pink_fish

Awhile ago some males turned up at HFF that had a similar look – much less red in the body, but same general idea – I have two. I _think_ I've worked out where they came from too – goldfishman on that site was selling what he calls 'red flame' guppies the other day & I think mine might be from him.

Sorry to hear that you lost them all – that's horrible. I recently had a similar experience with a bunch of guppies – I figured out that they must have had the 'shimmies' (apparently guppies are quite prone to this weird disorder) – which might have been what yours had too. Fish with the shimmies hover near the water's surface, their fins are clamped and they wave or 'shimmy' on the spot without really moving. When they do swim, they swim awkwardly. They lose their appetite, their fins get raggedy and finrot can start to dig in, and eventually die after a few days. I did some research when mine had this (and I'll be darned now if I can find the particular website that had the useful info, sorry! – if I find it I'll post the link.). Anyway, it's is linked to fish stress – i.e. any big change that the fish go through is liable to cause them stress (like moving tanks, sudden water chemistry change, sudden lack of oxygen, etc. – apparently overfeeding can do it to them too!, or any combination of these things). In my case, it was a heater that suddenly decided it wasn't going to turn off and it nearly cooked them all (and when the water warms up, the oxygen levels drop!). I lost quite a few, but luckily I found out what to do so that I didn't lose them all: 1) Try to figure out what caused the stress and make sure it doesn't happen again (check water chemistry, check heater, etc. – remember when making any changes to your tank, don't do it quickly – this causes fish stress.) 2) Do a large-ish water change – 30-40%. Make sure the water you add in is of the same pH and temperature as what is in the tank (to avoid any more stress). 3) Add more oxygen (use an airstone) – if you've already got one, add another. If the fish are hovering near the surface they're often doing so because they feel a lack of air. 4) Stop feeding them for a few days – they probably won't be interested when they are sick, anyway, and any food you put in will just dirty up the tank. 5) Check for finrot/fungus – when the fish's immunity is down, these often set in. Dose if signs of either of these grebblies are seen. 6) Do a 20% water change _every day_ for 4–5 days. 7) When they start perking up you can feed them again – just a very small amount to begin with (in case it was overfeeding that made them shimmy in the first place). I did all these things, and I'm happy to say, managed to save just under half of my fishys (which was great all things considered – some of them really did look like they were done for). Anyway, I hope this info may be of use/help at some stage for you – good luck with the new fish you get!

Hi Owen, thanks for the invite! Sounds like great fun, so I'm in (I'm with the Auckland club so one of the 5 interested that Wok mentions above). I'll be taking a car down, so will have a couple of spare seats.

Can you describe the behaviour the sick guppies are displaying?

I had a guppy with a similar problem – I also thought it was a prolapsed gut. In my guppy's case, it would disappear and reappear over the space of a few days. Like your's, mine had always been quite skinny, and after this began it started looking skinnier. She eventually (after a couple of weeks) died, I'm sorry to say, but whether it was this problem or something else that killed her, I'm just not sure. If it is gut that's hanging out, I guess moving him into a quarantine tank to keep him away from any other fish that could bite at it, would be a good idea, and probably put in a bit of meth blue to ward off any fungal thing catching hold of him.

I had white spot recently on my blue rams and it only appeared on one side of each fish – weird huh?! My guess would be white spot too, so try treating with white spot cure.

Hi SamH – great work! We just spent $$$ on getting a fighter tank made. Just wondering what kind of peat you're using and where you got it from? We're considering using some, but have heard that the stuff that they sell at garden centres etc may have contaminants.

Hi there, I have quite a few fighters and they'll eat anything I offer them. I'm just not into fussy fish, so if someone turns its nose up at a particular food, they don't get offered anything else. It's a pain in winter if you've got a fussy fish who won't eat anything except live daph, for example! And I've never had a fish starve – they'll eat when they're hungry (which, in most bettas' case, is most of the time – they'll quite happily eat themselves into a stupor if you allow them to, which often ends up causing blockages!). Fighters also love cooked shelled peas, which are very good for their digestion (i.e. good for the above-mentioned blockages) – cook 'em, shell 'em, squash 'em up with your finger and drop bits into the tank (1/2 - 1 whole pea per betta). I feed peas usually once a week and every fish that I've got will have a go. Variety is the key, I think. I have about 6-7 different types of dried foods (flakes, granules etc.) which are their staples, and then I supplement a couple of times a week with frozen or live food. Make sure that the food you offer is good quality, though, and always keep dried foods with their lids properly on, otherwise they'll spoil. Hope this helps.

twinkles – I'm just starting out with guppy breeding and find it damned hard to sex guppies before the boys show their gonos – how do you do it?

Hi Jen, Step one would be to join your local fish club (Totally Tanked, I believe?) – they'll sort you out.

Funny things about my fish are the names that some of them acquire, lol: I have a pair of blue rams I've nick-named the Pirahnas – we tried having them in a community tank, but they just chase everybody else, and cleaning their tank is near impossible cos they chase and bite the siphon! They do always come out to say hello when you peer in though. Crazy Horse – PK male fighter. A big lil fella that we bought as a 'female'. Well, he grewed up and he grewed crazy. He'll take on anything that takes his fancy, so he's got his own little tank to himself now, but he's the friendliest fighter I've ever had, and always watching what's going on. Spike - Yellow VT male fighter (who we unfortunately had to put down a couple of weeks ago) – so named because (hopefully you are all familiar with Buffy the Vampire Slayer) – a) he's blonde, b) he's pesky, c) he came back from the dead, so to speak: the day after we bought him, I got up to find he had ich. He got it so bad that we thought he was going to die, but he recovered.

