GrahamC

No, likely not a problem .. just alluding to the view that animals and fish should be fed their natural foods, and tinkering as was done by farmers led to the transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathies to humans. I am annoyed that I was in the UK at the time, and ate at McDonalds Now, what was I saying??

I had a partly covered wooden enclosure as well so they had space to roam, and some protection from the elements. You'll need a subscription to the NZ Herald as well.

They've got fur coats on .. should survive outside. I kept mine outside on the deck ... and I'm further south than you.

In aquaculture, mammalian protein is rendered so that any prions in the feed are destroyed. And of course brain, spinal cords and other nerve tissue is not included in the feed to minimize including prions in the feed.

I've got a 30W flouro in the hood which I turn on on dark days, and in the evenings only. Due to a lack of space, the tank is near a window so I mainly use diffused sunlight during the day.

for 25k you could probably visit Kelly Tarlton's daily for the rest of your life :slfg:

Perhaps they're still adjusting to the change in pH??

Sure .. I'd like to try it. I take it I will have to have some sand under the gravel for them to root into? And this is the fresh water star grass and not the marine stuff?

Are the rocks in there already live?

It would be rather tedious but you could measure their lengths ( and if not too stressful their weights ) to confirm that they are growing as expected. This is what Plunket used to do :sage:

恭禧發財 PS: today is day 1 of the year 4710. It's also the new lunar year, increasingly celebrated by others and not only those of Han descent

I've getting lots of black hair algae on the few non-rooted plants I have due to excess nitrates. So, I was attempting to lower the source ( I don't think I'm overfeeding ). So, I'll just try the water change now without the gravel vac.

Just kidding .. I was hoping it would decode to "I am Lord Voldemort"

I tried "tom marvolo riddle" ... didn't seem to work!

If the water is so variable, I wonder how the National Aquarium, and the now closed sea horse farm cope(d) ?

Perhaps he has access to heavy water ?

What is it about Chch that can support such a specialist shop? I don't think there are any shops selling reef in Wgton ... nearest would be Palmerston North.

Umm... can't you photograph them now they're in your tank?

Found another link http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/Articles/TonyGriffitts/silent_killer.htm which says don't deep vac the gravel at all! Like this one .. gonna save me heaps of time.

Toxic strains of V. cholerae are not endemic to NZ so I don't think that is a practical concern. The main reason it fell out of favour was the risk of aplastic anaemia in the era prior to the availabilty of G-CSF, and so its use is mainly restricted to prescription ear and eye drops. And I see recent work has been done in NZ using chloramphenicol in treating Chytrid fungus which is an emerging fungal amphibian infection. Doing a little more reading, this drug was approved for use in pets in the USA in the 1950s, but banned for use in animals raised for food. The oral solution was then banned for use in pets in 1986 as vets and others were diverting the drug illegally for use in food animals. Anyway, first step tonic salt and see what happens.

I googled for furan first but didn't find it so assumed that sulphonamides would be available since they're a much older treatment. Looks like they're not available in NZ for fish use, and presumably there is no importer willing to sponsor the registration of these drugs. An expensive exercise. Sulphonamides are used in live stock treatment, so the vet has access. Looks like the old books talk about using co-trimoxazole and dissolving that into water. But the paediatric suspension Trisul is not marketed at present though the Starship protocols for treating paediatric urinary tract infections still mention using this. Chloramphenicol is readily available as ear drops but a 5 ml bottle only contains 25 mg, and you'd need 40 mg per litre of water ... Citations on request.

Lesion has healed ... and in the predicted 2 weeks I see Harvey Norman has an EOS 600D dual lens kit special .. maybe time for an early Xmas present for wife ...

I understand enough now to know I won't be doing this in a hurry! New Year resolution - stop surfing TM

It says only fish listed in part D, appendix 1 are permitted.

It looks like an inflammatory mass which is regressing. Even if it were a tumor, which it is unlikely, it would not be innervated and so a small incision as you made was very unlikely to be painful. We don't necessarily anaesthetize humans when injecting into inflammatory masses. Would like to know if the globe has been perforated by the infection which would mean maintaining clean as possible water. My 2c as a human biologist.