GrahamC

Before I feed it to my goldfish, what's the name of this bug that's in a freshwater pond? It's about 4 mm long with a body in the shape of a skinny tear drop, seems to have three segments to the body with the cephalic segment resembling the head of a fly. It has two articulated limbs pointing 70 deg forwards of about 3 mm length, with 2 separate articulations away from the body which it uses to propel itself thru the water. The dorsal colour is a brownish black, and the ventral colour is cream. It swims 1 cm off the bottom of my jar. Bit too small for my cellphone camera to focus on !

Just use straight tap water as the control ( or tap water + ager ). This is called patch testing.

If your fish like flake, just keep doing this as your skin will desquamate and provide a good feed

If confined to the exposed arm then high probability of a contact allergic reaction. The bumps you feel are urticaria. Better wear arm length gloves next time!

Got a picture of the rash? ( include a mm ruler ) Is it everywhere or just the exposed arm? Since you presumably didn't drink the water, then a contact dermatitis would be confined to the skin exposed. But if the eruption is wide spread, and papular, maybe it is just a coincidence and you have got a viral exanthem.

http://www.chembuddy.com/?left=pH-calculation&right=pH-buffer-capacity So, your tap water will have various dissolved salts in it and will be classed as hard or soft water whatever the case may be. Lots of places where the water is taken from a deep aquifer like Napier will have hard water. This allows some protection against sudden changes in pH. Although goldfish tolerate a wide range of pH, the change should be very gradual and not sudden. Rainwater lacks this capacity.

Or lack of elements .... since it is like distilling water. And lacking any significant amount of elements, it would also not have much buffering capacity.

Well, if you suspect this your whole tank is at risk. I would have thought you need to remove these fish and put them into a hospital tank. If they have sores perhaps swab them and see if medlabs can stain for acid fast bacillae.

I'd happily take them .... pm your address in the CBD pls

my uneducated opinion is that ordinary glass cracks, toughened glass shatters

Gastrostomy = stomach hole .. ie a hole in the abdomen leading directly to the stomach. Food and water is iniserted directly into the stomach bypassing the oesophagus. Often used in people with oesophageal cancer ...

Is the cost of inserting a gastrostomy tube too great? That's what we do for people who can't eat ....

ok, so I need to go look top down on my Oranda to see if she's also carrying ... pity I don't have any old enough males to do the deed.

How do you tell she's full of eggs?

I am interested to know why they died as well. Presumably the tub of water ( was it dechlorinated? ) would be subject to severe temperature fluctuations which the pond would not due to thermal mass.

Perhaps it will outlive the kokopu .. its life span is longer.

I thought there should be nitrates as well to get that algal bloom but the test tube colour was light blue indicating 0 nitrates. I am thinking I should ditch the stones and go for silica sand instead. Much easier to see the waste material. I not sure why a HOB and external would be better though. Is it because one drags in water from the bottom, and the other from the mid level? Today water is clear and the caudal tail fins are no worse. I can't see the anal fin because of the other fins are obscuring it.

I'll add in all the details though some may be superfluous. This is regards to my 160 L tank with 1 Oranda, and 4 other small goldfish that I've had for several months. I came back to my apartment on Monday night after a 4 day absence to find the tank nearly opaque and green with algae. It was clear when I left and I had vacuumed before I left. Checked water quality and Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrates were 0. Vacuumed the gravel again and removed lots of faecal material. I installed a sponge filter I picked up from the Levin pet shop ( seems they had a disaster over the weekend .. several tanks had cracked and emptied their water over the floor ). The next day I came back from work to find my Oranda trapped inside a castle ornament. I thought she had died but she was okay, but had lost some scales from both sides. I didn't look at her tail at all. Yesterday when I got back from work I now noticed my Oranda had ragged anal fins in the lower 2/3. The other fins seem to be okay, and she is swimming and eating fine. I feed them gold fish flake and duck weed. I decided to change my HOB for a new cannister filter I had bought from TM. It's a Sunsun HW-304B that does 2000L/hr that I had bought in preparation for setting up a larger tank. The seller had included charcoal, bio balls etc. I transferred the biomax into the cannister, threw the sponge from the HOB into the tank and started the filter. I also turned on the UV light, did another 25% water change and gravel clean and added some aquarium salt. This morning the tank was much clearer, and she is still swimming well. I went to my LFS who suggested I use some API Melafix which I obediently bought. However, after a bit of reading, I find that fin rot is caused by bacterial infection which causes infarction of the fin, and perhaps I should be using a systemic antibacterial agent. But it can also be caused by trauma and fungal infections. I took a video from my camera http://youtu.be/bQCTiAMSEAY to show her tail. So, I'm not sure what I should do. Isolate her into another tank ( none ready ) and treat with Melafix or some tetracycline, or just hope the water changes and salt help.

A quick google found this thread http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/81761-Need-advise-on-fishless-cycling-! in Singapore where the guy is using ammonium bicarbonate powder.

I need to cycle a tank so that I can move all my fish into it when I move back to Wgton. Looks like my wife had ammonium bicarbonate crystals in the cupboard. It's used in cooking ... see http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/284172 as a leavening agent. I presume that this should work, and can be purchased from Chinese grocery stores.

I used a net to scoop up some duck weed in those fresh water ponds outside Shaffers Park near Te Papa. Also picked up several shrimp like creatures about 1/2 cm long ...

Presumably for an existing aquarium, you have to drill a hole into the glass ...

Water is no nil for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates A quick experiment ... an air hose with an air stone can pull 1L in 30 mins so more than I wanted. Guess I need to put a clamp on it to reduce the rate.

I'm spending a few days away from the apartment every week, and although I can see them swimming on the camera, I have no idea on what's happening with the water. I'd like to setup at least some minimalist automatic water change system. Hopefully my tank will soon finish cycling, but I gather you should still do frequent water changes to remove the growth inhibiting hormones they release ( unless the charcoal does that? ). I've thought about this for a few days, and watched some videos on some very complicated AWC systems, and want something bullet proof, and preferably does not rely on too much electronics. In my thought experiment I purchase one of those 50L water tanks they use for brewing beer, or for earthquake preparedness. I put a tap in it ( at the bottom ), invert the tap so that it points up, and then position it so that the tap level is the same as the maximum level of my aquarium. I then fill it up and turn on the tap. Hopefully the vacuum inside will prevent any water coming out of the tap. I then connect an airstone to some air tube, fill it with water, and then place the airstone in the mouth of the inverted tap. I then drop the other end into my aquarium. The siphon should start, and not stop until the two ends are at equal height. The airstone prevents air entering the source of the siphon I think due to capillary action. I then create another siphon where I put the airstone into the aquarium positioned so that lowest part of the airstone is at the lowest part of the level I want the water to go ( can't go below the height of the water in the HOB filter as otherwise in a power failure the HOB filter will fail to restart ). One issue is that if the flow is slow, then the water might degas and create an air bubble at the highest point in the air hose breaking the siphon, but that would just mean the water change stops. I can't flood anything. If the water container develops an air leak, and water starts to rush out of the tap, then I just need a way to redirect the water into the sink .... I guess the questions are, are there any flaws with this? Is the water change significant enough to bother with?

Not sure if this is what you want, but Lighting Direct has submersible 12V pond lighting available ...