Pegasus

Hi Oscar,... Welcome to the forum. Such a sad story to read about these beautiful fish, although many say they are ugly. You give us very few clues to work on... and we need to know... Size of fish... size of tank... frequency of water changes.. present reading of water conditions.. any meds used (besides the salt).. is the "other" fish ok and eating as normal.. etc. The appearance of the fish could be due to a fight.. or from a scare that has caused the fish to bump into the glass side, or a rock perhaps, which could have caused the cloudy eye. This is normally the signs of poor water conditions, or a lack of disolved oxygen in the water if the tank is small... but also could be an ammonia problem. The salt was a good move (IMO) although if you could treat in a seperate tank it would be better, and would give the fish a rest from the attentions of the other. Personally I would try to get it into a seperate tank as soon as possible. Perhaps we can hopefully get some other opinions soon. Regards,

Great stuff Polgara. As above... lotsa water changes, and don't overfeed.

Thanks Chim,... a good explanation, and basically (in boating terms and pumps) it means lots of water disturbance with very little movement of the liquid... in our case.. water. Often with air driven uplifts you can get more water movement by "reducing" the air flow, rather than "increasing" it.

There's a thread here with all the details http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=3248

Nope... you are not correct. Air will only lift a certain amount of water via an airlift tube, and a great percentage of the action in the tube is cavitation caused by the bubbles. The way to find out "roughly" how much water is being lifted is by connecting an elbow or something to the outlet so that a fixed size container can be filled.. like a one litre container. Taking a reading of the time this takes to fill will give you a "guesstimate" of the amount of water your air driven lift is capable of. The length of the tube, plus the diameter, and the amount it is clear of the surface will vary the results. HTH

Hi Jan... welcome to the forums and the mysteries that our fish seem to create. If the pairs you have at the mo have been breeding for two years, they should have managed to get it right by now. How do you have your breeding tanks setup..? Are there any distractions around the tank.. (people.. children.. other fish etc)..? What are you feeding the adults... before... during... and after the spawning..? What are you feeding the fry once hatched...?

Great to have you join us Judy. Welcome to the Fishroom.

Hi Robbie, Stop the digging... Just lay a couple of heavy hessian sacks on the (close cropped) lawn and thoroughly soak them. Cover with a bit of board or something, and you will soon find worms congregating under there. You can feed them with ground up kitchen scraps to keep up their interest. Be very wary of worms from compost heaps, as often weedkillers have been used or other chemicals. HTH

Hi Kelpy,... welcome to the fishroom. Bit too salty for many of us in that forum, but it's quite busy.. so jump in and get your feet wet Bill.

Personally I would be inclined to check for ammonia levels before doing anything drastic. Red gills are usually a sign of excess ammonia, which would also relate to the flasing and run down (clamped fins) fish. Bill.

Hi Robbie, Great to have you join us. Sounds like you got addicted REALLY quick he he. Look forward to your posts,

Hi Brad, Don't know Alan's method.. as the breeding tubes are not down, and apart from the fish on the right looks a little plumper it's a bit hard to tell with any absolute certainty. Here's a diagram that might help... not very clear, but might give you some thoughts. Also looking directly from above is usually a good indication, as the females (when mature) are usually plumper.

No reference to you Logan. I have edited the above to clarify this. Sorry for the confusion, Bill.

The thing with the salt treatments Donna, is to build it up "gradually".. so as not to shock the fish. You must also "pre-mix" any solution before adding it to your water. Strengths vary, but there is heaps of info on the net relating to salt in aquariums for medicinal purposes. Sorry about your loss, and hope the others pick up. BTW... The salinity of the water can "only" decrease by "water changes", and not by "evaporation"... so there is no need to add additional salts unless you do a major water change. Then you would base the amount of salt needed by the amount of water you removed.. but take into account for any evaporation. Regards, Bill.

It seems that all vinegar that has "gone off" holds some life, and many years ago I looked at some vinegar from an old jar of pickled onions and was surprised to see it seething with life... so "perhaps" they arrived in there from the original contents... who knows. It might be worth trying with some old vinegar (unpasturised.. or cider vinegar) and adding a piece of apple and a small amount of sugar to encourage the bacteria growth. Place it somewhere warm (not hot) with the liquid exposed to the air... although the ones I saw were in a sealed jar.. and needless to say.. I don't touch vinegar anymore After a week or so, a microscope or strong hand lens will give you a fair indication if there is life present. Apparently, once you get the culture going, they last for years, and take some killing off, but don't like the temp too low.

Let's just hope you remember to come back here OFTEN...

Hi Jude, (or should it be "Hey Jude".. Plenty to read while you wait for the chatters to join you he he. Welcome to the Fishroom.

Hi Sue & Rex, Welcome to the NZ Fishroom. Great to hear about your turtles... sounds like there may be the makings of an article there Look forward to your posts.

Hi Guys,... Welcome to the Fishroom. Lots of stuff here on Angels, but here's my bit http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewto ... dic+angels If the eggs are white, they are infertile, but if you have at least "one" wriggler, then you know you have a pair at least

Fins said: Get the fitting checked out by a competent person... as you could have a leakage of power that is zapping the fish as you switch on.

Wiring for single tube. HTH

Ha ha... Well... You gave no indication of how many you wanted, but thanks for looking anyway

How many do you want he he.. http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/grumpy ... shrimp.htm Email me if you have probs

Slow down here a bit Kim... Point one is that Lysette has a problem.. that up to this point we don't know the cause of... but yet you are advising her to add more fish before the prob is solved. JMO.. but I still think you have a water prob Lysette. A two footer is many more times harder to maintain water quality in than your previous sized tank. Mass deaths don't just occur... there is a "definite" cause, which is yet to be established, so until that time I would avoid adding "anything".. Test kits are known to give erronious readings, so it might be a good idea to allow your local LFS to test your water and see if they come up with the same conclusion. Take a sample "directly" from your supply, and get that tested also. It won't be the first time that local councils have added this and that to the supply... which may not harm us, but can be disasterous for our fish. Bill.

Couple of articles here that might help Lysette, http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/man ... _Died.html http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?t=1817 It is not unusal to lose the odd fish now and then, but losing a lot over a short period means you have a prob somewhere. You say the water conditions are fine... but have you done any "actual" tests... especially for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates... ? We need more details, regarding how long you have had the fish, .. how long the tank has been set up... how often have you done water changes... have you added any medications recently... what were the conditions of the dead fish.. (inflamed gills.. swollen bellies)... how often do you feed them..? Try to answer the above as best you can, and try to think back to try and recollect when the deaths started, and was there anything that happened that might have caused this. Lastly... Don't give up... it happens to most of us at some time or another, and we are all here to help if we can. Regards, Bill (Pegasus NZ)