alexyay

Have heard good things about it, personally. But wouldn't necessarily expect it to work as well as a vet medication. :smot: but glad to get an answer for that - was wondering whether it was registered or not.

It /totally/ depends on what it is as to whether you have to treat the whole tank. If it's something like columnaris and is spreading, then you want to treat the tank. If it's a single incident, then you treat the affected fish. One option would be to move them all into a 38L (which is what 1 packet treats for 1 day, so or eg 76L and 2 packets/day) and then sterilize everything else in the 200L - plants in a dip of some kind (bleach, KMnO4 etc), and same with the rest of the equipment and tank. That's assuming that it's a disease that's spreading. Furan 2 usually comes in a box with 10 packets - 4 packets are 1 total course, and it's 1 packet/38L. Treat as HFF have instructed (grr) HFF seem to be selling them separately in different packaging which I'm very unimpressed with :facepalm: but there isn't much Furan 2 left to buy in the country any more (it'll soon no longer be for sale, most stores have run out of it). It's still occasionally available on TM based on what's left (and there's one who's imported some without registration - they'll probably continue to do so until MPI call them out on it and seize future imports). Have you tested your water? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates?

I've not seen HC here in NZ - let me know if you find some. Other option is Glosso, which is more commonly available. HM is available too, but I've found doesn't carpet well and grows pretty tall.

Finnex :thup: - Ray II or Planted+ depending on what you want (I imagine the Ray II is slightly stronger, and I think there's a new Planted+ model coming out soon). Current make the Sat+ and Ecoxotic (Ecoxotic is apparently pretty good, but expensive). BuildMyLED is probably better than the first two brands, but more expensive so likely out of the budget. Theplantedtank is pretty up to date on good LEDs out there. (answering super late because I haven't been on the forums for a while D:)

Lat time I checked, I don't think so, unfortunately. We're somewhat limited to those found in the plant database/search on FNZAS.

DGs do seem to be more susceptible to disease - they're also prone to idirovirus, and people may find that wounded gourami become prone to infection. I feel that perhaps the males all being kept together may be a cause of stress (especially in pet stores where there's small tanks and no where to hide), making them susceptible to illness. So they do tend to be more prone to illness, but that doesn't necessarily make them hard to keep. It'll probably be best keeping them in soft water, low pH with lots of hiding places, good vegetation, possibly leaf litter and/or other forms of tanins, without too many boisterous fish. I have found honey gourami fairly sensitive too, so if you're looking for hardy, they're not necessarily the way to go. Thicklip gourami are fairly hardy, but I very often see them in stores with dropsy, wounds and infections. Banded gourami are also fairly hardy but aren't so common. I'd say the standard species like 3-spot gourami are probably the most hardy, but gets a lot bigger and the males tend to be more aggressive than the smaller species.

After the assumed virus on my other girl, I had assumed this girl had caught it (around about a month ago). I couldn't seem to catch her, so I could only guess. Kept an eye on it - made sure it didn't get any bigger. Got home this weekend and saw some patches on my honey gourami female and I started to panic - I managed to catch her, and it's not pretty. It's been suggested to be parasitic - unsure what kind. I don't believe it to be water conditions related, but for reference: GH 2-3, KH 0-2, pH varies but usually sits between 6.6-7.6. Ammonia and nitrite 0, I think my nitrate kit isn't showing accurate results. Stocking: 4 red whiptails, 2 indian banded gourami, 2 honey gourami, 1 female flagfish (oh, and one 3cm BN added a few days ago, it's been in QT for a couple of weeks first) - 120L tank, I do 40%-70% WCs every 5-7 days, I'm pretty anal about keeping this tank clean - it also has a peace lily on top, heavily planted etc. I'll give some background in a sec. Pics: Background: I am so not having luck at the moment. My group of 5 american flagfish were struck with what seemed to be an internal parasite. Prazi cleared it up, it came back, cleared up again with Prazi. I lost 4/5 - 2 emaciated, 1 dropsy (unknown why), another a blockage of some kind. I had a red honey gourami who came from the store with wounds. He's the suspect for introducing this internal parasite in the first place. The wounds started like this: and ended up like this: They were minor for weeks, but I tried to treat them with a melapima combo thinking they may have been fungal. I then tried Wunder tonic - never again. The infection quickly spread and ultimately killed him (just as I managed to get Furan 2). I assume it was bacterial. My other female indian banded gourami had a virus-type infection which I posted here a while back. She had it for months, totally different symptoms to this so appears to be unrelated. The red honey gourami male seems to be somewhat similar, though. This tank shares equipment with my other tanks but is the only one I've had issues with. I'm so tempted to just shut it down and restart it at the moment. It's heavily planted, aka medicating is a nightmare. I could transfer fish into a 70L for treatment if need-be, and figure out how I'm going to sterilize all the plants.

