MorknMindy

This morning when I went to feed the guppies I found one of the females had swollen up so large that her scales are sticking out so I think she has dropsy. She is still eating well and the water looks good ammonia 0 nitrite 0 ph 7.2 I was just wondering if there is a treatment or if I should just put her out of her misery now. We no longer have a quarantine tank due to over active guppies it is now our guppy tank. So I have no way of separating her.

Dan after reading your post I thought about my dead guppy and he had very little tail left I just put it down to him being pecked at by the other fish over night but after reading what you said I have been looking at sites about Guppy ailments and remedies and it looks like I will be popping into wet pets today to get some treatment most sites seem to say antibiotic such as Tetracycline, Maracyn or Maracyn Two so lets hope they have a good stock

Well I have moved the guppies into the other tank so fingers crossed that will help. I have left the babies in the large tank as I wasn't up to trying to catch them :lol: Thanks for the help please keep your fingers crossed for me

There was no ammonia or nitrite, pH is 7.2 which is what it has always been the temp is 25 degrees which is what it has been all along and I can't see any white spot. I am stressing

I have just lost one of my male guppies. He was fine yesterday but dead today We removed him from the tank but couldn't see anything obvious wrong with him other than the fact he was dead Now the other male guppy seems to have something wrong with his tail it is not fanned out anymore it looks like it has been stuck together. He still seems to be happy enough eating well and we have just checked the water and that is fine please if anyone has any idea let me know Not that it probably has anything to do with it but just in case the female guppies have just had babies

If I turn the air off the lid will close and they wont be able to get in it at all

I have 1 male and 2 female Bristlenose catfish the male and one of the females have been acting rather strangely of late and I think it might be that the male has found a nesting spot, the female is very interested and has entered the nest a couple of times the problem is the chosen love nest is in a horrid plastic treasure chest that has an air pump attached so the lid opens every 10 seconds or so and then slams shut on top of the fish. This doesn’t seem to bother the fish and it has caused a lot of laughter in the house but is it ok or should I try and find another more suitable spot for them and remove the chest? Also when and if they reproduce and the eggs hatch should I remove them? I have guppies, neon tetras, glow light tetras and leopard catfish in the tank.

Thanks for that Carly I guess I will have to be patient :lol: not a strong point with me

Well I don’t know when it happened but today when I was about to do the gravel vac and water change something little moved and caught my eye it was a baby guppy when I looked more closely I saw two they were so tiny about 3mm long. Now I have already decided that I will let nature take its coarse and if any thing lives then it’s a bonus but I was just wondering if someone could tell me how to work out what sex they are. They are so tiny at the moment it is hard to see their fins and they are almost transparent in colour but both have female looking tails lol.

Thanks for the help, well it's off to the lfs to spend more money

We are thinking of changing from an under gravel filter to a canister filter and were just wondering if anyone had any advice on how to go about this. Do we leave the under gavel filter running along with the new canister filter until it has time to build up the good bacteria? Will I need more air stones if I am running a canister filter? What is the best type of canister filter for my tank it’s 4 foot 120L? How often do you have to change the filter medium? How hard is it to clean the canister filter and change the medium? Will a canister filter help to remove the white spot for my poor fish?

We followed the instructions from Wet Pets, placed one cup of tank water into the bag and left it for 10 minutes then used a net to remove the fish from the bag and put it in the tank. When we went into wet pets to get the medicine one of the girls there mentioned they treat their tanks every three days to keep any white spot at bay but I don't like the idea of adding anything unnecessarily to the tank. After the first treatment the white spots on one fish didn't change and the fish has died well we think it has it has just disappeared and even after the water change and gravel vac never showed up so maybe it ascended lmao The other couple of fish who just had one spot on them seem fine the spots seemed to disappear after the first treatment but then reappeared 2 days later just before the second treatment and are still visible but don’t seem to be slowing them down. I have no idea how long I should keep up with the treatment I don’t want to treat them if it isn't necessary but I don’t want sick fish either I think it was easier having babies than having fish lol Also thank you Dan for the offer to come around and check them out I might just have to take you up on that if my stress levels get any higher or my fish get sick again Oh the kids school had a gala today so we are now a two tank family it is only little but should be ok for a quarantine tank lmao now we just have to get a second heater and all the other paraphernalia

I guess another tank will have to be the next purchase Why didn't someone tell me that setting up a tropical fish tank just before Christmas was a really bad idea lol :roll:

From what I have been told and read the white spot was probably caused by stress, basically the move from the LFS to our new tank. There are no instructions on the bottles except for the dosage so how long should I continue the treatment? I am also worried that some of the sites I have looked at say that the treatment that the shop has given us could be harmful to neons, glowlights, guppies and catfish which are the fish we have in the tank I think the fish that had it has died it looked a bit sick yesterday and didn't eat and now today we can't find it at all it seems to have disappeared.

Our fish have white spot or ich or ick or Ichtyophthirius what ever you want to call it. We have been to the LFS and got malachite green and formalin which we added to the tank 48 hours ago the problem is we are not sure if we should do a 25% water change before we add the next dose of malachite green which is due to be added today. We changed the water last Friday.

I have also seen this book advertised and it sounds great but I am such a sceptic when it comes to advertising and I am also old fashioned I don’t think I will ever get the knack of reading sitting upright at the computer rather than curled up on the couch If you decide to get it let me know

Well that sounds like a mighty good idea just one little problem :oops: I am only 5 foot 4 so I can't reach the bottom of the tank lmao but hubby is 6 foot so there is another reason to let him do it thanks I will let him know it is your suggestion that he does it

Well I think I might have to get a smaller gravel vac before I try it again or maybe I could just make that hubbys job lol

The tank came with the lid and built in lighting but no filter so we put in an under gravel filter. The first clean was an experience :-? the gravel vac siphoned the water faster than I could vac the gravel and I was so worried about up rooting the plants and the little leopard catfish getting in the way that I ended up a nervous reck and I am sure the fish all thought I was the biggest joke out :oops: but it is done now and I am sure with some more practice it wont take Mork and I quite so many hours next time

Here is a picture of my tank sorry it isn't very clear I had to resize it so it didn't take hours to load

Thanks guys for all the advice Today is the big day so we are off to the shops to get a decent water container so I don’t have to do twenty trips to the kitchen refilling a pot lol and I guess some hose so I can siphon the clean water into the tank. So far all the fish seem to be doing well so keep your fingers crossed that their first clean doesn’t kill them.

LOL Well I guess the kids don’t really need to go to university and if I sit at home watching the fish then I wont need any new clothes. Maybe if I sit in the dark with just the tank light on I will be able to get a second tank even faster lmao :lol:

Thanks guys it is all a bit scary lol Now next question is the stuff you use to dechlorinate the water instant or does the water have to stand for a period of time?

I went into the pet shop today where I first saw it for sale as an aquatic plant and it was no longer there I guess I will just leave the cuttings in the goldfish bowl and if they live I will do a bit more research to make sure they aren't poisonous then pop them in the tank and see what happens. I think you are all right about the name though Wandering Jew does sound familiar it was a very popular plant in the 80 and I had hundreds of them now I just have this very sad looking specimen to remind me I once had a green thumb LOL

I guess it is best to use filtered water to do my water change but I was wondering how I get the temp right as I only have filtered water in my cold tape. Do I just add it slowly and let the heater warm it up or do I have to heat it? Also am I right in thinking that I siphon the water out while I am doing the gravel vac and that I only remove 25%?