sydad

Hi Jason,

Yep, we still meet monthly, though a fairly small group. We meet as a combined group with ANGFA WA, alternating interests. If you, or anyone is interested in joining us, drop me a PM for details of meeting dates/venue.

Cheers, Syd.

Hey Jules,

I have plenty of this bloody horrible stuff that you are welcome to (and not so far from Baldivis)

Syd.

Confirms fungus then. [emoji106]

Yes, but did not exclude bacterial infection, and this was the more likely to cause fatality.

Syd.

The only adhesive I would use for this is aquarium-safe silicone.

Syd.

In my experience, bloat in angels is more likely to be due to ovary problems. This naturally makes it a problem with females: if they do not spawn regularly, they seem to be prone to egg retention and subsequent breakdown. This leads to intra-ovarian gas production which results in rapid development of bloat symptoms which tend to display as bilateral swellings. I have confirmed this scenario with numerous autopsies over the years. Of course not every case of bloat is so caused, but certainly the majority of cases I have investigated have been. The bad news is that there is no effective treatment.

Syd.

Did you see the episode of River Monsters aired on Thurs. night, where it was shown that the basically vegetarian Pacu has been introduced to the Sepik River in New Guinea, and has putatively  become, out of necessity, a carnivore that now attacks humans? Scary!

Syd.

Cool - so if this is a real disorder does it mean I can quit my job and go on the disability pension?

I need more time to hoard my fish

Nope. Tried it, and does not work.

Syd.

This should be enough to bring a tear to the eyes of a dedicated cichlid keeper.

http://video.nationa...ce=relatedvideo

Syd.

Indian almond leaves will release tannins, which give the water a yellow-brown tint. If you don't like the colour, you can run carbon on the tank and the tannins will disappear. Tannins are actually beneficial for fish and even encourage breeding in some fish, eg bettas.

Yep, the tannins will disappear, as will ALL other organics from the leaves. So why use them if you don't want the colour?

Syd.

Unfortunately all governments, whether it be local state or federal have a very short memory. And a lot of us weren't around in the 1970's Syd. I'm afraid that common sense isn't common. I wouldn't let an overzealous ranger (aka rent a cop) stop me from collecting daphnia. I'm pretty good with dealing with local councils though, as its part of my job.
And they all have one thing in common, they're all idiots

 

 

Come now Jason, They are not deserving of such high praise!

Also suggest using caution if accessing daphnia here. Local councils in Perth region are coming down heavily on illegal "fishing" in lakes around Perth, and collecting daphnia comes under this heading. Mongers lake is also currently alive with daphnia, but Vincent council has turned nasty on collections. We have too many bloody-minded bureaucrats these days.

There was once a licensing system for permitting daphnia collection, but  this was discontinued in the 1970s, and open collection was permitted, but now the mindset appears to be that unless expressly permitted (and this does not happen), then it is illegal. No matter that collection helps reduce the eutrification of lakes. The minds of bureaucrats are made up, and they will not be confused by facts.

 

reduces the toxicity of heavy metals...  and thats something we up here in mundaring seem to get.... 

had problems with albino b/n years ago - with them losing their yellowy pigment and going white before dying.... 

after trying several different things... used edta in their change water and pretty much got instant results with no more white deaths... when i stopped using it - white deaths as i called them started to re-appear... so i started using edta more regularly.... it effected mainly small fry up to 3-4cm but occassionaly took out bigger fish as well.... 

Umm, not quite true about "reducing the toxicity of heavy metals".  EDTA, usually employed in one of three sodium forms, binds most metals by a process of chelation. All good and well, but the concentration of EDTA usable in aquaria is very low. At higher levels EDTA has a bacteriostatic/bactericidal propensity, but such levels are toxic to fishes. The lower levels usable in aquaria are actually to be regarded as biodegradable (it is after all an organic entity), and when broken down by biological action, naturally releases any chelated metals. Fortunately for  aquarists, this is a relatively slow process, and released metals are progressively bound by other means, with some remaining in solution: these of course will be eliminated during water changes.

