Bilbo

You are so Guppies eat live mosquito larvae

*Mods please move this to correct section if required* Dont know if I am allowed to give free advertising but someone on here mentioned this shop so I thought I would visit them today. MANAWATU GRAIN SEED AND SADDLERY 68 South Street Fielding. They have got 4 or so tanks setup with fairly good variety considering the size. I recommend anyone in the area visit these guys and support them as a great addition to our existing 2 main Palmy shops. The staff were extremely friendly, one young woman stopped stocking shelves just to come over and say hi and offer to help. At one point I thought I was being held hostage from another one of them who talked and talked about his business and fish and birds. They all seemed happy to help and offered to get in what ever food, products or fish that they didn’t have in stock. On top of being really nice people they have healthy active fish and really cheap prices, in some cases half the price that I have seen elsewhere.

We are definately coming.

Neons can be pretty tough to breed on purpose but quite a few people accidentaly do it. One day you will see 1 more than you knew you had or spot a blue flash darting off into some plants. Apart from size and shape you can tell sexes because the males have a tiny hook on the tip of the anal fin and can get stuck on fine nets if you are catching them.

Good job guys. 1st one to breed enough trifasciata, bitaeniata, nijsseni, or hongsloi to sell some to those of use who missed out, wins. I might even look at trying to find a small prize. (Plants or live food cultures or something like that) They are a little bit sensitive so make sure your water is of the highest quality, soft as you can get it and slightly acidic Try filtering through peat or adding oak leaves or alder cones (1 - 2 per 50ltrs). I have just started to get serious again after a fish room disaster and my water is rainwater carbon filtered for 2 days and then peat filtered in the tank. Its sitting at pH 5 and TDS at present unknown but very low. Good luck with them. The best advice I can give is have a look at apistogramma.com

Well done they look like they are doing great. Look forward to seeing some of them in my tank

Awsome. They are a great fish. You are getting a great collection there.

Yes they are thin but they are bright and happy. From experience I would derscribe them as ones to 'keep an eye on and be very slightly wary of' of but only because you said you had them for a few months and they are still thin but they arent hiding away or skittery and dont show any other symtoms of being sick at all.

If those where his words then that sounds like "Do what I want or else" IMO you have no obligation to them at all and you shouldn’t back down or you are just going to show them that its easier to yell than to learn. Its funny that you came here because extinguished his threat by going public first.

I agree with above it sounds like tubifex or blackworm. Didn’t know the ID trick though. From your description not planaria because wrong colour and too big and not Bloodworm because to skinny and different movement. If you have Cory’s, loaches or any small cichlids then they should clear them up.

The Feilding show is usually very cool so this one could be good as well. I'm looking for another pair of splendid's or a female eastern rosella.

I'm getting it as well. I would have some SAE's to eat it all up but the local shop managed to kill the whole shipment before I could buy any. Apparently caused by CO2 levels being to low.

Fresh garlic is really good for fish as has been said to kill internal worms and cure other intestinal parasites and it also acts as to attract so fish eat it. I have heard of people just putting chunks in a tank but I usually add it to food. The health benefits diminish greatly after a few hours but don’t fully disappear. Fish still like the smell though.

Maybe he told her once already.

Crypts and swords are my current favorite because they will grow in my setup but I would love a glosso tank.

If you are talking about the focal point and the most pleasing for the eye thingy then its 1.618. Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I think it works out like this. 1.2mtr long tank divide by 2.618 = 458.35mm 1200 - 458.35 = 741.65 So for a 1.2 mtr tank the marks are about 740 and 460.

nice fish and great photo.

I have read a bit on Mineralized Soil Substrate and decided to give it a try. Some very good articles on how to make it and it seems almost to good to be true. Virtually free to make and never have to dose ferts.

I always soak it for 10 - 15 minutes before feeding it out. It swells quite a bit so it pays to have it swell up before its inside the baby fish.

All worms seem to have gone and the fish looks happy and healthy. He is eating anything put in front of him and has coloured up again. Will do a followup treatment this week but I am happy that levamisole has worked.

Thanks jenniferh. I should have known that but I paniced. Still no worms out on the bottom of the tank but another 100 % water change and everything seems happy. Will wait and see if they pop out over the next few days.

Update. 30 hours on from 1st medication. Sorry for being so vague before but I had though my post would be. "That was easy I solved it and the fish is happy and healthy and this is how..." sadly this isn't the case. The tank is 500x500 and has 200mm of water in it. I dosed .5ml of aviverm (24% levamisole)which is slightly above the recommended rate of 2ppm. Earlier I posted I had done a 100% water change and the fish seemed quite happy but it turns out the worms had gone back inside him and they were definitely not dead or paralyzed. Tonight I dosed again 1.25ml which is about 5ppm, massively over recommended rate but the fish will die if I don't clear him out. In the mean time a female guppy gave birth to heaps of babies which the cockatoo was happily munching on until I put the aviverm in and he stopped eating almost immediately. He did the same thing last night with the 2ppm dose also. I will be culling everything else in this tank once this is over anyway but at the moment nothing else seems to be affected.

Some research suggests that by the time the worms are visible they may be 3 - 5 months old. I don't know if that is true or not but I know I lost a pile of apistos a few years ago before I knew what this was and don't plan on loosing any more. The big male cockatoo is eating whiteworms tonight and I cant see any signs of worms sticking out of him but I cant see any on the bottom either so either they came out and he ate them again or they withdrew back in. Pleased he is eating because that will help him push any dead or paralized worms inside him out.

Thanks Ryan. I should have put that in sorry. Camellanus (Camel-Anus) worm http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/CamallanusTreatment/

I hate this bug. I estimate the losses from this little monster are in the hundreds if not the thousands of dollars. Once again I am using Levamisole but this time I am nuking everything including bleaching all the unused tanks just in case. All data I can find says that this cannot survive in a dormant state lurking in old gravel or driftwood but I am not about to take any more chances with it. Treatment schedule and effectiveness will be posted later. It only looks like 1 in the photo but I have seen at least 4 sticking out