Edited to say, I know this looks like a wall of text but I want to say that despite their difficulties, puffers are super super cool fish. They're definitely one of my favourites (if not my favourites)! They are 100% totally completely worth keeping! Puffers! It's important to know a few general rules about puffers - Live foods are a must. Even dwarfs tend to only take frozen and live foods. Any species other than dwarfs require snails and other hard-shelled foods (eg crustaceans) to keep their beaks down, or they'll grow too long. Dwarfs definitely appreciate snails, though, and they're super easy to grow. All puffers are predators in one way or another, and foods like snails help to keep them from getting bored - Boredom can be an issue. Puffers are very intelligent little fish, so a well planted/decorated tank is a must. I like to switch up my puffer's tank to help keep her interested in her surroundings. - All puffers need mature tanks. This is a must! They're very sensitive to deteriorating water conditions, so a tank needs to be cycled. - While they tend to prefer low water movement, a large filter is necessary. They're messy fish, especially as food left over food can get pretty gross. - It's recommended 99% of the time to keep puffers as a species only tank. So only dwarfs with dwarfs, F8s with F8s etc. Some species you can keep as groups. It's very important to know that if you are keeping a group, you NEED a spare tank. I don't know about other species, but when sick, dwarf puffers will pick on the sick one until it dies, so isolating sick ones is necessary. You may also need to remove aggressors if they end up going on a killing rampage. - Keeping groups is best as 3+ (spreads aggression). IMO 5+ would be your best option, as as Adrienne said, they can pair up (would rather that spread between 3 other fish, rather than attacking a single tankmate). I've heard of larger groups being more successful, even having breeding occur in a group of 10+ (on this forum, in fact). - It's very common for puffers to come with internal parasites - I'd recommend having something like Praziquantel on hand, and to make very sure to get the healthiest looking fish possible. Big tummy, and interactive (comes to the front of the tank when you put your finger up to it). If the store will do it, it's a good idea to ask them to feed the fish to make sure it's feeding before taking it home. IMO for a tank that size you have two options (maybe 3 if you're willing to get a larger tank later on). - A small group of about 5-7 dwarf puffers. For a group, footprint is essential, as is a LOT of decoration to help break line of sight and give everyone territories and places to hide. It's suggested to have more females than males, but they're typically impossible to sex in store, so it's a "wait and see" situation. You could keep a single 3/4" puffer in there if you want, though The minimum tank size for these guys is about 31L for a single fish IMO. The general rule is 5 gallons per extra fish (that puts yours at about 5 puffers all together). I know it seems like a big tank for so few small fish, but they're SO full of personality. - A single Figure 8 puffer. Typically I'd recommend either having experience with salt water and/or puffers before this, just because keeping brackish is a bit of extra work (but really it's like keeping any brackish fish). F8s get to 8cm and need ~70L minimum, so 100L is the perfect size! They're low-end brackish, so you want a salinity of about 1.005 to 1.008. For brackish you want to use saltwater mixes available at your LFS to buffer your water before doing WCs (these provide all the essential bits and bobs, as just salt alone won't do the job) - you'll want to do more research on how to change specific gravity (salt content) if you're going for F8s. But it's important to note that the pet store quite likely has them in fresh water, so you'll want to raise the SG over the next few weeks/months. Brackish at the start sounds scary, but F8s are incredibly cute and rewarding - they're like a dog, but in a tank. Very full of personality! Some people like to put a ping-pong ball at the top of the tank and the fish plays with it and chases it around. Most puffer species can be taught all kinds of tricks! A final option would be Green Spotted Puffers. I would so love to have one of these guys one day! IMO a 200L tank is the minimum, but you could maybe keep one in a 100L for 6 months to a year as a grow-out. These guys get to 15cm and seem to prefer full marine/high-end brackish conditions as they get older (so transition from fresh, low end brackish, high end brackish, marine). So the size and SG transition are their two difficulties. VERY cute fish, though. I love their little faces. Eep! There aren't many good LEDs available here IMO. The brands I've looked at are Current's Satellite+, Finnex, Ecoxotic and BuildMyLED. Unfortunately they have to be bought from the states, but the Finnex for example + shipping tends to work out not much more expensive (if not the same) as a T8/T5 unit (and will save you power). I personally love my Finnex Planted+ unit. Plants in brackish become a bit more difficult, but Java fern and microsword are two brackish compatible plants. Filters - I prefer to have a canister filter on anything above a 90L tank. Quite a few different brands available out there, and if you go for either of the above your bioload shouldn't be too huge, so you won't need to overfiltrate much. You get what you pay for with filters - Eheim and Fluval are your best quality, Aqua One coming after that, then Sunsun. The more expensive brands tend to last longest. I honestly don't know where Fluval rates when it comes to heaters (I accidentally just broke my Fluval heater today, lol) - to my knowledge the best recommended brand is Eheim. IMO only AquaOne is really any good after that, maybe Jebo. I wouldn't touch BluePlanet with a ten-foot pole. RE the dwarf puffers - some people have had success with them and Otocinclus sp. Otos are little catfish, which are somewhat specialist too. Like puffers, they've super sensitive to water conditions. Many people find they lose them during the acclimation process, so drip acclimation is definitely preferable. I unfortunately lost all of mine due to a 40ppm nitrate spike. They need groups of 5+ and are very cool little fish - however, some people have found that when kept with puffers they go missing. Typically I wouldn't recommend them, but that's because most people aren't keeping them in a tank big enough or in shoals. But, you could probably get away with 5-7 of them too in a 100L.

