herefishiefishie

I feel I need a better camera :lol: A couple of tank shots & a couple of discus. Frenchy

Nice clean line on your male too. There are plenty here, just trying to find nice ones is the problem. People get females of protomeleas mixed up, cross breed.... Frenchy

Well, if they hatch, that will let you know. Frenchy

:roll: {shakes head, gives up on this topic & walks away} :lol: Frenchy

Thanks for the nice words. I have rummys, cardinals, harlequin rasboras, a fighter, couple of guppys..... 6 discus at the moment. May add 2 more. Will take more photos later. Frenchy

I would still use the medicine. Whitespot can take a week to treat properly anyway. As said earlier, treat till about 3 days after spots have disappeared. I usually do one more dose at that stage to make sure anyway. Frenchy

Probably injured. Also a sign of flukes. Keep an eye on other fish. If no more start doing the same, then I would go with injured. Frenchy

Cool looking pics Andrew. Interesting to link salt treatment, when in reference to fish kept in hard water. Big difference to standard tropicals. Did you read the part in the article about how this treatment is aimed at rift lake cichlids? The loaches in his case are used to hard water. The quote also states care with soft water species. The same article said this too. :oops: I didn't see that mentioned. Lower end, 8 tablespoons? To me the text reads as, use 6-9 tablespoons with heat treatment. Work up to 12-15 tablespoons if not using heat. Roughly to a 60litre tank in this case. The link I placed up from Florida University is a general guide, for fish. Therefore, 30g to 60lt tank during treatment. Cut back to 6 grams per 60lt if you want to keep using salt after treatment. The huge amount of salt to soft water will kill bacteria. Fish should be fine. Just a tip, do a 50% water change with a gravel vac when you read this. Also keep an eye on your ammonia, nitrate, nitrite levels over the next few weeks, just incase. Frenchy

Set up the discus in the 4x2x2 a couple of weeks ago. Bigger tank, I thought be better. Just a couple of pics of the young discus & a couple of rams. Frenchy

Very nice male Bry Frenchy

That much salt would/could kill all the bacteria too. So keep your eyes on your water levels for the next few weeks. Frenchy

Maybe it is different over in NZ. Over here costs are minimal. Frenchy

I fail to see the point in the post then? I don't know what retail you do/did, I would guess the overheads would be less than a lfs? Wholesalers buy off local breeders as well as direct import. A good lfs will know what the true market value is. eg; some fish at wholesalers are over priced. Why buy a local bred fish from a wholesaler if they can buy off a breeder. LFS won't buy some popular species from a wholesaler unless they have too. If you want to talk mark up, I know what popular species in Asia cost to buy. The lfs dosen't usually mark up as much as them. 5 years ago, Tropheus duboisi were $2ea to buy from Asia. I think most of what I would like to say on the topic has been covered above. I will add a little, sorry lol. A LFS I know of, worked out that they had to turnover $8720 net a week, or $9592 inc GST. At around 57% gross profit, just make a profit of $30000 a year. The lucky boss owner. Marked up life stock around 300% to allow for 5% losses. A reason for high mark up on life stock is that.... Dry stock here is cut throat with on line wholesalers, therefore mark up is around 80% That is why a lot of lfs here have slowed up on cichlids. They can't sell them for the price they "need" too. People can buy cheaper from a breeder, so why{LFS} compete. Shops will still get to sell to the novice that is it. Can you imagine later on here in Aussie, when all lfs cut back on cichlids, be a lot of spare ones around. The wholesalers won't want them then either. lol. The chances of new breeds coming in will greatly reduce too. I believe in the lfs, been there done that. I sell{credit} what I breed to Brad for a price, that I know he can mark up & then sell. I get my benefits in return. I get private pm's from people wanting fish. I tell them the same price as what Brad is selling for. Funny, most people don't get it. Then again, to me it is just a hobby. But I know what is vital for the hobby to survive. Healthy LFS's!!! A lot of people don't get the lfs need to make money to survive. Cover the huge amount of overheads. That is all it is. One breeder didn't get it when my boss kicked him out. He was selling frontosa's to us for $20ea, then we found out he was selling them for $20ea privately. So when a shop gets pissed off at you if you are going to sell fish cheaper private, online etc. There is a reason. It's not greed on the lfs, they are just trying to make a living. Frenchy

Thats a lot of salt for loaches to handle. I have never used that much for my africans Keep an eye on them. You shouldn't have to use salt, it is over rated in the use of disease treatment. {IMO} Leave the temp at where it is 29-30. Make sure you have plenty of airation in the tank.{water surface disturbition} Oxygen levels deplete rapidly at higher water temps. Without knowing what is in the medicine, I can not comment on the amount of water changes, bizarre all the same to me. Frenchy

I do a gravel vac between each treatment. The medicines only kill white spot when not on the fish. Usual recommendation is to treat for a week, at least. Some light reading, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FA006 Frenchy

Nice fish everyone, great pics too. Frenchy

I would load up one with noodles in the bottom few trays & coarse foam in the top tray. The other I would use with noodles & dacron in the top tray. Dacron is better, dosen't clog as quick, holds it shape better too. Filter wool clogs really quick, meaning that you have to take apart the canister more often.{ I hate using filter wool :lol: } For those that say they don't, well the filter wool once dirty is useless. The water just runs around it, therefore the wool isn't collecting the fine particles at all. Frenchy

Whenever you have ph issues, you should get your gh & kh tested. This will tell you what you need to do with your water, rather then aimlessly adding chemicals into the water. How often do you do water changes? Do you use a gravel vaccum? Also, only raise the ph when doing a waterchange. Frenchy

Congrats & well done. Just a tip, try & find more girls too. Males can be a real pain in the .... unless you plain to do the drop her in when she is ready routine. Frenchy

Sorry don't use that myself. I take it by its name, it is salt based. Be careful with salt, it burns the skin on loaches. Frenchy

What do you mean by malawi comp? If it is D.compressiceps; I have never heard of them breeding at that size before. Frenchy

Yep, they make good dithers. Frenchy

Well the same people I have read up on say to 1/2 dose parasite remedies because they are scaleless. Do you want to test that theory for me too? :lol: there is a scientific reason, if I remember where to source it from. I know of people that have killed loaches because they used the salt bath treatment. It is not unusual for the dye to go in a day, depends on factors like heat of the tank, turn over of filtration, airation, plants.....medications themselves tend to only last for 8 hours max. Frenchy

Very nice pics, great looking clean yellows too. Frenchy

What makes you think that? Frenchy