I carried out, several years ago,  a series of experiments using copper salts which I added to aquaria treated with disodium EDTA. The long and short of the matter was evident when I stopped water changes. The levels of copper released from the degraded EDTA increased, and although few fish living in aquaria so affected were lost, any newly added fishes to those aquaria died very quickly, as unlike the original inhabitants, they had no opportunity to become habituated to the copper levels which were slowly increasing as a result of the EDTA degradation. This of course opens the possibility of a whole new dialogue on metal toxicities, but I have no intention of going there now.

My point is that EDTA can be a double edged sword, and anyone relying on it needs to be aware of possible shortcomings in it's protective mechanism.

Syd.

Apologies, but this has drifted off-topic.

@ Chopstick_mike.

Please do not be offended, but misunderstanding may be avoided to some extent if you used appropriate punctuation. I know that I find it hard at times to get the drift of what you are saying.

My experiences are the opposite of Aoa's. I managed to successfully breed neons on a number of occasions, but found that results were variable. On the other hand, I found that cardinals, once suitable food sources were established, were consistently easier to spawn and raise than neons.

I need to point out here that there were two distinct "varieties" of cardinals that used to be available when I kept them (now some years past). One variety had reasonably solid red under the abdomen, and this one was problematic in that the fry were much smaller than the other which had a white (silver) abdomen. These latter had much larger fry which were able to take newly hatched brine shrimp nauplii as a first food, while the solid reds required infusoria that had been thoroughly washed to remove excess bacteria...failure to do this invariably resulted in near total loss of spawns: I found that neither variant would ever take non-living foods.

, As for serpae, my experience was that they were more difficult to persuade to spawn than either neons or cardinals, though the fry, once hatched were easy to raise since they accepted liquid fry foods and artificial rotifer preparations.

Back to both neons and cardinals: I used de-ionised water acidified with hydrochloric acid (infinitesimal amounts of this as the DI water possesses zero buffering capacity) to obtain a pH of about 5.5, with about one gram of added sodium chloride per litre;  this proved to be essential. Bacterial levels were minimised by the use of constant low-flow, high wattage UV in the spawning tank which was kept in darkness post-spawning until fry were free-swimming, at which time lighting was slowly increased.I used boiled coconut fibre as a spawning substrate.

The most critical aspect of success in both species was preparation for spawning by the use of suitable live foods. My best results were obtained by the use of half-grown brine shrimp which were raised on spirulina powder. Sexes were of course kept separated during the "conditioning": process, which usually took 2-3 weeks to effect.

By now you will have gathered that the work involved in spawning and raising these fishes was not inconsiderable. I eventually gave up as I needed to sell the bred fish to subsidize my hobby, and there was no way in which I could come even close to recouping the costs involved, particularly with the fishes under discussion, which are either mass produced (neons) in Hong Kong, or wild caught (cardinals) in Brazil, so both are essentially dirt-cheap for retailers to purchase.

Syd.

Hi chocky,

I cannot see  detail of individual plants, so as are others I'm guessing. The floating plant could be Wolfia arrhiza, which is sometimes regarded as the smallest flowering plant in the world, with a green disc diameter of 0.5-1.5 mms, making it considerably smaller than duckweed (Lemna minor). That said, duckweed can be variable in growth, with many factors including nutrient availability and crowding affecting growth patterns and size.

The argument against it being Wolfia is the rarity of that plant, so i cannot imagine how it would come to be where it is, but if it is, you are fortunate because it is a superb vegetable feed. To answer your question re safety of feeding it to your goldfish, I would say that any harm is unlikely.

I remember  analyses being conducted some years ago on water from Tomato lake, and while the lake was certainly eutrophic at that time, there was no indication of significant heavy metal contamination: this is what would be of greatest concern. The lake was heavily infested with another floating plant (either Salvinia auriculata or Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), I really cannot remember which, but there was enormous effort to remove it.

If you wish to use it as a food, just flush it thoroughly with fresh water while in a fine-meshed net. If you are still hesitant, why not collect some and use it as breeding stock. As i said earlier, if it is Wolfia, it is an ideal vegetable feed, and the effort would be worthwhile.

Syd.