alexyay

VHS is viral - my use of "septicaemia" was ambiguous as it could be viral or bacterial with the hope that the vet would be able to clarify once results were available.

If it's spreading quickly and is red, I would be inclined to agree with Adrienne (I've only just experienced what I believe was septicaemia in fish and it's been horrifyingly quick) - I imagine your vet will know what to prescribe in the way of Gram Pos/Neg Aerobic antibiotics. If you can get a topical treatment (applied directly) that may be preferable (I personally prefer topical treatments rather than treating the whole tank as I've found it to be efficient and less stressful long-term for the fish). Keep us updated - hope it goes okay!

I believe it's a mix of lighting (plants will grow taller in low light) and "training" it. If Emersed leaves are allowed to grow, it'll start switching to emersed growth and will reduce in submerged growth. The plant can be "trained" to stay shorter by trimming taller leaves and emersed growth. This is kinda done accidentally with leaves that grow tall and eg get killed by flow/decor/fish/hot lights/etc. And can be done the other way round when leaves are killed by eg a lack of light (when covered by other leaves) or boisterous bottom dwellers. All in all it'll grow to adapt to the conditions around it - or the leaves will just continue to get killed off and it won't do so well

I feel there are two essentials for diagnosing - - What are your water parameters? Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates, PH - Do you have any pictures? Unfortunately without more information it could be a number of things (excess slime coat due to disease or stress, columnaris, velvet etc).

Oops I forgot to answer - yes please!!! :thup:

Hmm, I might go for pots in one and a prettier "terrarium" type setup. That Hydrocotyle is going nuts - the Lilaeopsis is starting to grow too (the Acorus is sad... I think I'm no good at keeping that sp). Temp is definitely a factor... I might have to go more coldwater/native type plants rather than tropicals.

Okay, I should really get around to setting up the spare tanks that are sitting outside and turning them into a planted setup. However - all of the ones I've seen so far have been done in containers inside. The plan is: 55L tank, gladwrap covering it (to keep it humid?), in diffused sunlight. - Do you prefer to keep your emersed plants in pots or all together like a terrarium? - On hand I have Dalton's Aquatic Mix and lots of black sand. What are your preferred substrates? - Suggestions for converting plants from submerged to emersed growth?

Do you have a group at home? Cories are social fish so a shoal of 6 is considered the minimum number to keep them in

Siamese fighters are Gourami so the pair thing isn't necessarily a rule (same goes for Kissing Gourami, but they are in a different family and have very different care, including being pretty aggressive and 30cm big), but IMO trios are often best - this can prevent a male picking on a sole female and spreads aggression. I haven't had my recent lot of thicklips spitting, but I used to have some reds which would always spit at the surface when they ate - it was one of my favourite things about them

Agreed with the above :thup: The heater fell down on mine, it wasn't too happy so no tips re growing it. It seemed to be giving out a couple of pups under my 4x T5HO setup with CO2 before it met its demise (I have a small pup left so will see whether it comes back).

Welcome back :thup:

Hmm - only difference then was I did the rare WC & am on chlorinated water - will be using rain water for top-ups from now on. I've had copepods and ostracods show up, but no Daphnia yet, so will probably have to buy a culture Thanks for the help!

Hmm. Here's some thoughts: Tank at 23 degrees, water (I believe) is soft so sits between 2-3KH and 3-4GH - pH sits around 7.6. - Bearded Corydora Scleromystax barbatus - not my tank but is a fish I've wanted for a while so want to try to pop these guys in there. Not sure how many, though. - RTS - won't have it if possible, depends on what the owner wants & whether the can get it out of the 450L it's in at the mo - Asian Rummynose Sawbwa resplendens - they prefer harder water so I suspect not. - Zebra loach Botia striata - not so good if we have the RTS, and it's a bit of a fin-nipper - Chain loach Ambastaia sidthimunki instead - though according to some sources 23 will be too low. - Flag cichlid Laetacara curviceps, or Keyhole cichlid Cleithracara maronii, or African butterfly cichlid Anomalochromis thomasi? A medium sized, but peaceful, dwarf cichlid would be awesome. Have only just seen the "African butterfly cichlid" and am quite intrigued by them. - Hengeli Rasbora Trigonostigma hengeli , or Espei Rasbora Trigonostigma espei, or Rocket pencilfish Nannostomus eques? "Golden Headed Purple Harlequins"? A big colourful shoal would be preferable. I think the rockets will only utilize the top space so probably won't be - Me thinks an Otocinclus species will be a definite go. Maybe a half banded spiny eel if it won't uproot all the plants. I think it needs at least one feature fish, but I'm unsure of how much personality the cichlids would provide. Thoughts?

