:

I would say that's a bit of brown algae and some 'scum'. Brown algae isn't too serious and is usually self limiting. A couple of small algae eaters would help to keep things tidy. Or you could just use your fingers to wipe it away. You could also go a bit more extreme and try a three day blackout, or reducing the photoperiod for a week or so.

Lovely Dan. :thup:

BBA won't respond to a black out. It will grow in a tank without any added light (even just with dark ambient room light but it will get longer and more cottony in appearance). A three day blackout will help to kill off green algae like dust alage or thread algae. It will stop the growth of green spot alage but you will have to remove the spots manually. Java fern will periodically die off when there is a big change in lighting, nutrients or a spurt of new growth. Some of the leaves shown in your photo demonstrate new growth (the bright green leaf with dark/transparent tips). Java fern responds very well to regular pruning. It is not negatively affected by too much or too little light, nor to Excel or fertilisers, unless there are sudden changes in any of the above. It will even grow in low nutrient environments but like all plants is subject to deficiencies if conditions change rapidly. All Java ferns will grow abundantly well in low or high light as long as water conditions are relatively stable.

Most species of animal have specialised bacteria that reside in the gut that are critical to the digestion the foods that we eat. This is a much bigger deal for the animal's overall health than previously thought. I personally have noticed increased death rates associated with feeding too much of a fresh food when the fish isn't accustomed to it so my advice would be to introduce new foods slowly. I don't know of any studies determining how fast intestinal bacterial populations establish in fish, but in other monogastric animals, it can take at least a couple of weeks.

Fish Committee reports are included quarterly with the executive meeting minutes. These are sent out to all clubs to be forwarded to members. They are also available in the member's area of the main website here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?cat=119

Up to 30ppm, will be green (but not yellow) on a pH indicator solution.

Best news EVER!!! :happy1:

Hats off to you. That is also my philosophy, especially with animals that are not domesticated. We can discuss the biomechanics all we want but at the end of the day, unless evidence-based research is conducted, it is best to use a pragmatic approach to ensure the best health and welfare for animals in our care.

If anyone is baking a pie near me, please let me know. I will be there in a flash... !drool:

Joe, you can tell that a canary has air sac mites because they fail to vocalise. Feather mites are as you say. A bird that is fluffed up continuously is on its last legs. It could be any number of things causing the problem. A good safe treatment for ectoparasites is by dipping their bare legs in Frontline spray (not the top spot treatment), then repeat again in 10 days. In my experience, Gouldians are not at all like tropical Australian grass finches. They are tropical but they will aclimatise to cooler temperatures and breed readily as long as they have sufficient closed-in shelter.

Just take it outside with a fish bucket and dissolve the capsule in a small amount of water, then carefully pour the medicated water in. Wear gloves any time you will be in contact with the water and avoid spills. Wash your hands with soap and warm water after handling the medicated tank.

Ah yes, the lovely Chrysler. I remember enjoying a ride in that recently...and enjoying an amusing story about your youth Caryl... :gigl:

The patchy white could be overproduction of the slime coat and that would fit with her seeking oxygen since her gills will also be filling with slime and therefore not available for gas exchange. I would be wondering about the substrate in the tank or some other irritant. That looks like the black glass substrate sold by Aqua One. I haven't seen it cause many problems before but it is possible considering she is a ground dweller and the substrate is rather sharp. If it were me, I would do some regular water changes, about 30-50% depending on what you are comfortable with. This will promote her to make even more slime within the first 6-8 hours but it should start to go away after that. Do a couple of water changes per week and be sure to replace the water with dechlorinated water. This is all assuming that it isn't the water that has the irritant, although that is not so likely in most towns. Also, if you are putting anything else in the tank, that could be contributing to the problem. If she doesn't get better in a week or so, I would consider taking her out and housing her in a different tank with similar water conditions. If she gets better in there, it could be the substrate causing the problem (or some other feature).

It seems to be working for me to remove the flower stalks. The plants don't seem to be dying off and when the rhizome is big enough, it divides into oodles of pups. It seems reasonable to assume that the mature plant should be much better able to handle the dieback when they have a larger rhizome to live off when they are dormant so allowing it to develop more and collect more nutrients before flowering may be a benefit in the long run. No idea if I am on the right track there or not! :dunno:

Redid my crypt tank. It is now an Amazon tank although I fear there will soon be no room for the fish! :roll: Hmm, what to do with the crypts...

+1 Beat me to it. :thup:

If you use Furan, take care to avoid contact with the drug as it is carcinogenic. Also, you need to turn of the tank lights as the drug is inactivated in bright light. Follow the directions on the container. It also contains some methylene blue as well, so that could help. Methylene blue is toxic to nitrifying bacteria and will stain parts of the tank. The dose as a fungal preventative is 2mg per litre of tank water every 48 hours up to a maximum of three treatments. Keep in mind, it is a preventative, so it is not as effective as a treatment. Also, I would never suggest you apply the chemical directly to the fish's skin as this would be just like putting a drop in your own eye. :tears:

The salt in the driftwood won't cause a problem to the fish or the filter. Other toxins may be in the wood though. I usually just scrub the wood off and put it directly in the tank but one time I did that and all the fish were gasping at the top within a couple of hours. Just common sense to observe things after you add something new to the tank.

That foam is called mineral wool and it is used to propagate some plants. It also helps to keep the roots safe during transport. The plants will do better if released from that so the roots can get access to nutrients in the gravel. :thup:

Try filling the tubes up with water first and making sure they aren't twisted. Sometimes that can help.

Cool. It sounds like it will be a good system. :thup:

Many loaches need quite a bit of plant matter in their diet. I have a dozen large loaches in my planted tank and they will start eating my plants if I don't feed them algae tabs on a daily basis. Of course I also feed high protein foods as well but they have a choice. The NovoPlec tabs are 30% dry matter protein if I recall correctly. That's only about 8% less than a standard omnivore food so it won't cause protein energy malnutrition in a hurry.

For indicator solutions there is a range of accuracy. It may be that these particular indicator chemicals (eg, methyl orange) are not accurate at lower concentrations. Using a pragmatic approach, small concentration probably have minimal effect in aquatic systems anyway. What we really want to know is when the ammonia gets up to toxic concentrations and I suspect that the indicator is designed to be most accurate at that level.