herefishiefishie

My condolences to Rose & the family. I had the pleasure of a day with Alan. A lfs tour of Brissie, Beenleigh & Gold Coast, back to mine for a quiet. We managed to fit a day in. 200km plus of travel & the radio never came on once. Such a zest for life, his family, the fish hobby & sport. Gee we covered some topics, 9-10 hours of flowing conversations, spotting oddities in the fish hobby, but alias no Madagascan Lace Plant. I still giggle to myself at one lfs. Alan with his broad Kiwi accent, Andrew{owner} & his very thick Polish accent. Me in the middle playing translator. :lol: 2 older pros telling stories, via a third party.... was an eye opener. The knowledge was mind blowing. Alan left that lfs with the title, "Professor Alan."{A name reserved for a few fish geeks} Alan made a lasting impression on myself. I feel lucky that I got to meet such a wonderful person, someone I called a friend. May God Bless Alan. Rest in Peace. You will be sorely missed by all. Frenchy

David, read this part of the quote you used again.... Frenchy

When your lfs tested the water. Did they test for ammonia, nitrate & nitrite? Frenchy

The nyasse here are an old school line. Frenchy

The ones that are called nyasse here, have a lot of blue{more a navy blue too} in the compared to the one in the pic at the start of the post. Not so much of the yellow/ orange colour too. Frenchy

I wouldn't do it. Excess rubbish can kill the bacteria in the filter, not to forget clogging it. Why not gravel vac one side on time. The other side the next time. Frenchy

Stirring up the gravel can be very dangerous. Especially if you have what is called dead spots. I stab down into the gravel, gravel goes up a wee way, drops back down waste goes up & out. Then I stab the place next to it, so on & so on. I don't want a heap of waste floating around in the water column. Frenchy

Good to read some good news. well done. Frenchy

A happy settled discus display tank does have a pecking order, but all fish are out in the open, have their space etc. {IMO} It shouldn't have one hounding the rest. Frenchy

Do you know for sure that he is male & the rest are girls? What size are the fish, tank, what else is in there... Frenchy

The chances are, if they all came in without variants. Then they are all just the old school line. Years of breeding creates slight variances. Or better quality etc. Someone could of line bred litho's for example, for their thick blaze. That batch just happened to come through. Frenchy

Good info to post up, which I am sure is helpful to all. Frenchy

We are not meant to. Just have some dedicated people here. My Altolamprologus calvus. They curl & show their body to an attacker. So if they get bitten, the fish that bites gets cut lips. Their other little defence is the ability to shoot upwards. There is a good footage on this in "Jewel of the Rift". Hence the for need for good lids in the tanks. No gaps either, they will find them. Yep, sure have. Someone has to do the trial & error. :roll: :lol: Done it a number of times now. At least this way I can let others know, how it went, what my views are etc. Frenchy

Picked myself up some Melanochromis lepidiadaptes today. Brad's shop had 11 left, so stuff it took the lot. Not much info on them on the net. Apparently they eat scales of other fish in the wild, but one source states not other mbuna's. Rarely seen in captivity. So I have thrown them in with my electric yellow colony. On have some clown loaches in there, scaleless which is good just in case. & a couple of alto's, now they curl their bodies to expose their sharp scales as a form of defence, this could be interesting. Have to keep my eye open for that. Frenchy

How do you clean your filters? How often do you do water changes? How much water{%} do you change? Do you use a gravel vac? Frenchy

For getting metro. If you can get a hold of a discus book. Or do a google, search for Discus hole in the head or Discus hexamita. Print of symtons sheet or take book to the vet. Say fish are to sick to travel, they look just like this in the text or book. I need some of this please. I did this before I had contacts & it worked. Vet did say he wasn't allowed to give to me, but took my word. I believe there is a difference, in the make up of sharks to cichlids. But I could be wrong. I have never done much reading up on sharks. From what I saw once, they need the seals fat as a slow release energy source. Great Whites live in cold water, yet maintain a body temp higher than the water temp. I can't really remember much from there. But when I have a few texts which include, one person; a degree in biology, specializing in ichthyopathology. 25 years experience in daily research on fish diseases. & 2 others who both have 25 plus years plus experience in cichlids. One is the Publisher of Back to Nature books. The other studied biology. I will sort of take there word. Sorry but when people then say of discus breeders who say they do this or that. Well they are only into getting their fish to maturity quickly, get them looking great, pump out a heap of young. Thats it. Short life span for the discus, but who cares. Their selected off spring are already up to size. {That story in various forms comes form 3 discus breeder/importers I know here & their experiences of some practises overseas.} Frenchy

These have been on sale over here for a few years. As above comments, no need for them if you look after your tank properly. They are just a form of carbon. Therefore, you have to estimate... Like so many other products, what they say the live span is will vary greatly. Who knows, their trial could of been done on a 2 foot tank with 5 neons. Consider that the so called normal carbon is only good for 3-4 weeks. Frenchy

As above. To many fish to soon. But the food your feeding is one concern. I would be getting hold of some metro & treating your tank as some aren't eating. You can drop the water level down, therefore not as much water. You will have to keep up with the water changes. Mix some in food, therefore those that are eating, will get straight into there system. Prevent them from getting worse, will say they are probably infected. 2 of the 3 foods you mentioned are products I don't feed to my fish. Stop with the beef heart straight away. Fish are cold bloodied, therefore can not digest warm animal bloodied fat. Frenchy

:lol: Amazing where the little buggers can end up. Frenchy

Don't know. Need better shots of the male & probably won't be sure until he colours up. Frenchy

Well, if they are small enough to fit in ones mouth. Thats where it will end up. :lol: Frenchy

The more females the better. Frenchy

I don't have that much time, to draw out an outline. Have to go out sorry, gf's bday. Hopefully david comes up with something better. Frenchy

oops lol Frenchy

I photo shopped one for ya. Hope its good enough for your daughters homework. Frenchy