Jenna

Well after 8 stressful days, Sharky is still with us, though not out of the woods yet. Behaviorally, he's doing great. I was sure he was lost when I put him into the hospital tank and he was swimming on one side at the surface for a couple of days - but now, he's swimming well around the tank (though he does prefer to stay in one place most of the time). I haven't noticed him eating, but have been feeding small amounts just in case, then vacuuming most if not all out again when I do partial water changes. *too much info coming up!!!* The eye is obviously dead and seems to be working its way out of the socket but his body appears to be healing up behind it as it happens, so hopefully that will all sort itself out ok. He's finished his furan 2 treatment for now but has developed a case of ich - poor stressed lil bugger - so I carried on with the partial water changes, added carbon back into the filter for a couple of days then removed it again, and now he's back on the wunder tonic for the ich. again, any advice welcome and I'll keep updating his status Thanks to all for the help so far!

I am absolutely going to finish the course of Furan2 - as long as Feargal does lol. This morning, after the usual fitful sleep dreading what I'd wake to, I turned on the tank light to see Mr. Sharkey swimming around the tank. He seems to have completely stopped his futile-looking semi flop at the top of the tank and is swimming almost normally. I say almost because his swimming is jerky rather than smooth, but I assume he has lost vision in the popped eye which would tae getting used to. The eye itself is still bad, and the patch of missing scales is still there, but nothing seems to be any worse, and his behaviour is far better. Yay Sharky!

Fashion Designer, though currently my business in in making drapes and roman blinds (and anything else sewn lol)

Thanks for asking! Feargal is still mostly the same as last night, though now he is breaking away from the surface now and again to swim briefly around the tank before he returns to the top. I'm just about to do a small water change and add some tonic salt now, but so far he does appear to be very slightly better.

lol oops - I did mean that I raised the temp slightly, not lowered... not sure why my fingers typed the opposite of what my brain was telling them! There is an airstone in the hospital tank, turned down reasonably low so as not to freak sharky out but aerates the water well. The wunder tonic was treated last night so had lost a little of the colour already, and I did a partial water change this afternoon before I added only a partial dose of Furan 2 - I did notice that they both contained meth blue and didn't want to risk overdose. Anyway, Feargal is still doing exactly the same as I previously described.

Ok he's taken a significant turn for the worse I think. For the past few hours he's been swimming on one side at the very top of the tank and hasn't moved from the one spot. He's not happy. I need to know at what point do I know he's not going to get better (though I think I already do) and end this for him? Or do I keep trying?

hehe nope - note in the small print on the tv ad, it states that they have a fee of 12.5% with a minimum of $12.50. Watch out for those tax return websites - you may get a return, but you also authorise them to do your return next year and thereafter, and they'll take their fees/percentages from that too.

Sharky is still going. He is now in a hospital tank and seems to be acting better, though still looks about the same. He still has his moments of "hanging" in the water, nose down, tail up - but is regularly swimming horizontally and is far more active. I've treated the water with both wunder tonic and furan-2 and am making sure the parameters stay good. I've also reduced the temperature slightly. So far he seems to be responding well I'll keep updating and checking for suggestions, and hopefully Feargal will make it through. Any day underwater is a good day

Redwood Aquatics here in Christchurch stock a special brush which I keep meaning to pick up. it is $6.95 and is almost a metre long. They have a listing for it on the auction site, just search fish for brush or tube brush.

Yeah, he's not looking any better this morning - looks like hospital tank coming up. The water parameters are great in both tanks. I check the water quality every few days normally, and checked again the second I noticed the popeye so I could rule out bad water. The filter intake is pretty well protected for larger fish (though I do have some molly, platy and BN fry casualties) so it's not likely to have been a filter accident. I'll pop out and see what I can get him, but sadly it's not looking so good for Mr Feargal Sharkey

I noticed yesterday that Feargal was swimming in one place rather than being the adventurous creature he usually is, but he was facing the other way so I didn't notice what the picture shows. He has a very prominent red left eye, and there are scales missing about 10mm behind the eye. the photo doesn't show much of the missing scales, but it looks like it may have been caused by an attack of some kind - the only tank-mate larger than a molly are a few adult bristlenoses and a common plec, about 25cm. Now poor Feargal is staying put, sheltering from any current in the shadow of the ship ornament - head down, tail up Is there anything I can do for him at this point? I have a tank I've been keeping the adolescent bristlenoses in which I could de-populate and make into a hospital tank. I just need to know what to treat him with and how much (22L tank), or if I should ease the suffering he has if there is no hope or too much pain any advice most welcome

