BikBok

interesting. Several weeks ago I bought two beautiful imported snakeskins from an out of town LFS. They were larger than any NZ bred snakeskins I've seen. I've been trying for a year to get some decent ones. Was told that no need to quarantine as they had already been quarantined for several weeks and were good to go. Foolishly I put them both into my community tank. Well one died over night, two days later the other one had what looked like fungus so out he came into my Q tank which already had a red tux guppy in it recovereing from a torn tail. he was gettig better and had been in there a month. Dispite meth blue and acriflavine that new guppy also died .. then I lost the red tux , he got a white patch overnight and died. I lost a further two guppies from the main tank and several older fry. SO frustrating. Whatever it was, it only affected guppy not the other fish and also very quickly . The main tank seems all clear now and the remaining guppy seem happy and healthy.

if I do worm them, it will have to be in the tank they are in (AR850) and the other fishies will get done too.. any foreseeable problems with the otos being wormed? I have aviverm (levamisole) and Prazi .. which is best ? Otherwise I could wait till the smaller Q tank is free, disinfect it and then put the gourami in for worming. Could be a few weeks though.

I picked up two dwarf gourami today from LFS. They didn't have a lot of choice, just a handful but I eliminated one I didn't want and once the net went in it was difficult to see who was who anyway. Now that they're home and Ive managed to have a really good look, they look a bit thin to me. Not had these before so not sure how they should look. Very hard to photograph as they were painfully shy and as soon as i held the camera up they swam away. So not the best pics and couldn't get any closeups. Most the pics are of "elvis" but there's one in there with two of them which also shows "hobbit" .. it is actually hobbit who I think is the thinnest and he also has a couple of small tears in his tail. I would usually quarantine new fish but my Q tank already has some fry which have been in contact with a guppy I got from out of town that turned out to be sick and died, from fungus I think. So don't want to put the gourami in with them. I gather Dwarf gourami are all imported and have been through MAF quarantine so should I be concerned about worms? or could they just be in need of some good feeding?

Hi there I'm sure some of the more experienced members will be along shortly to answer some of your questions. I just wanted to comment on the hillstream loach as think they are really cool too ... but from what I understand they need a cooler temperature than most tropicals and also a decent current. For algae control I started with the bristlenose as they don't grow too big but they didn't do much for the algae and were bothering my kuhli so I've now got some otos and these guys are really neat. Active and funny to watch and they munch through all the brown and some of the green, keeping the glass and plants clean. Oto's need an established tank so don't put them in too soon. That brown algae is fairly common in new tanks but will settle down in time. You'll know when your tank is cycled when ammonia readings go to zero, followed by the nitrite readings dropping to zero and remaining at zero. Nitrates are removed with water changes but plants also help with that.

thanks for that information. I have been using the aquaone brand but the last time I fed them , the fish weren't as interested as usual (maybe because I'd found some live ones in the gravel I'd been giving them) Anyway, I might try the AHT brand next time.. are they small enough for guppies?

well there's less of them now. Any I find get given to the female betta and now she recognises the container I put them in and swims right into it and has a feast. I've found one casing which i guess must be from them.

I wonder if you could tell me about frozen bloodworms that are bought here in NZ from a LFS. How long will they keep in an ordinary chest freezer? I've had a packet in the freezer a while now (over half a year) because I only feed bloodworms once a week . Time to biff the packet out and get a new one?

ouch, I paid about $900 + $1,000 a few years ago so not far off. but ouch in more ways than one!

Nicely worded John. I also think it's better to support local business and when talking petshops I try and support the small business family run type places. But there is a niche for everything and sometimes I also have to look after my own pocket and will go to where the price is right. I have imported items from overseas because they were either way more competitive or simply a better version or more easily available. But I'm not going to cut out the NZ guy for the sake of just a few $. It's all about balance.

hi. the 380 is a great little tank, the one I started out with too! I'm still learning and don't have the natural eye to get my tanks looking like some of the experts here but it's lots of fun anyway. My 380 is currently sitting idle but will be set up as a dwarf puffer tank when my daughter saves up enough to sort it all out and gets it cycled etc. I was just going to keep it as a spare tank but no - little Miss 13 has other ideas. and yes, agree with livingart.. GOOD MOVE to get the QT tank. I now quarantine most new fish after some unpleasant experiences with shop bought livebearers. Even recently I went against my better judgement and put some beautiful imported guppys in , was told they had already been in MAF Quarantine and would be fine.. but they ended up infecting most my existing guppys and I was not able to save them all , and lost the two beautys that started it.

this little guy is just over 7 weeks and came as a surprise to me. Not what I expected, his mother is a golden guppy and she bred with either a red tuxedo or snakeskin. She usually gives me tuxes, goldens and snakeskins and has had 7 lots of fry. They are always removed and sold so she doesn't have the chance to breed with offspring. I presume this guppy is what is called a wildtype, usually seen after several generations of inbreeding I thought. At a few weeks old when he went shiny , I thought he as going to be a snakeskin and was going to keep him for my bigger tank but alas he's not. He's quite pretty in his own right though and has a nicely patterned dorsal fin which will probably grow some more yet. He looks heaps better in real life, the photo's don't do him justice. But is he worth keeping to breed from or is he likely to throw all plain females and wildtype males? Sam has one of the males from same batch - I'd be interested to know if he turned into a wildtype too. The others were all sold before they developed their colouring.

