Sheepsnana

My deepest condolences on your loss. I get attached to fish rather quickly, and it is hard to lose them at any stage. Having a fish live for 5 years longer than my current age is quite an achievement. I am certain the fish must have been extremely happy with it's life to survive for such a long time. I wish there was more we could do to help

Hey Guys, :bounce: When and Where? :bounce:

You sit 5 or 6 still, but now if you don't get enough combined credits, then you don't get NCEA Level 1, 2, or 3. Each subject is individually graded, so you can pass a subject in Level 2 but not get Level 2 overall. I think Level One is like School Cert (5th Form?) and Level Three is like Bursary (7th Form).

It was my post that was offtopic, as is this one. I read a different article, about a tank in a small office. This sort of thing you don't forget... How often do you go looking for them?

:smot: There was that one goldfish that did eat the others... tank of 13 fish, one remained. No corpses...

If you don't get permission, like I didn't :facepalm: , there is a small inlet cover that AquaOne make. I got it to stop my Tetra's exploring the inlet tube.

I'm now pretty sure that he scraped his dorsal fin on the concrete that he loves so much, which would explain why only part of his dorsal fin was affected (until the secondary spot appeared). The other guppy in the quarantine tank has a massive tail for such a small fish, it's healed one split fine, but he's struggling with two. I won't dose the main tank, I'll just keep an extra eye out for any stressed out fish.

That's NASTY! That is rather pathetic, but you could be right. He could be very ashamed of what he has done and doesn't have the courage to face you. How exactly do you tell someone you killed off their wonderful fish?

I have three air stones in the tank, so oxygen shouldn't be an issue. They're only on half their capacity and still doing the job. Is that a no?

Awesome. Do I need to medicate the large tank to prevent the others getting sick? Normally this would be a stupid idea (Some meds can do more harm than good!) but this Melafix says you should add it whenever adding new fish, indicating that it shouldn't harm the system... :dunno:

The Quarantine Tank Doug Doug in more light (I don't want to do this often, he's nocturnal). You can definitely see the red in the affected area's. His right side fins are fine, his left side are showing a little wear. The guppy that has gone from being Endler-colour to being an albino... :facepalm: hopefully this med cycle is worth it. We need a big fingers-crossed emoticon.

This is Jessie, my other BN, and she seems fine in the main tank. These are the concrete slabs that Doug has been loving ever since they were added to give him more places to hide

My wife has asked if I should be dosing the community tank to help fight off any infections in the main tank?

I've managed to get it in there, but it's on its side. It hasn't come on yet....

No I don't have heater guards, but he's been resting on the concrete, nowhere near the heaters. He hasn't been near the heaters since the concrete slabs were put in. He's in a quarantine tank now with the dose of melafix. I've thrown a guppy in there too (one of the splits in his tail is looking suspect). As this was an empty tank, it has nothing that it needs. So I've moved the thermometer over to monitor the temp. If it drops to 25º I'll put one of the heaters from the main tank into it. Someone mentioned raising the temp to 28º-30º to help fight infections. Is this recommended for BN? If so, how gradually do you do it? The heater I have is way too big for this little quarantine tank, even if I try to lay it down on it's side. :nilly: Idea's??

I've been reading up on some other posts, and came across this: How clean does the gravel need to be? The only thing I could think of that would possibly have caused the bristlenose stress was the nearly a week's worth of fish poo. The fish don't poo a lot, so I thought as long as the water parameters were ok, then my fish would be too. I have begun doing a small daily water change (18L out of 245L) to remove as much fish poo as possible. I hope my nitrifying bacteria don't starve.

Temp is at 26.5º - 27º. I have spoken to the expert at the LFS, who had read this post before I called :thup: , and they recommended Melafix. So I will stick him in the quarantine tank for about a week, and see how things go. Will keep you all updated with pics.

