Dawn

Thanks Jane, looks like she had other things on her mind I'm having a new baby on the 2nd too - my second grandchild!

A few nights ago one of my Gold Gouramies starting doing the same sort of thing - I only noticed because she was headbutting the thermometer which would then clink against the glass of the tank! She constantly did it all night - then I noticed the other fish - mainly the two Swordfish - were pecking at her, not just chasing but actually pecking at her skin/scales parts of which were staring to turn red. She didn't have the energy to chase them away so I rescued her, put her into a breeding cage, and dropped a few drops of Antiseptic straight onto the red parts of her body - I did this twice and then yesterday let her out and she seems fine once again.

Blitz, are you talking about the Dwarf Cobalt Blue Gouramies? When you say 'a pair' do you mean one of each sex - if so where did you get them please?

Penejane, I think you should be treating him, sounds like he is ill. If you think he's too far gone then put him out of his misery or else put him into a hospital tank and treat him with something like "Antiseptic" from your LFS. If you don't have a hospital tank you can put him into a net and put a drop or two of the treatment straight onto him and leave for as long as you can before putting him back in the water.

Shelley - have you done any tests on the water at all? Maybe you have an ammonia spike or something similar - it does seem strange the fish are perking up when you put them into a different tank doesn't it?

It's not that bizarre PomeReef! Goldfish can be kept in tropical tanks quite well although it is not the normal thing to do for them. Just be careful Caper that Sam doesn't eat the Three Stooges, he's quite likely to when they are asleep one night!

Eon, I THINK I saw one of these at Hollywoods (Mt Roskill) over the weekend - can't be sure if that was the one though - have you rung around?

There are lots of guppy auctions of TradeMe and new ones being added all the time. I bought 10 babies for $15 last week, you could probably get them cheaper but I couldn't wait and so did a 'buy now'. But as Phillz says you don't know if they're going to be any good when they're that young. I hardly ever see REALLY nice guppies in the shops but I was in Hollywoods in Albany yesterday and they had some really lovely coloured males - bought one with a bright yellow tail, unfortunately I found it dead when I cleaned the tank today but I'm not blaming the shop, I THINK it might have been one of my Angels that chewed his tail!

Aqua - are you sure 1.5ml is right? If you are going to be double dosing (to get rid of algae) it must be a very small tank! What size in litres is it? BTW the top of the container is 5mls so you should be able to use that to measure with. Your LFS would probably have a 1ml measuring thingi - something like the one you use to get the water to test your PH etc.

> undergrave heating cables < I don't think it's gonna work!

Haha I thought oh lovely this one has green spots, unusual! It certainly looks like my two GZLs but it is quite a bit darker than mine so might be a different one.

Maybe he has indigestion did she put the pea in frozen, thawed/uncooked or cooked?

That's a fantastic photo BabyMama. Sorry I was so pessimistic about them, didn't mean to be! Hope they're still going strong.

Yours are larger Snowman but I guess Pupuke sells theirs a lot quicker being a shop.

Sounds like the normal run of the mill ancistrus to me PeneJane. The size you have would probably be about 2-3 months old I would guess. But then I have some from the same brood who are about half the size of some of the others so who knows!

Matt - I had a thought while I was eating my dinner - you did note that the FIRST dose of Flourish Excel is about five times as much as the second and subsequent doses I suppose? Or have you been putting in that same first dose for all of them ie 1 capful for every 40 litres instead of every 200 litres? I nearly didn't read it properly so thought maybe you'd done the same?

I've just started using Flourish Excel to get rid of BHA (what's BBA?) in my 215 litre & two 90 litre tanks. I've been double dosing according to the instructions every second day since the 5th April and so far the only problem I've had is cloudy water in the 215 litre tank. I don't know why the water is cloudy in this tank and not the others but I suspect it's because of the courgettes I've been giving them a lot lately - I never thought of courgettes causing the cloudiness until I read on here that someone (was that you Snowman?) always soaks them first! Mind you they don't last that long, next morning there's usually only the knawed skin left! I wondered Matt if maybe it was because you are using Flourish AND Flourish Excel together but I see on the container they reckon it is safe to use with all of their products. It seems very strange that some people have no problems with Excel at all and yet others are losing fish by the dozens - IF it is the problem then there must be something else either in your tank or being added to it that we don't have/use that is reacting with it - I wonder if it's possible to work out what it might be?

The guppies won't even notice it's there - and vice versa! The boys start to develop their bristles at about one year of age so you'll know then what it is - although sometimes the girls might have a few short bristles too but nothing like the males ones.

Hi PenneJane Yes they most certainly can, the normal Bristlenose will get along with most fish - you name it and I've just about had it in the same tank as my BNs. They do need wood in their diets but if you don't have/want driftwood you can buy the PlecoChips that have 10% wood fibre in them. A lot of LFS sell driftwood that are already in their tanks, ask at your local shop. Otherwise it can be soaked for a couple of weeks, especially if it turns the water brown otherwise it only takes a few days in the water to sink to the bottom. If you're not worried about the colour leaching then yes it can be added to the tank straight away with a rock on top of it for awhile.

You're right, it's a bit of a bugbear not being able to put other fish in with them like bristlenoses and the like. I've asked around a few people who have them and they don't have Mollies in salt water either. I read somewhere that they are just fine in freshwater but will live twice as long in salt water. I only put the salt in because they came from salt but maybe I won't bother now. How can I get rid of it or will it disperse itself after a period of time and lots of water changes?

Hi Billaney Did you ever get your Mollies? Was wondering because I've just become the owner of 10 babies and after reading up as much as I can on the Internet I'm VERY confused about whether to use salt and if so just which sort of salt to use and in what quantities and do I add more when changing the water etc etc etc? Anyone have any recommendations please? At the moment they are in a 34 litre tank to which I added 1 tsp Aquarium salt which I dissolved in water first - today I added another 1/2 tsp - just doing it gradually but not sure when to stop! There were so many conflicting opinions about what sort of salt to use, except for iodised which is a definate no-no, that in the end I just went with what I already had in the house.

Do you have any for sale Snowman? I'd love a couple or three to go with the two I already have, one a male as he's just starting to get his bristles and the other unknown as yet.

Are they Bristlenoses or something else? If they are BN's then I doubt they will last long as they really need to be in an enclosure of some sort so the father can fan them with his tail. I wasn't sure if you meant BN's or what?

Thanks Wok, I just keep on forgetting to look for one when I go to the LFS! And when I do remember they've sold out. :roll:

I've just joined the new Poecilia Club after being away in Oz for a month. I've posted a query about keeping Mollies on there so I would love to have some input about keeping them, you can find my post here (hope I'm allowed to do this?):- http://poecilia.net.nz/members/messages ... ead_uid=37