Sophia

Update .... Have done approx a 40% water change, algae scrape and siphon. Trimmed all my plants, removed some and have rescaped with my new plants from Alan Looks a little bare at present but should bush up well. Val trimmed back to non-staghorn leaves and redistributed at back. New sagittaria in the front with some short stargrass in the corner of the divider. Razored log with most algae removed, with heavily trimmed anubias nana. This is where I’ve spot injected the first dose of Flourish Excel to annihiliate the staghorn. Alan you can see I've put some longer bits of stargrass at the back to see how they cope.

small update - 2nd dose done with all snails in the water and they seem unconcerned. Like a snail would be as usual!

Read that and got through about 5 pages of the link within the link. The common thread is to cut away infected stuff and/or to do the overdosing. I can straight away boil the urn and kill off the algae (the oto love cooked algae ) and that just leaves my multi-algae driftwood as the main host. Also now I see some very fine fuzzy green hairs on the anubias. I will try the Excel method and boiling the urn and then if no joy the wood goes. edit... and I meant to say that the threads say ammonia causes staghorn but mine is zero as well as no nitrite. Nitrate still 10ppm and under.

hi Alan I chucked out the zealandia as suggested but I also have a vigorous anubias nana with a flower all furry too - I thought they appreciated less light?? The staghorn is also now trying to grow on various pebbles. I don't mind it on my driftwood as I can just scrape it off but it really is starting to permeate. thanks I'll go have a squizz in that thread too here's a link to my tank at present, minus the zealandia next to the log - haven't planted yours yet Alan, nice job for the weekend. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43354

is this what you guys rave about to feed plants and will it kill my staghorn algae? ? http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/prod ... hp?id=1933 I have been dosing with Florapride 0-0-3 npk to feed the plants, hoping it would starve the algae but instead it's getting longer and more seaweedy. It's very pretty in places but I just don't want it! :evil: I have got to the point where I'm ready to dose the tank with something that will blast it to oblivion because other than feeding the fish less I can't change anything else about the way the tank is set up. I'm willing to give it blast and for it to grow back in a few months, I don't imagine it will be gone forever. The tank isn't big enough for a siamese/chinese algae eater either. Fish are 7 cardinal tetra, 7 corydora (4 are juvenile), 2 oto, 2 swordtails that are leaving soon I do stick to the 'feed only what they can eat in 5 mins' theory - about a quarter of an algae wafer for everyone in the morning and in the evening a tiny pinch of mixed flakes/dried worms and maybe 1 or 2 shrimp pellets. Does that sound too much? If anything I have dropped off the feeding a little but the staghorn has gotten stronger. The other thing to add to the mix is that Alan has just sent me a bunch of extra plants that could a) choke the algae if I'm lucky or b) get consumed themselves. I want something to work, am tired of experimenting on my tank with my wallet!!

thanks Alan, i have sent you a PM

Ex-worm fish now seems to have put his/her weight back on and the gill is almost flat again. Bought 2 extra cardinals to replenish the numbers yesterday - they are from the same shop as the last lot, so they will be in the tank for dose 2 on Wednesday.

thanks Pheonix - I've been rated!! :lol: that looks nice, that's what i was trying to achieve with the zealandia - what is the name of your stuff? the sunlight was direct for an hour or so in spring but it isn't anymore, the staghorn doesn't care though, the room must be light enough for it to think it is haha I even blocked off one of the short ends of the tank to cut the sunlight down - that was an improvement but not brilliant

the bulb is a 20W 8T (T8? reading it upside down and reflected) Powerglo tube that was supposed to be a broad spectrum thingy. it's on from 9am to 9pm

would you call this much plants a heavily or well planted tank yet? what 'rating' of plantliness would you (any of you) label it?

I am making a val-jungle across the stones there and it's working pretty well. Everyone likes to hide in there and I like the look of it en masse. I looked at stargrass today and it was nice n cheap too.... will it not try and grow tall to the light though? I thought if i go for something naturally small then I won't be forever arguing with it. I just want something low to run either side of the divider really. hmmmm

... low-ish light and a bit of sunlight. At HFF i bought what they call Zealandia but elsewhere it looks like Sagittaria. It is getting swamped with staghorn algae and is not lush anymore. I don't want java moss. I have lots of twisted val and an anubias nana that today has a flower stalk (yay), and some pennywort that I am not particularly attached to but it grows well. The red leaved plants get leggy and stay green in my tank so anything high light is not an option. I have been putting the light on for nearly the full 12 hours but it hasn't made a difference on anything. oh and I have been using florapride npk 0-0-3 which has no nitrates and phosphates. our water is also zero nitrate out of the tap too. overall pic for perspective (tank 60cm wide x 30 x 33) see there between the dividing wall and the log is the zealandia... I did have it also on the other side of the wall to soften it but it got too staggy. I want to grow short stuff along the divider but leave most of the sand free. I am not enjoying the staghorn on the anubias either but I think I have to live with that till I get the tank into a room with less sunlight. :roll:

I appreciate that you stuck around and kept answering my questions.

gill only swollen faintly now, fish still doing what looks like a bit of overbreathing but I think that is to be expected with any gill issues. thanks to all, especially JenniferH for advice and continual answering of questions 8) :bounce: :bounce:

thanks Doc! gill looking partially normal this morning - still rough around the edges but definitely getting better :bounce:

Yip, even more worm gone today, and less swelling. Did a 25-30% water change yesterday and have put the snails back in just now as I did not notice any odd snail behaviour either. Come what may I'm going to redose in a week or 2 anyway, I'm not taking any chances with those worms. Is aquarium salt preferable over a dip in methylene blue or are they different things?

update: Worm is disappearing slowly. Over the day the bubble has fully disappeared. Edges of worm area are a bit raggedy. Fish is a little unsociable at times and still feeding heavily. :bounce:

Greeblie Worm Update! :bounce: The casing or bubble around 'Wormilla' seems to be disintegrating. It's not bubble shaped and there seems to be a tiny flap of skin or something off the edge. There is what looks like a tiny amount of blood in there - not in a drop shape as if the bubble was filling with blood like someone else mentioned, but as if it's inside the worm or next to in a blood vessel. Very hard to see but definitely there. Impossible to know if the worm is dying from the wormer or if it's just natural progression. Fishie still happy enough, no clamped fins. I added a few extra drops of the water conditioner that has fish slime helper in case that aids against infection. In any case I will still dose again as planned in a week (or should it be 2 Jennifer?)

hahahaha! yay that's great (for me) :bounce:

how long can they live in unheated water? I have them isolated at present while I treat the main tank with dewormer but as I don't have another tank they are just in a bucket. I know snails are pretty hard to kill but I like these guys and would rather keep them alive. Worst case scenario I can float them in the tank in a container to get the warmth. Any ideas? :-?

that fish is too cute 8)

Welcome to today's update! well I did buy some clove oil today with a view to euthanasia if it all goes bad - am not brave enough to pop the bubble and remove it as originally it looked like it was in the gill. I am busting to put some more meds in there - though it has definitely developed in 24 hours I don't know if that is normal for the greeblie or if the meds have accelerated things. on the dosage I found this: i put approx 1ml and have a 50-60L tank but there were no side effects like below. (It does cause a problem on humans though, I must dropped some treated water on me or such like because I got a hot itch on my hand that didn't go away till i scrubbed it with hot water. Use gloves next time!!)

finally some photos of the greeblie this afternoon it is hanging lower, seems like it could be to be up to a cm long and curled up!