FishBait

Hi Stella Sorry I was not on to this sooner but I have just recieved the emails from Dianne. It looks like you have a bacterial infection which is inside the tissues of the finage. These infections cannot be treated with the topical medications but need an internal dosage of antibiotics. The treatments you have used are for external problems. If the fish are still feeding you can use an oral dosage, otherwise you need to inject. You will need to get your antibiotics from a vet and dont be shy on doing water changes to keep the system clean. good luck! Give me a call if I can help any further. cheers Kerry

I now have 4 new hatch SJD fry. They are from stock I got from Caserole and raised. They dropped masses of eggs and I finaly got some fertile eggs...the fish are about 6 months old??? is that right Stu??. Any way onwards and upwards...More fry soon I hope

They should be ok. I have found the gardneri are a little pugnatious and do a bit of chasing. The australe tend to be more reclusive until they put on good size and become comfortable with the activity. I checked my tank and found I forgot to list small angels, featherfin pearl fish and golden gourami.

Just to give you an idea, I have a comunity tank that I have thrown a mix into which include: SJD,s Black ghost knife Albino gerdneri Gunters fire killi Dageti Kortause killi palmqvesti American flag fish guppys neons white clouds Hoplo's Bristle nose Australe gold's I think that is about it. But do note I only add males due to identifying the species. It makes a great looking tank and always gets comments. cheers

Stu told me that the males need to be 8 months before they are properly fertile. They will breed sooner (a couple of months) but almost all the eggs are infertile. I can vouch for his words of wisdom as I am having that happen to my SJD, I am getting a few good eggs now.

Sorry Caserole but you are thinking of gourami eggs, they float, the betta eggs sink and the male picks them up as they are sinking and off the bottom. Leave them a little longer and see if you can see any eggs. When they have finnished embracing then remove the female. if there are eggs he will defend them and keep the nest built and in good order. good luck they are fun to do.

DROOL, SLOBBER, SLURP, WEEP I WANT ONE......would it ship in an envelope??? LOL

To straighten out : Sorry I mean a drinking glass to float the nest into once it is the glass hold it up and you will see if you have eggs but remember they are tiny. A breeding net will (I think) be to corse and the fry will get through the mesh. A seperate tankl is best. Sorry for the crossed wires.

Hey blitz Your guess is sounds right. If both your gourami look the same they are likely to be both males but it is hard to be sure with out seeing them. The eggs and fry will be predated upon by the guppys and cory's if they hatch. I would sugest what I do for my gourami and paradise fish: take a glass and float the nest in to the glass. It will be broken up but dont worry. the if you look very close you can see the tiny eggs floating around. Place the nest in to a breeding tank that is bare. The eggs are boyant and will float to the top. Do not panic about rescuing every egg as the spawns can be to big to handle. Good luck and fingers crossed. If there are eggs, hatch them and post back to find out about raising the fry.

How long will you let them rest before the next cycle? Wow that's a lot of eggs, going to be a lot of live food collected in a couple of months. How long do you incubate? 2 months I assumed.

Who dosn't have thier hands up and pleading ME ME ME

You Beaut Keep up the good work and the live food going. Oops there goes that secret again.

Ah I was not going to mention THE BIG SECRET!!! but since you let the cat out of the bag it must be ok. :lol: Live food is great!!!!!!!!!!

Have you got hormones in your water or just the golden touch? LOL Well done keep em coming! 8)

Way to go Stu!!!!! 8)

Hey Jason Yes I admit that I didn't go through the full proceedure for cleaning the scoria, all I did was to wash it to clean out the dust and fine stuff then filled the filter (I used a large ehime canister filter) and left it running for a couple of days, gave another flush, then put on to tank and started cycling. good luck Kerry NZKA 248

Hey Jason I have used scoria in a filtration setup for native freshwater. It has worked well and has been running for close to a year. I have had no problems with using it. I like the scoria because it has a huge amount of surface area. In my sump at home in my fish room I have used open cell foam in a bin designed as a wet and dry system. It is 3 layers of foam. This is easier to maintain and clean. I just remove one piece of foam and hose it off them put it back and off it goes again.

For any "new" organism to be imported into the country they need to go through the hazno act and be passed by erma. Any species that has or is in the country are not classed as a new organism (it needs to be officially documented) and if it is on the approved list can be imported, if it is not on the list it needs to have an exemption from MAF and in most cases DOC, if it is passed then in they come.

Hi joze It sounds like you are on the right track. I have not used the doxycycline before but have used the older label tetracycline (very similar if not the same) but cannot remember the dosage. It sounds like he/she has picked up a nasty bacteria, possibly through a small wound. Just keep an eye on the necrotic tissue and good luck. Sorry I don't any gold scales but the red bellied piranha I play with do, oops or do you mean to find out how heavey they is?

Hi Prison Shepherd Well I am afraid that the RC cray is not a species the is kept and bred in New Zealand. I have experence in the local species of fresh and saltwater crays but I don't know if that will help. I was under the impresion that only the male RC cray's show red and you may be correct that the one in question was a young male. I wonder if the jumping from the tank was in response to being beaten up on by the dominant male, so he was making a dash to new territory. With our local crays the easiest method of sexing is to look at the pleopod's under the tail, if they are large and overlap it is a female, if they are smaler and don't overlap it is a male. Sorry I can't help any further but goodluck and keep us posted. I hope to see a report on your breeding them. Cheers

Hi ulrike I would recomend doing a 25-33% water change,m use water that has been standing for a few days if possible.get your water tested as soon as possible, check on Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Is the water clouldy? Are any fish showing signs of stress ie blood veins showing in the fins, red in the gills? Are the fish gasping? Goodluck

Well done Carol. Looks like they liked being outside. How did the plant's do?

What media did you use in it?

I have used the hot wire many times and found it easy and does a great job. Also have used the paint stripper gun and that does a good job too, just make sure to do it outside as the fumes are bad news!! You can get a good surface finish using sandpapper, then depending on what you are using it for it is easy to cover i.e. concreete and chicken mesh for tank backdrops, paint for decoration, paint and sand for reptile backdrops. Just use your imagination. Good luck and have fun.

Hey Alan I have checked the approved import list i have and i am sorry to say it is not there. I will check more in depth tomorrow at work if you havent had a definate awnser by then.