I had to PTS her tonight. She was struggling to breathe and it appeared to be getting worse. She developed a secondary infection. I'm hoping my other girl has the same infection rather than the (assumed) virus she was suffering. I think it's fungal. But I want to double check to make sure it looks fungal rather than like columnaris. I think because it's spread, I'll treat the whole tank. As it's heavily planted I'm going to try Pimafix - it'll hopefully be less harsh than other meds (I think it's not very extreme). I'm not sure whether she was starting to suffer dropsy or not - the girls have always looked very large where they're carrying eggs and it can look disproportionate (as though it's bloat or dropsy). "Fluffy"ness No pics of the other girl who may have the virus/fungus. I was unable to catch her yesterday and can't get a good look as she's so timid. Honey gourami, female american flagfish and red whiptails are all looking healthy.

Around Feburary I got 3 Indian banded gourami female, one came with a growth on her gill which I put down to a tumour/growth as many months later while it has gotten slightly bigger, it's not spread (she was in 3-4 weeks QT anyway as they came with white spot) so I haven't isolated her - it looks like it might be getting to the point of affecting her but until now she's been healthy. They've always been extremely timid (if you move on the other side of the room, they'll go and hide) so it's been hard to keep an eye on them as I don't like regularly catching them which stresses them out. However today (many months later) I noticed a couple of spots on another girl (same species) and looked back into it - I always thought of lymphocystis as a white growth, but was wondering whether this could be a virus (I'll have to take out the girl and look at the new spots later) The one with the original growth (please excuse the dirty holding tank) - Obviously being timid they're prone to stress and there's no cure for the viral diseases - I'm not really prepared to put them in a permanent QT tank. My original plan was to euth her if her quality of life seemed to decrease. Does this still seem like a reasonable plan of action?

Cool, that means they've been/are in NZ so could definitely be a possible ID (Y)

Are those photos taken in NZ? (excellent photography as usual!)

It looks exactly almost like it but yeah, it's not on the list (so if that's correct it was most likely imported under a different name). I had a small list of possibilities but no exact matches Rasbora: Rasbora argyrotaenia, Rasbora cephalotaenia, Rasbora daniconius, Rasbora einthovenii Barbs: Esomus danricus

"About finger length" - I took a quick look through the NZ natives on FNZAS but didn't find anything similar but I know pretty little about our natives unfortunately D:

We're wondering what these fish are - apparently given to someone with no name (they were also told "they are definitely all female"). Apparently the fish have not shown any other colours/markings other than what's in the pic. I'm leaning towards a Rasbora sp, both Rasbora paviana and Rasbora dorsinotata look very similar but aren't on the list. Does anyone know whether they're in the country at all? (sorry for the poor pics)

Awesome, thanks for the info Will try them on that too. Silverdollar - your LFS should have frozen brine shrimp and frozen daphnia until you get some other live foods Both white worms and bloodworm are pretty fatty (I personally would choose frozen over freeze dried) so you'll want a variety for a staple diet - Brine shrimp are quite good to my knowledge.

