BikBok

I've been curious about this for a while. If beneficial bacteria in the filter media etc need oxygen and food to stay alive.. how do they survive in those bottles such as TLC and Stress Zyme that are sold to boost the biological filter. Some of the products have expiry dates several years away .. can they really last that long in a bottle ? product labelling says they contain millions of live bacteria!

how about 2-3 ottos - they are strictly algae and vege eaters and they stay little. My experience with a BN is that they only bother with algae when young. My BN was a bossy thing and I had to rehome him because he wouldn't leave the other fish alone but I think most BNs are queit.

well the meth blue/acriflavine seems to have helped, the sluggish female guppy has now perked up and I haven't had any more losses. fingers crossed.

it wasn't pleasant but not grossly foul ... just very fishy. But the cleanup was disgusting. I hate dead fish at the best of the times, let alone a whole tank !

i didn't think it would be the culprit but people always ask "what's new" . I'm going to give a floating bath of acriflavine/meth blue to the remaining guppies and hope I don't lose any of the other fish. I want to avoid dosing the whole tank , because I have kuhli and rainbow shark and Ottos in there that might not take kindly to the meds. Not sure how pearl gourami cope with meds.. have never had to treat them . I'll leave the prazi for now.. I'm not convinced that parasites could act so quickly and aggressively.

this happened to me once, a very long time ago and it actually boiled my fish and put me off fish-keeping for over 10 years till i got back into it again a few years ago. The problem was the heater must have been cracked or something because I could feel an ever so slight tingle in the water. (electricity) and so the thermostat had failed and the heater kept on heating. It was very upsetting. :fshi:

oh there is one more thing .. I doubt it has any bearing but I'll mention it. When I bought the two import guppys I also bought a bottle of stress zyme , thinking I'd give the filter a boost. I'ver occasionally used TLC but they had run out. I've not used stress zyme before but presumably it should be safe.

that's my feelings.. I just can't see how a parasite would act so quickly but prazi is supposed to be gentle so thought no harm in trying that first. But I'm not sure it's helping. well I've tested all the water params and they seem fine and it's a well established tank. The only changes have been the two new import guppies so it stands to reason the problem started with them . The male was the first to die, The female is doing ok. I have only 4 guppies left now , If the female survives I hope she can give me some nice babies and repopulate the tank with healthy guppies. The MALE PLATY is now dead and to my horror the female was being relentlessly attacked by my rainbow shark.. chasing, biting and tumbling her around. By the time I got her out, it was too late to save her. The shark must have seen easy prey because she was weakening. The plan is now to set up my Quarantine tank, I'll use the healthiest guppy left and if it does OK I'll wait a few weeks and try again with some new fish - they will go into the QT tank first with the cycler guppy . (my test specimen!) I regret not having quarantined those import guppys. I had shut down the QT over Christmas when my parents were housesitting so they didn't have too many tanks to look after. I never got around to cycling another tank. I normally have a small 21L tank going with a couple of guppys in it.

ok... Is it too late to set up a quarantine tank which would be unclycled? I'm thinking of isolating the male platy and treating him separately to see what he responds to... starting with salt and another doe of prazi. He's still not eating and the female is a little sluggish today as well but it might be too much to put her in the QT tank as well., It's 21L. Or do I just treat the whole tank again and get a QT tank underway with one of the unaffceted guppies. (I only have 5 left) I'm still baffled by the dead zebra. The only other fish that have been affected are live bearers and my zebbie has been a robust healthy fellow. (Or girl as the case may be) She's been exposed to both salt and prazi before so I don't think that killed her. Could it really be parasites that have so rapidly and aggressively killed off so many fish within days of introducing the import?

thanks I'll monitor the situation and if nothing more becomes evident, I'll give a 2nd dose in a week to be on the safe side. update - well this is disappointing -- my Chocolate Zebra is dead... so not limited to just the livebearers. My choccie zebra was 3 years old and I really can't find any marks or signs of disease on him at all.

there are five guppys left. two are definitely flicking themselves. Found the shark eating a dead guppy . yuck.. hope it's not going to transfer to him. so far, only the livebearers seem affected.. (guppies and one-two platy) all the other fish are fine.

the white seemed to be on the fin itself.

this female platy has been behaving normally but I just noticed something white down beside/above her anal/ventral fins . sorry the photos aren't that great. it looks more worm like in real life, like something is attached rather than discoloration but I'm not sure.

this is the male platy I'm worried about, he has been quiet today and sometimes clamping

one of the little wildtypes that's on his last legs (fins) . I euthanized him after this photo. the tip of his pectoral fins are white/ eaten away?

this is the female import that i got with the snakeskin, she has flicked herself a couple of times bit otherwise is eating, swimming normally. Is that white poop .. or a worm? photos of the sick fish next post

hi adrienne I dont have any formalin , Ive got meth blue and acriflavin, levamisole, prazi , and furan 2(which I am loath to use in a community tank!) Ive added 5 teaspoons salt (155L) . Would external parasites act so quickly ?...my existing guppy started dieing the day after the imported one.. just fished out another two. I think I've spotted something in the last half hr, will take some pics and upload shortly.

any treatments I do will have to be done with the other tankmates in mind... kuhli, choc zebra plec, otos, platy, gourami., rainbow shark. It's a well established tank and I ahven't lost any fish for so long and now it looks liek I'm going to lose my livebearers .

Can anyone see anything wrong with this guppy? Photo taken the day I got him... dead within days. He's an imported guppy and within days of introducing him to my tank he deid... and then 7 of my existing NZ bred guppies. Ammonia, Nitrate and nitrite levels are all fine. pH 7.2. I can't see anything physically wrong with the fish that have died . (other than being dead!!) but now what is worrying is one of my highfin platys has stopped eating and is clamping his finds. The guppies never displayed this behaviour I just found them dead. I'm thinking it's a mystery disease that comes with some imported guppies and I don't know where to begin in order to treat my tank. I dosed it with prazi last night in case it's parasites.. but would parasites act so quickly?? 7 fish dead within a week of the new guy . Any help would be appreciated. I didn't have a Quarantine tank set up and now I'm paying for it but I still need to do something.

I've always loved dwarf puffers but it would mean an overhaul of my tank and specialty foods! haha I've gotten lazy as times gone on. Getting enough snails and restocking bloodworms ..ugghh My daughter is saying please mum get the puffers. My tank is only around 20L. Starting to think maybe I should go for some minifish like dwarf rasboara.

Hi Sophia I think it was the dwarf rasbora that caught my eye today but I don't know much about them.. I will do some research. So is the consensus Neons won't work in my tank?

Hi Sam.. that's what I figured with a vertical tank which is why we originally bought it for a betta. Maybe I'll go back to a betta but I don't seem to have much luck with them.. they just don't thrive under my care! I think I've had three in five years so not a very good track record. I was almost tempted by a crowntail at HFF today , he was putting on a show for me. Not too keen on shrimp.

Hi all it's been a while since I visited this forum! I've got a hexy midi tank which is kind of difficult to stock because of it's weird tall hexagonal shape. I originally kept a betta in it with a small whiptail. My betta passed away some time ago so I just put a couple of guppy in it and then a week ago, my Mr Whippy passed away, I had him for about 5 years , was sad to see him go I don't want a hexy tank just for two guppys (Though they have very nice enormous tails for wild types!) so I'm going to move them back to the main tank (AR850) So any ideas... I've always liked neons but heard they were difficult to care for and I'm not sure if a hexy is big enough. I'd prefer cardinals but these are even bigger than neons. Other ideas are letting it go coldwater and opting for minnows but that's only if I can't think of anything else. So people put your ideas forward

thanks Alan