Bilbo

The stuff is crazy expensive here. The small bags I have seen are over $100 and will only have enough for a 2'er. I have been reading a b it about the mineralized soil as well and it looks like a good option. Vermiculite from Bunnings might also be an option. I am planning my next tank now also.

We have a male golden that is just finishing off getting his adult colouration. Hens are hard to get so its just him at the moment. He will eat out of your hand and seems to be friendly enough. Not a bad pet really and definitely has the wow factor to people who haven't seen one before.

Two packets side by side tapewormer and Droncit both on the counter. She got me the droncit for $1.11 each or 9 for $9.99 but 10 Vetcare wormer was going to be $49.50. Rung Tararua Vets this afternoon and they have them for 90c each.

I had an unfortunate encounter with a severe woman with the start of a Hitler moustache at a Vet clinic (Which will remain nameless) in Bulls yesterday. She tried to sell me the Ancare Vetcare Tapewormer (50mg praziquantel) for $4.95 per pill. I have previously bought it from Feilding for 85c per pill but that vet has since gone broke. I asked her to recheck the price but she refused too so I bought some droncit instead. Does anyone else have access to this product and how much should they cost each. Did the Feilding vet go broke because they are loosing $4.00 per pill or was it Bulls that had it wrong?

Pumpkin seads also works but I would be going for droncit (Prazi) Where do you get the liquid stuff from? I have asked every vet in the manawatu and no one carries it, its pretty hard even getting the tablet. I had one vet in Feilding that had vetcare tapewormer but it closed a month or so back so I have to get the more expensive droncit tabs now from Marton.

Yes. In the very short term you could maybe get away with it if the tank was empty. An 8cm Oscar would likely make short work of a kribensis.

As always Blue Circle Whitespot Cure. Cannot recommend this stuff enough. Dont waste your time with tonic or meth blue or salt etc this stuff is cheap and it works first time every time.

As I said by PM I would be keen but a apisto club is probably too limited and we should possibly look at South American Cichlids perhaps. Same thoughts as Simon by the looks of it. We have had this come up before but no real takers for anyone to do the work. The secret of the success of the Killie Club was that a large number of genuinely great fish breeders were involved (Probably still are) and they were able to courier eggs from member to member for very minimal cost and effort to ensure a species wasn’t lost. No other fish can be treated like that and especially with our SADC, which are one of the toughest fish I have ever kept, we have to spawn, hatch and raise each species before we can distribute and often that can be 6 - 12 months per spawn with daily attention and then after all that effort we get maybe 20 or less surviving fry and have often lost one of both of the original parents. With that said the idea is still a good one Rob and thanks for bringing it up again, I am still very keen on an email list or a club and would be happy to help run or manage some of it to help out. We really need to raise awareness of these fantastic little fish to get more people interested so we get more demand so importers being them in more often.

But you can use your multimeter to help you make this http://www.octiva.net/projects/ppm/

Sounds like you are on to it As already stated Rams should be kept in pairs but the cockatoo's can be kept either in pairs or in trio's (1m 2f). I agree with David on tank size they should have plenty of swimming room but don't need a huge amount of height. The rainbows and gouramis will make a nice addition but be careful to find the right balance of water parameters because the rainbows do prefer slightly harder water and a little bit of salt which is a no no for rams and apisto's. Ottos are cool fish and are amazing character's to watch around the tank. Keyhole are one of my favorites too but one cichlid that I have never been able to breed for some reason.

How is it doing today? My guess is that its just sulking or adjusting to the huge change. Its unlikely that it would go from being healthy and hungry to deathly sick in one afternoon. I'm not a huge fan of charging into the medicine cabinet for a quick cure unless I am sure of what I am treating for but with that said I do routinely treat for worms and parasites every 3 months as a just-in-case so the precautionary meds suggested like furan-2 and metro are probably not a bad idea and wont hurt. From what you described its doing a lot better now anyway so that's good news and yes feed it if its hungry.

They are horrible animals. We have heaps on our section so anyone who wants a new pet is very welcome to catch some and take them away.

I would say no. Those desks are very nice and well made but just arent made for that amount of weight. That tank will be well over to 1/2 a metric ton when glass, gravel, water, rocks and all other fittings are included. Would you park your car on top of that cabinet?

Metro Prazi Levamisole PP Epsom Salts Rock Salt Meth Blue Wunder Tonic Blue Circle Whitespot cure Not all specifically for Discus but I like to have the first 4 always on hand for them just in case.