I'm pretty bad at the moment my white worm culture isn't thriving yet and I'm still waiting on some blackworms. So at the moment they get frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. I've got some frozen daphnia but been anxy about using it in case of parasites (no idea where it's collected from, I assume it's from farmed daphnia but I keep on forgetting to use it).

The rios get orange tips on their fins/slightly orange fins like http://www.fnzas.org.nz/wp-content/uplo ... lenose.jpg - here's their PC profile - http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/spe ... ies_id=638 - I can't find anywhere that says it, but I think I have heard of them being referred to as "orange finned".

I'm not really sure what else I can tell you. The purple one (at least I think) isn't a true aquatic (will die off in your tank) - possibly Hemigraphis colorata which is one commonly sold, the one next to it is Hygrophila (I think corymbosa). The first plant is difficult to identify as if it isn't a true aquatic then we're unlikely to know it, but if it is then it's emersed grown and will look quite different to the submerged form. The second pic is definitely Hydrocotyle but it's hard to tell when emersed, but I imagine likely the H leucocephala - behind that is Saururus cernuus.

The 450L is a bit of a mess :nilly: But I might try to get one after a WC today

Haha, quite a few. No nice photography, but a big tank change. Looks like I certainly haven't updated in a while! 31L DPF tank is still the same, nothing different there 55L now has 3x A australe females (still haven't ordered my pair!) 7x Hara cats I'm yet to go and get some black iron sand (can't seem to find any black sands at an OK price) for the hara cats, and once that's done it'll have a nice piece of driftwood too (which all the fish will prefer). I've upgraded to a Finnex Planted+ and am pretty happy with it! Plant-wise my stargrass seemed to die off not long before I did the light change, but it's growing back again. My cyano came back a few weeks after a 4-day blackout (which killed almost all of it off), but appears to fortunately be growing slower under this light. Annoyingly, it seems to grow back faster after water changes, which is a right pain! (possibly indicates it prefers the low nitrates, as it's a low nitrate tank anyway at about 10-20ppm after 1.5 weeks). The 120L has been havoc. Been upping my WCs but my API kit is still showing high nitrates (am yet to calibrate the kit, though) which is quite frustrating. Will clean out the filter foam next weekend. I lost my female thicklip gourami to what I presume was a bacterial infection, which you can read about here, and after introducing 3 honey gourami, my flagfish became lethargic and stopped eating, which you can read about here - I lost one within the first week, but the rest responded to Praziquantel. Then for an unknown reason one girl developed a severe case of dropsy (Pic here, which I treated as bloat but she was pretty far gone. As you can see in the link above I suspected the parasites had come back, but for whatever reason it just killed off the severely malnourished girl and the other two continued to eat as normal, except the male had some kind of blockage. The male's blockage lasted maybe, two weeks? I treated it for bloat also but to no success and lost him last night. As you can see here (warning: necropsy photo), he had a big sac (maybe his intestines?) of fluid. The only other odd thing I could find was this stringy green stuff (that appears to be on/in the sac in the first photo) here which may mean that he ate something that couldn't break down which caused a blockage? I'm struggling to find dissection photos of fish with dropsy, but all he had was the swollen abdomen (which looked "lumpy", rather than rounded - photo here and here and no usual pineconing, he was eating as normal until the last couple of days in which he looked quite lethargic. A high concentration bath of epsom salts (along with him being in a lower concentration for about 2 days a week prior) didn't help. So I'm left with a single female. The male honey gourami that I got (1 male, 2 female) had a few wounds which eventually developed an infection - that whole thing was a mess, but basically, I lost him due to the infection. So my current stocking list is 5x Red whiptails (I assume) 2x Female red honey gourami 3x Female Indian banded gourami 1x Female american flagfish I may eventually move my new 3 wild-type thicklipped gourami in there too, but want to do plenty of WCs and get everything under control first. Pic is bad, and it was just after a plant trim, so it's looking pretty messy here. The tank itself is quite a mess anyway. And for a bit more exciting news, I managed to say goodbye to the 140L tall tank that I had & hated, and hello to my new 220L Rimless tank made by Greg! Here are some build pics: Old tank left, holding tank left top, new tank right Wood is held down with a large stainless steel screw