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Thanks for the info, that sounds like a good idea!

Wow – great work. I have a techie/silly question tho – I'm considering doing my own type of thing like this, but, having had a go & failed miserably, am wondering how you successfully cut the perspex? Every time I tried with a little hacksaw, no matter how slow I went, it would crack and break.

Thanks Cricketman – all good advice & I absolutely agree. If we buy one, we will be looking to keep it for the duration and we will be always housing it correctly – it would never be cramped. I was just interested to know if anyone knew how quickly they grew ...

Yep, I concur. We have a tank full of guppies with a pair of Bolivians and frankly, the Bolivians are some of the most peaceful fish ever. When they are minding a bunch of babies, they do guard and protect their fry, but I've never seen them injure any other fish in the tank. Incidently, I have a much smaller German blue ram, however, who is da man boss of all the cichlids in that same tank – he will have a go at the Bolivians and the other blue ram, but I've not seen him bother the guppies either.

Hi guys, I've had a trawl on the net, but can't seem to find the answer to this one. We're considering buying a young (3-5 cm) severum and are wondering how long it will be before it reaches full adult size (i.e. so we can plot its living arrangements!). Thanks in advance!

Mine eat _everything_, lol. Basically, the bigger the variety you can provide for them, the better, I would guess. Mine eat from about 6 different dried flake/granulated foods which are supplemented a couple of times a week with frozen food (brine shrimp, Livebearer Tucker [which is awesome - it contains lots of meat & veg & they adore it]), greens (cucumber/zucchini/peas) and more rarely in winter, daphnia or microworms.

Hi guys, thanks for the info! Seems like Aqua One is the winner (my wallet) is happy, lol.

Hi guys, as the title says! a) I have a 215 litre AR980 tank which I'd like to get a canister filter for (the tank's standard system is not holding up with the current guppy population explosion the tank is having, lol). So I'm interested in hearing about people's experiences with the various brands/models. We haven't got loads of money, so looking for best value for $$$, but if the cheaper brands are crappy, then we'll save up and go for expensive, I guess. I've seen a couple of 'unbranded' ones on that 'other site' (white ones that look a bit like Fluvals - I think they might be Sun Sun brand) that I'm considering, but wonder if anyone here has used these? If so, what is your experience of them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. b) Not sure if this is a dumb question or not .... We keep having problems with the suckers on internal filters and heaters going hard and ceasing to work. Does anyone know if replacements can be bought? I know that for heaters you can buy those silly strap-on ones that aren't too bad, but we have two filters that are almost unusable because their suckers no longer suck (which sucks [sorry....lol]) - a Rio 1700 and a small Eheim pickup - can these just be ordered as spare parts, or does somewhere like Hollywood stock replacements? Thanks in advance!

Hi there, so sorry to hear about your loss! I don't have any direct experience of Aqua Ones cracking (thankfully – I have 5 off them all running at the mo, from a 126 to 980), but I have heard that the T editions (i.e. the taller models) are prone to cracking (more down pressure, I presume) than the standard editions. Anyone else heard this?

Meant to say to MarkLB - thanks for the link to that video - very helpful! Well, we got some clove oil & tiny tweezers, knocked her out (in 1 drop of clove oil per litre of water) and attempted to remove the stuck stuff. However, the stuff was quite soft and so we weren't able to remove much of it – partly because it was so soft and partly because it was so far down inside her throat. And we didn't want to keep her sedated for too long, either. Afterwards, once she had woken up, she didn't appear much improved, but I noticed that she did start to cough out very tiny amounts of the stuck stuff (which I think indeed must have been one of those food tablets - grrr!). We decided to leave her for the night in a guppy trap to recover & rest, and thought that even just our poking around in her mouth might have been enough to soften the material and help her to dislodge it anyway. In any case, this morning she seems all better - her mouth looks normal and her throat clear (if a bit too pinkish and sore looking!). So maybe our little fish surgery session helped or maybe the food finally softened enough by itself for her to swallow or cough it out, but either way, I think she's on the mend now! Thanks for all your advice. Phew!

Thanks all - am off to get a nice small pair of tweezers - will report on how we go.

Thanks Mystic, but won't she wriggle like crazy? I don't want to end up injuring her with the tweezers or anything...

I've got a female Bolivian ram (adult) that looks like she is choking on something and is quite distressed. Her mouth is wide open and lips protruding very unnaturally (normally she has a small, downturned mouth), and when I look inside when she's facing me straight on, I think I can see an obstruction maybe about 5mm inside her mouth. I think perhaps a whole food pellet - one of the cylindrical-shaped ones about 2 mm across & maybe 5 wide - its the only thing I can think of and she was feed this yesterday. Every now and again she gives a kind-of coughing movement (I've seen other fish use this before & manage to dislodge obstructions, so assume this is what she is trying to do). She appeared first in this condition last night, but as I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do that wouldn't stress her out more, I left her to she if she could get it out herself, but I found her still in the same state this evening on arriving home from work. Has anyone had this happen before and successfully saved their fish? I understand you can use tweezers, and have read that you can use clove oil to keep the fish calm, etc but certainly don't want to stress her out any more than is necessary. Any help would be very appreciated - its horrible seeing her so uncomfortable. Thanks in advance.