Decibel :lol:

new cafe in christchurch..... WITH FISH!!!! Where will you be? I'll be there June 27th guaranteed - probably waiting as you open the doors Sorry, i have extremely limited knowledge of sumps and cichlids, but anything I can do to help, please ask

An unusual fruit, not nearly as difficult to cook with as people say! Currently our tree is overloaded and dropping - beautiful ripe yellow quinces everywhere - far more than I can cope with! At this point, I'm considering putting supermarket bags of them at the gate for anyone who wants them (last resort (not *quite* at that stage yet - who nows where the neighbour kids will throw them :-? ) If you'd like any, PM me and I'll give you the address & save a bag for you - let me know around how many you want or you'll get more than you bargain for! :lol:

I bought a young BN when I first set up my first tank. She turned out to be a she, then when I picked up 2 males on TM and found fry 10 days after they went into the tank, I realised they weren't particularly difficult to breed. One of the males disappears for long periods of time and I don't really see him often :lol: . I don't have a separate tank, they are in my 140L community tank, the fry are still coming at regular intervals, and the mortality rate is pretty good as far as I can tell (way too many to count ).

Here's my favourite boy, I particularly love his split lyretail (you can see it best on the top point: and when he flares, he's spectacular!: Of course, my second fave boy is just as gorgeous - different tank though, and hard to get a good pic (plus he keeps hiding his tail!): I love mollies!

A mortar and pestle would do a very good job of powdering the food. Though it isn't necessary to have the food ground quite that fine, the fry would love it

204730257

the auction just closed with no bids - go figure. They just sent me an offer of 1200 for it - hang on - if I didn't bid on it at 1200, why would I accept an offer for the same - especially now that the auction is closed and I can see the questions they deliberately didn't answer as they'd deter possible buyers! some people :lol:

I always recommend a net breeder over a solid trap for fry. Simply because if they are in there for protection from other fish they'll be there at least a couple weeks, and the net allows the water circulation, filtration and aeration through the mesh. Try feeding the babies a day after they are born, but just a little, they may not eat yet. Don't worry if they don't eat yet that you're not feeding them - there's plenty of food in the tank for them in the form of algae and leftovers which you may not even know is there. They'll come running at feeding time soon enough! As far as how often - once a day is plenty for all your fish. any more than that and there will be too many leftovers which will rot, create ammonia and throw out the chemical balance in the water. Only feed as much as they can eat in 5-10 minutes - if there are leftovers, you're feeding too much. And if the female hasn't dropped any in the past 24 hours, she's probably finished for now. They all take different amounts of time really, so there's no clear answer. Happy to help!

my cat is addicted to Hikari Algae Wafers - is that strange?

If this is her first batch of fry, she will probably have anywhere from 1 to 20 or more. First few batches of fry are smaller, but eventually she may have up to 80 or so each time! Mine are a little over a year old now and still have smallish drops (30ish lol) so I guess it varies from fishy to fishy. If you want the fry to survive, get lots of flotating plant, like indian fern etc for them to hide in, and/or a breeding net to separate them as soon as you find them. Mollies are notorious for eating their fry, and it can be a little disturbing to see the babies popping out one end and immediately into the other! You can tell the sex between 2 and 3 months, depending on how they are growing. The females have a fanned out anal fin like this: while the males have an elongated anal fin called a gonopodium, which looks like this: As far as feeding them, put some regular flake food into a small plastic bag and crush it between your fingers until it is as fine as you can get it - voila! fry food :lol: the babies won't bother eating it for the first couple of days, but it is a perfectly fine food for them. Mollies are attractive, fun, sociable fishies - enjoy!

In high school I started what was known as a Zenith Club - like a junior toastmasters. It used the same structure and methods as toastmasters, teaching more than speechcraft, including formal meeting proceedure and etiquette; confidence which carried far further than standing in front of a group of people; the ability to accept and give creative, constructive criticism; well structured argumentation; quick precise thinking on clear points (same as argumentation in many cases lol). I never joined toastmasters after high school but always intended to. Aside from learning and growing so much, it was a load of fun!

Yay! Congrats on the little ones I'm sure that they'll do fine this time, and in no time at all you'll have more than you can handle (it happens so fast lol) How many have you counted so far?

Bristlenoses can't be in a tank treated for snails as they feed on the poisoned snail corpses which fall to the bottom. I've treated my tank for whitespot a few weeks ago, with no adverse effects to any of the inhabitants - and there are a LOT of bristlenoses in there, ranging from newly hatched to adults. I'm pretty sure its safe