onto a plastic tray Unfortunately I killed most of my plants (especially DHG) by leaving it too long in an Excel dip for BBA Then it went weird - I accidentally OD'd the Flourish by 1.6mL and the whole tank went black. Caused quite a panic, and required a big frantic water change while all my fish were stuck in a 50L holding tank! Cleared up a few days later Sword wasn't happy & suffered what I think was a phosphate deficiency? The other 3 swords in the tank did fine, though, fortunately. Unlike in my other tanks, the stargrass here is growing via runners, looks much nicer! I've set up some riparium-type planting at the back, and hope to make some nicer custom planters, and fill out the entire back of the tank Species I think include: Peace lily (variegated) Chamaedorea elegans Syngonium sp ( I assume S podophyllum) Aphelandra squarrosa (I think - unfortunately the ends of the leaves of this keep on going black) About to be added are Fittonia albivenis Calathea sp All of which are South American I'm using a mix of hydroton and vermiculite - the lights at the back for the plants give it a really nice "sunset" look at night The current stock list 3x Regular kuhlis 3x Wild-type thicklip gouramis (thanks so much to Pupuke Aquarium Centre!) - supposed to be temporary 1x Female siamese fighter (just supposed to be temporary) 5x Rio BNs (ALL of which turned out to be female :an!gry) 1x Common BN female 6x Black neon tetras (lost the tailless one which developed some kind of disease, and lost one after a disaster in which I forgot to turn back on my heaters after a WC so was at 18 degrees for 2 days!) 1x Banjo catfish 6x Sterbai corydoras (hopefully 6, confirmed 5, I lost two at different weeks just totally randomly - no idea why they died) And, more excitingly, UNKNOWN amount of Black kuhlis (Pangio oblonga)! In holding I have 6 black neons, 2 royal whiptails and 3 more regular kuhlis - I also want some more banjo cats, spotted headstanders and apistogramma sp - will likely remove 3 of the Rios and hopefully will get a male. Normally when I don't know how many fish I have it's more concerning than exciting, but when they're multiplied, it's more exciting! I have 5 adults, but have had (I assume) at least two spawns :happy2: This is the only pic I have, but I have 3 videos and will make another maybe tomorrow night. (Unsure whether I can embed videos) So I have juveniles out on the surface, at least 3, ranging from 3cm to 4-5cm in length (all 3 are different sizes, so perhaps my spawn aren't growing uniformly), and have young ones underneath (as you can see in the first pic) <3cm. I have no idea how they access the surface and vice versa, as picking up the rocks may cause them to crash down and crush fry/remove any passageways. Unfortunately I've not seen them spawn - I haven't even seen the females gravid (No idea how many females I have). I don't know how many I have and how old the spawns are, unfortunately, but I hope to maybe catch some adults and spawn them in a separate tank... somehow (catching them being the hard part). Water parameters (5 days after a WC) 0-1 dKH 2-3 dGH 6.6 pH Temp at 26-27 degrees C Tap water (30%-40% cold water changes from the hose, either weekly or biweekly) - was surprised at how soft my tap water is! Makes things easier for me, though. 1-2 dKH 2-3 dGH 7.6 pH And the tank drops to around 20-23 degrees C after a WC. So, that's pretty cool :thup: And some more random pictures - Thicklip female The MTS living in my DPF tank (as I discovered she won't touch them) Hara cat (would one day like to spawn these guys) Rio Peace lily flowering on Dad's tank (pretty cool!) Farlowellas in Dad's tank My peace lily is doing really well, giving out new leaves etc. Only lit by room light (no sunlight, but 3-ish other tank lights in the room) and a cheap red&blue E27 LED Thicklip male (came with some wounds but those have healed up well, next plan is to spawn these guys, male is looking bright and alive!) A rather stressed out banjo cat (had just been released into the tank) Hara cat nose, reminds me of star nosed moles!

Oops, my comment was supposed to go on an entirely different thread. Thank you very much for the offer Peet, but unfortunately I've already bought the TE mix in question, sorry!

I just saw Sophia's post - what an idiot of me (didn't even think to check the FS section) - unless anyone has one cheaper I'll keep my eye on the auction :thup:

I'm trying out a trace mix from TradeMe (for when I get pressurized CO2 up and running, will be dosing N, P & K macros too) and these are the ingredients: Iron Chelate DTPA, Manganese Sulphate, Zinc Sulphate, Copper Sulphate, Sodium Molybdate, Boron in the form of Solubor I just wanted to make sure all of the sulphates are safe & that this was an OK mix?

Unsure of the one to the left (can't quite remember) but I don't believe it's a true aquatic. To the right looks like Hydrocotyle, most likely Hydrocotyle leucocephala which is a true aquatic and grows pretty easily