Thanks (Y) I'll have a look into it - it's an old unit so would need a good clean anyway, so I don't mind replacing bits.

Daphnia - I'm wanting to get some Daphnia again after my last lot died off during summer. To those who keep them, do you personally: - Do water changes? Do you use rain or chlorinated/dechlorinated water? - Feed them regularly? Mine seemed to be doing well on Spirulina - Use an air stone or let the water stay stagnant? - Cover the tank/container at all? Mine was a clear tank as I don't get much sun - Try to keep it cool during the summer? That was the only reason I could think of as causing their deaths - they developed resting eggs and then all died off. Algae then grew everywhere and the tank became a mess. Cleaned it out recently it turns out the Ostracods still survived months of gunk and a complete clean out Juwel Lighting - I'm about to set up as Juwel Vision 260, but whilst I love Juwel's tanks, what the heck were they thinking? It's got two T5s (above the middle brace!) and one sits right at the front of the tank so you can barely get your arm in the tank while the lights are on without burning yourself! Anyway, I want to plant this one heavily and am wondering whether anyone's tried to fit different lights in the tank. Or just moved these ones so they aren't in such ridiculous placements? :dunno: If anyone has any oddball (oddball but "attractive" and happy with plants) stocking suggestions that'd be cool - the only fish I can confirm will be in there is possibly a redtail shark (not my choice) and possibly some whiptails and/or BNs. Also, is anyone here breeding Similis cories at all?

Unfortunately it's not that easy. As these guys have a short lifecycle, they are much more likely to adapt to cooler temps over time and the likelihood of being allowed to import any freshwater invert is very low. Yes, it sucks, but it does mean that we're helping to protect our native animals which are much more important than our desires as hobbyists. Crystal Red Shrimp = CRS Red Cherry Shrimp = RCS

I would honestly say ask MPI. It's hard to tell what the laws are when the organism is in NZ, and there's a big possibility that if they're considered "new" (eg recently imported illegally) that they will be deemed illegal. It also depends on how risky they see the organism as. It would be really good if you can let them know if there is an established population in NZ as while I've heard a couple of rumours, I've not actually seen any myself.

Saw the Mosquitoes in store the other day - they are SO cute and itty bitty! Bet they weren't easy to photograph

Can't use them with sand :dunno: I have sand in all of my tanks because I keep mostly catfish & the occasional loach shoal. And for DSBs and plants. So I use sponge filters for breeders, HOBs for small tanks and canisters for anything over 100L for superior filtration (and though I have no sumps, sumps for tanks over 300L). So they don't really fit in anywhere for me - I'm new enough to fishkeeping to have never actually seen one in action, but my father apparently used to have one and hated it.

You're good to go provided the plant doesn't have a status as a pest plant it's always good to encourage the propagation of our natives and it'd be awesome to see them in more tanks!

With native plants, you're more than welcome to grow and sell them legally

Unsurprisingly it turns out "Aquarium Plants" is the go-to name for books about Aquatic Plants This one is Aquarium Plants by H. C. D. De Wit and has that lovely "old book" smell. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it's the one you have, thought I'd actually bother to check its name now that you've reminded me

I do have one that I can possible loan you (I can't quite remember its name, was along the line of "Aquarium Plants" ) but it's a wee bit outdated (and full of yellow highlighter).

Hmm - looks like I totally misread your original question! My apologies

As you hopefully know by now, plants are rarely imported (if at all), meaning they are all NZ-grown. Most are grown emersed by NZ companies.