Moya

I can just imagine the top frog saying... "Get away! Hes mine! Get your own!"

Cute!

Variety is the spice of life as they say! Giving them discus tucker every now and then is a good idea. Though mine don't really seem to like it Apparently the all round anti parasitic/bacterial/fungal compound produced by garlic is called allicin, and is produced/made available when garlic is crushed or chewed. Allicin has been found to be lacking in old garlic. So fresh is best! Adtape can be bought from your vet. Hollywood may sell it too? Ive always gotten mine from the vet though. I myself have never picked up on any adverse reactions in my discus, and as far as I'm aware is considered very safe for fish. Treatment I follow is Day 1: Dose Day 3: Water change and Re-dose Day 6: Water change and Re-dose Day 14: Water change and Re-dose Apparently the tapeworms are reasonably easy to kill, and so two doses is sufficient. If dosing for flukes however, several repeat doses are advised to keep on top of possible fluke eggs that may be in your system that hatch later. Fluke eggs are pretty tough, so the meds wont act directly on them, you have to wait till they hatch. This is why we do the dose-wait-waterchange-dose routine. Like I said, Ive never had any problems as to side effects or growth stunting, but others may have found different..

That is soooooooo cool. Your girl and her mum are pretty talented, they shaded it and everything! I had the same kinda request for my 21st birthday, and I was pretty stoked with mine.

Discus are certainly more susceptible to worms than a lot of other community fishes, so your LFS is right in alerting you to the need to de-worm your discus. I do this whenever I get new ones, as your never quite sure what they may be bringing with them. As to the whole every 3 month thing? I'm not so sure. Other discus keepers may have different practices, but I will only treat when I am aware of, or suspicious of the presence of parasites. The drug is called Praziquantel, and is available from vets in the form of a tablet (Droncit) or also as a product called Adtape (what I use). The recommended dose rate you were advised is correct, at 5ml per 100L, however I have been told that Discus do fine at a dose rate of 15ml per 100L, and thus is the rate that I adhere to. It does not harm your bio-filter Garlic is a natural anti-parasitic, and so if your feeding discus tucker as part of their diet, fantastic!

Yep, mine do that to. After I do their bloodworm feed and go back to the colour-bits you can see them all get picky and start to spit out their food. But they get use to it again.

Get some Nitrazorb! Provided you get the right amount it does 5.0ppm ammonia adsorption in 24- 48 hours. Rechargeable too. *end product spiel* T'is good though.

Wow Jazzyjeff that's gorgeous!

Dagnabbit, I wish I earnt more. And had more space. And time.

Blue Acara I think?

It really is! Ottos are pretty cute too though. I had a school of them a while back and they would all trip round the tank together and then all land on this little rocky outcrop, all pointing the same way next to each other, and then take off again and land 5 mins later. Like little fighter bombers. They'd do this all day. They're very sweet and graceful looking when they perch on things too, resting on their pectoral fins. Like southerrngirrl said though, they are rather sensitive to water conditions. Mine didn't last too well, due to the copious water changes I do on my young discus.

Ive always done very well on Trademe, picking up tank + stand and sometimes + other bits for VERY good prices. Ie, 3 foot, 180L, plus the solid wooden stand and hood, plus the Eheim classic 2213 plus 6 buckets of black gravel + nets +driftwood + 3 heaters (2 of them Jager) + fish mate fish feeder and air pumps and just a variety of random bits cost me all up $180. That's $180 for me to be able to setup the tank with everything i need as soon as i got home. Minus the lights of course, but you can get a 90cm light new for $150 or much cheaper if you DIY. My most recent was again, a 3 foot tank, with a solid wood stand and hood, Aquaclear 70, 2 heaters, air pump and - here's the good bit - a 3 foot hagenT5 hood plus bulbs, 6 months old. $150. Ive also picked up what was advertised as a '2 foot tank with light' for $50. Cool, that's pretty reasonable, tank looked quite nice. Upon closer inspection, the light hood was, again, a Hagen t5. Brilliant. My advice is if you have the patience, take advantage of the great deals that crop up on Trademe. Some people just don't know the value of what their selling. If your wanting something new, then i reckon buying bits separately is the way to go. This way you will be able to get the best quality of EVERYTHING, as opposed to buying a branded tank that generally has reasonable say, lighting, but a not so good filter, or vice versa. So, 3 foot tank= $90 Eheim 2213 = $190 Jager heater 150w = $90 Hagen t5 hood with bulbs = $400 So that brings us to $770, without a stand or hood, which you could either make yourself cheaply if you have the capabilites, buy a suitable wooden cabinet off trademe for under $100, or get one constructed for you. Either way, you should be able to achieve this for under 1K, for a very nice, very good quality setup. As to size, i went from a sixty litre tank to a 180L, and 6 months later was craving something bigger. On that note ill say what probably most other people will. Go as big as you can!

Apparently black lyretail mollies are partial to algae, though ive never actually owned any myself, and would guess they weren't as ruthless towards it as the flying fox, which are my all time favourite. They remind me of bunnies! Their noses are all rounded and constantly wriggling, they're so cute.

#smack face#

Oooh I have a white diamond too. Id been eyeing it up for ages and everyone thought I was silly when I got it. "Why are you getting that one?" "Its so boring" "ewww, white" "Why not a pretty turq?" But it is hands down the fish i love the most. My mum lent me the money to get it, and so it is named Viv in her honour. And heres some others! Id love to get a proper blue diamond like yours ch@d. I have one but I got it for free because its very stunted. Has fantastic colour though.

Hey bikbok! Was nice to meet you too! I hope your tank is looking snazzy!

Awesome! Long have I waited for someone to do something like this. Mr Moodie, you must hold aquascaping contests. Gorgeous site too

Most LS I know have the following refund policy: if you've had the fish for 24hours or less and it dies, and your water parameters come up clear, then the fish gets replaced. I think this is a reasonable offer, and possibly one that could be applied to private fish sales too. Any greater period than 24hours, ie the two weeks that your customer had his, just leaves far too large a window. It could have been anything. If a customer was to buy a fish from an LFS and have it die two weeks later of whitespot, the LFS would not be held accountable. Its just a pity for this guy that whatever killed his fish was not noticed fast enough for him to act on.

Please please ring your local bird rescue! http://www.birdrescue.org.nz/contact-us.html My Alexandrine parrot boy went for a bit of an adventure, and I made sure I gave the local bird rescue my details. Eight hours later I got a call to say a family down the road had found him. If people find a friendly bird, generally the first place they will call is the SPCA, who in turn will put them on to Bird Rescue. I hope you get your lovely birdie back!

Double awesome.

I'm going to be picking up a pair of fully grown albino Bristlenose! They are BEAUTIFUL, very white, bordering on pink in some places, and so friendly that they scoot round your fingers Just wondering what the demand for young is of these guys? I don't really see that many in pet stores, is this because everyone thinks they are ugly, or because there's not that many round?

Yeah that one was pretty reasonable. Also found the following which I found interesting, though not as relevant. http://pds.ph/forums/viewtopic.php?t=859

Finally, a Discus spawn! Parents are Snakeskin/leopard dad and Fuji red mum. (I think) Is anybody able to give me a reasonable idea of what colours I will get in the offspring. Or direct me to a site on which of the discus colours are dominant, recessive, or just in general how discus genetics operates in terms of colours? I understand that breeders would want to keep this kind of information on the down-low but I cant seem to find squat!

Big fan of Evangelion! Watched a bit of Ghost in the Shell and never got round to finishing it, though Id very much like to. Both fantastic series, highly recommended!

I raise your bosemani rainbows, and suggest incisus!