Alright, as soon as I get home I will put him in the quarantine tank (after I fill it). I do a 30% water change once a week, I thought this was enough. This was the first week that there has been a small amount of Nitrate, every over weekly check has been fine. Set at 26º. Two separate heaters to maintain this, one on each end of the tank. They are normally only on in the early hours of the morning, as Tauranga keeps the tank warm enough (occasionally rises to about 28, but only on hot days). Definitely not, it's at about 60% stock level. Never even considered this, the food is about a month old, maybe two. The pack is always sealed, I would have thought that if this was an issue it would have been written on the packet... One Nova-Pleco tablet each, once a day. And that's if the Tetra's don't eat it first. Once when moved into the new tank, and once yesterday to take the photo (Because I was stressing out, and needed help). Is a bristlenose going to need specific meds? All quotes from the Link Squirt provided: http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/finrot.htm

Sorry about the low quality photo. He didn't want to sit still at the front of the tank, he wanted to go back under his rock. This has only been showing for about a week. His dorsal fin started showing a bit of white on the edge of it, but I thought it was only a slight colour variation from his normal fin colour. When he next flared his fin, I noticed that most of it was gone, and only the back half and some little white bits remained &c:ry . Until yesterday, it was just his top fin. I got my water tested again, and it came back clear, except a very small amount of nitrate and phosphate. LFS recommended a water change (which I was going to do anyway, I get my water tested before a change so I can see if it needs to be done more often or not). I did a 50% water change, making sure I gave the gravel a good scrub. This morning he has developed a strange almost furry patch on his back. I also noticed that the damaged / diseased fin has started bleeding. This comes and goes. :nilly: HELP... I do not have any fish meds on hand, but I am only two blocks from the local fish store. I have other fish in the tank, that are fine. The female bristlenose is fine. I have an empty tank that I can quarantine Doug in if I need to, but it currently does not have a filter, so I will need to do daily water changes if isolation or meds are required. Please help, I love my fish and cant stand this happening to him.

Depending on the software on the phone, this can either be a nice easy setup or an absolute nightmare. Without handling the phone, and fiddling through the settings, it is rather hard to explain how to get a USB setup to work. Main option: USB: Check the settings on the phone. Under tools, or options, or settings, there is generally a connectivity option, which then has USB options, or PC options. Under these settings, should be an option for Storage Device vs Default vs Ask each time. Storage Device should allow you to access your phone like a USB flash drive. Important things to note: The size of your phone's memory! If it says file size too large, you may have exceeded the space on the device. You may need to move it to an attachable memory card, if this is available. Bluetooth is great, and free, but USB is the faster method of transferring files (its free too). Bluetooth option: Also good, but slower than USB. Only requires you to be in the same area as the other device, rather than connected by cable. Downsides: Some phones block the sending of any files other than contacts. Also can be rather slow. Wifi: I havn't looked into whether or not your phone has wifi or not, but this connects your phone to your home network, giving you access to all devices on the network and access to your home internet. This can save you hundreds of dollars, as Home internet is MUCH CHEAPER than mobile internet. It also means that your phone will be connected wirelessly, and you can copy files to and from your phone by using your PC. (My network places -> cellphone) Last option, and my personal favourite: Remove the external memory, and plug it straight into your PC. This requires your phone to have external memory and for your PC to have a multimedia card reader, but is definitely the easiest and fastest way of transferring files. Remove the card, insert it into the PC, transfer the files, click safely remove hardware (important! this prevents massive data losses!!), and then plug it back into your phone. Hope this helps, any other questions, or if I need to clarify anything, please let me know.

Did the fish recover after you warmed them up, or did you write them off?

It's the only reason I would ever buy an Xbox... nice setup tho.

Quick may be great to end suffering of the fish, but I have to live with it. Thankfully I'm not there yet, I havn't needed to kill any off. I heard freezing them was quick and painless. Prob not as quick as a brick, but much less SQUISH for my conscience.

very cool! :nfs:

Ya know how gorse is a massive issue here in NZ? Someone thought it would be a great hedge. That's right, a hedge. They relaxed, didn't maintain it, and look what happened. Ya know how feral rabbits are a big issue for farmers? People brought them over for game, to hunt, to help make things feel like home. They relaxed, the rabbits got out of control, and now they're a pest. Ya know sparrows? Those awesome little birds? Again, someone imported them to help it feel like home. It got out of control, and now they're a pest. Most people don't mind them, but anyone working at an airport will happily explain that a sparrow in an engine isn't fun. And like everything else here in NZ, these pets grew out of control. NZ is a great place for things to flourish, as residents we have to help MAF and the other authorities to protect what is already here. They're here to help. It's not rocket science. Do you really want to be responsible for starting the next mega pest, just for your tank to have a new plant?