My first spawning of Blue Turqs was in a gravel filled tank. I did hardly any water changes and none at all after the eggs were laid until the fry were swimming. Officially it was a disaster of a tank because it was filthy and we used just plain tap water and flake food but I got at least 15 grow to aduldhood. I dont recomend this method but it worked at the time. I guess we were just very lucky.

Plain garden dirt mixed 50/50 with untreated sawdust.

Radio Live :-)

I would also check for velvet. Add a little salt to the tank perhaps?

pH from 6 to 8 is fine. Doesnt matter really as long as its stable. Breeding is a different story but keeping 7.4 is fine. Dont play with it. Just make sure that it doesnt jump around when doing water changes. The 40% per day you mentioned is a pretty good start so keep that going. Thats about 150 ltrs by my calculations so it becomes very hard to treat that each day and get it exactly the same. 7.4 or even 8 is perfectly fine. Loads of the best discus keepers I know them in high pH. If you are going to treat it then remember pH is not really an accurate or good measure of water quality. Sulphuric acid, HCL or pH Down (sodium biphosphate) can dangerous but you can safely go to pH 4's by filtering through peat for some fish. I have some apisto's swimming in pH 4ish happy as a pig in mud but the same pH meter would measure the same pH if I used pH Down but I would have a pile of dead fish. 5 x 5" discus in a 14 x 20 x 27 (25 gal) would probably cause more stress than moving them. Your new tank is bare bottom? or if not by "freshly setup" you mean setup and left to stabilize and cycle for a month or so before adding $500 - $1000 worth of fish into it I hope.

Can I clarify please 6 x 400mg tablets per day in 50ltrs? Thats way overkill. My preference is 1 per day and 100% water change a day (temp 29 and slightly acid pH of 6.5ish). I pay about $1.00 per pill so you are saying you have spent at least $80 on meds so far? You have 5 sick discus? and a large catfish? All in a 50 ltr tank? Way to small. But you are right that not much could have survived that, suprised the discus did. Something is very wrong if I got the above right. Water quality if most likely the first thing to check. As a way out trick try grinding up some pumpkin seads into the meat meal. Peal the hard outer layer off 3 or 4 and cut the white sead up into tiny bits and add it into the food and let it soak for 15 minutes. If nothing else it will give them a good clean out but it will remove tape worms if any are in them. I know thats unlikely but it cant hurt. Next epson salts treatment and then fresh garlic either by itself of mixed fresh with a meat meal. Keep us up to date.

Cacs are a little slow growing but 10 months is enough time to have them pretty much full size. 25mm is about the 3 - 4 month stage at worst.

As above I am sorry. I have kept discus and many other fish for over 20 years and never seen anything like that. Sorry for your loss but if anything positive can be said I doubt its a disease that anything else can get. It may be, as already said, internal bleeding or my personal guess is an egg got stuck and got infected. I had a female die from that a while ago but she was dark anyway so I didnt see any black marks.

If its on both then something is wrong in the tank but the male does look more like a scrape, the female is more of a problem. Start with what are the water conditions like? If they are wrong then fix them or any battle you win will be sort term. Next clean your tank incase any uglies are hiding in the gunk. Remember that a bare bottom tank has no place for the good bacteria to grow so must be kept cleaner. Furan -2 is pretty broad spectium so should be ok. Doxycycline and nitrofurazone are a bit harder to get but should also work well. Might be an idea to try fluketabs or a 3 - 4ppm PP dip for 5 minutes if the above doesnt work. BTW as above where did you get the agassizi? Lovely pair and hope they come right for you.

First, nice looking fish. Its a little 'pinched around the forehead so metro is a good choice especially if he is showing other signs of internal problems like white stringy poo's. Its a bit hard to identify what that is because its a bit bright so I guess it has caught the reflection from your flash. If its a pit of any sort the continue with the metro 400mg per 50 ltrs per day with 90 - 100% water changes every day and keep temp up at 29 - 30. Often a fish will be more likely to become ill if the water isnt right. What are the details on the water? Might pay to follow up the Trichozole/Metro with some general worming stuff like levamisole just to be on the safe side and also do an epsom salt bath for 4 - 6 hours at 1 tablespoon per 50 ltrs before your next treatment perhaps. If it is still eating then mix meds with food for quicker and better treatment. I use 1/4 of a 400mg mixed with the first feed of the day for 4 days.

All to hard. Easiest way is to cover half the culture wth a heavy duty damp paper towel. Next day you can scrape pure worms off the top with a spoon. If the paper towel breaks up then use heavier ones next time. Best ones are free from shopping mall or office public toilets.