Not sure. If she's thin then it can't be stuck fry as was the case with my female guppy who carried fry for over 5 months! Worms come to mind but it might also be TB - your fish seems to fit some of the symptoms..the stiff back made me think TB .. is she eating? copy and paste from: http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Problems.html: and http://guppyplace.tripod.com/Ailments.html :

This whole salt discussion has got me intrigued. My quarantine tank is lightly salted. I keep it cycled with guppy fry and then any new fish goes in it for a few days to a month (month for livebearers). If I have a sick fish he gets more salt added. I haven't got a salt measure thingy but I take careful note of quantities put in and work out how much comes out with a water change and replace it. I haven't salted my main tanks, though I was tempted when my fighter got sick . However there is a whiptail in that tank and I thought catfish etc don't tolerate salt well with the exception for a bristlenose which can tolerate a low dose. Phoenix it seems you have a few fish that technically shouldn't cope with salt but clearly they are thriving, as are your beautiful plants! From what I understand about plants and salt, they should be able to tolerate up to 1000mg/L before they are adversely affected. I do have a small amount of floating Indian fern in my quarantine tank, it's not thriving but it's not dieing either. Even got a few ramshorns in there. I have a question about throwing the salt in.. I thought salt had to be dissolved first? what if a fish ate a piece? Natural freshwater...is not pure water! it will have dissolved minerals, organics AND some salt! - just not the salt conentration of marine regions. From memory natural freshwater has a low concentration of up to about 1% salt.

hi and welcome ! You might want to consider adding some more kuhli loaches to tank 2. They are much happier in small groups. I've just ordered another two kuhli which will make 5 in my tank. I think they are really cool fish, especially when they dance the figure 8's!

i saw those and thought they were quite neat looking. Would be a cheaper alternative to the awesome HFF zebras but still out of my budget I'm afraid.

hmm well if anyone has some dwarf gourami they need to sell.. let me know! at least I'll know i'm getting tank proven ones! Maybe I should quarantine any I get from a LFS just to be on the safe side. A month should be long enough but would they cope in my 20L Q tank? Perhaps a month is too long or should i put them straight into their new home and see how they go.

really! Hope they're sorted by now. Are they an import fish or bred here? that's good to know phoenix44 , I'm just going to get the std stripey ones I think, and I'll get two of them.

thanks breakaway. That sounds promising. Anybody else have experiences to share with more than one male dwarf gourami? I take it they are sensitive fish? I've found the hardest fish to keep has actually been my guppys!! especially shop bought males. Guppys are supposed to be one of the hardiest but mine always seem to have some sort of issue. I am very offput by shop bought guppys now but finding nice ones privately has proved difficult too.

I'm wanting a dwarf gourami or two to liven/brighten up my tank a bit. It will be the biggest fish in the tank as my fish are all small species with the exception of planned single rainbow shark . (I'll buy the smallest I can find to let him grow) I was looking at them in a LFS and the sign said "best kept in pairs" but it looked like all the fish were males. I asked about keeping two males together and they said that was fine. But is it really? Will two males be aggressive towards each other? My tank is an AR850 so about 150-160L , with a few plants, pieces of driftwood, mountain cave thingee, and a tunnel. other fish in the tank are: kuhli loaches, 1 female fighter, a few guppy, 1 platy, 2 otos, 1 small whiptail, and a planned rainbow shark. I would like two dwarf gourami (males) if it's workable.

thanks for that Sophia.. I've got a busy weekend ahead but if I get a chance I'll go and check them out. They do seem quite happy with just the two of them, following each other around the tank .. and even following one of the guppies around together.. don't know why ! Maybe they think she's an oto.

she died. Now I'm too scared to feed peas .. I usually put a couple of peas in a small bowl of water and cook for 30seconds in microwave, when cool I deshell and squash the peas with my fingers so they mush into the tank.. usually it's small enough pieces for the guppys to eat, the bigger pieces they just nibble away at. but this time she just gulped a piece down and because she was so huge and fat I anyway (even bigger than the last photo) there was little room for it to go down.

wow this is really bizzarre. Is it just in that one tank? Maybe contact the water supply and see if they've added any new chemicals or even ask for their latest water analysis from the closest testing station. I've done that with our local water suppliers and they do get back to you with quite a comprehensive set of results.

i netted her but couldn't bring myself to poke and prod her , she was just too wiggly. Back in tank now but seems very weak.

eek ! hook it with what ? .. and she's gonna wiggle!

sorry to hear that tukituki . Fighters are such cool fish.