Arofanatics Fish Talk Forums  

Go Back   Arofanatics Fish Talk Forums > General Aquatic Forums > Cichlid Experiences

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-11-2008, 12:19 AM   #171
illumnae
Dragon
 
illumnae's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,433
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by itchy View Post
bro, if you notice my previous posting, my certain otos does chase or linger upon my altums, making them very jumpy. I got to catch him out to settle the whole group of altums, much better now. Maybe you can observe your only oto
Thanks bro, it can't be the oto...my oto very cowardly one, always hiding away from the altum...i suspect it was a fight for dominance between the 2 largest ones...the one that jumped was the 2nd largest...i guess he lost and jumped while being attacked

Quote:
Originally Posted by itchy View Post
bro, just keep the 6, adding any new fish is just like adding more risk
Ok, I won't add anymore...I bought heckels recently and they're in anotehr QT tank, maybe instead I'll increase the number of heckels by 1 to cross-compensate for numbers
illumnae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2008, 12:25 AM   #172
wasaabi
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FND View Post
Wasaabi, I'm glad that you welcome my suggestions. Well for 40 bucks... why shouldn't you? So what is the status now? Do share the updates.
Well, one of it is on the brim of departing any moment, it's tough but it seem that only one is responding to the medication. In fact I have separate it in a smaller tank which I manage time to keep the PH at 6.8 using Tetra black water & my Diamond Water Filter.

I can see the other 3 are struggling to overcome the disease, while one is going,going,going......
  Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2008, 01:12 AM   #173
itchy
Endangered Dragon
 
itchy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 11,159
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by wasaabi View Post
Well, one of it is on the brim of departing any moment, it's tough but it seem that only one is responding to the medication. In fact I have separate it in a smaller tank which I manage time to keep the PH at 6.8 using Tetra black water & my Diamond Water Filter.

I can see the other 3 are struggling to overcome the disease, while one is going,going,going......


Diamond water filter??? How it helps? I heard fishes survive very well on that?? Can share more?
itchy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2008, 01:37 AM   #174
cheongseng
Arofanatic
 
cheongseng's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 369
Default Just a Suggestion

Hi,

Just a suggestion....Maybe U can try this method to cure your AA...
~ Try to get some water from those expert in this forums that keep AA in a seperate small tank. Their water should be very stable by now...

Will that work? I never try out before, but I can provide you some water if you want to try..( ~ enough for standard 1ft tank).

Thanks..
cheongseng is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2008, 09:04 AM   #175
^Lee^
Dragon
 
^Lee^'s Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,741
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by cheongseng View Post
Hi,

Just a suggestion....Maybe U can try this method to cure your AA...
~ Try to get some water from those expert in this forums that keep AA in a seperate small tank. Their water should be very stable by now...

Will that work? I never try out before, but I can provide you some water if you want to try..( ~ enough for standard 1ft tank).

Thanks..
Wah...good idea, maybe I can post at sales thread to sell AA water juz kidding.

In fact I almost everydays if not alternate day I will drain out about a pail of my AA water to water my plants. Recycle the water otherwise I also have to use tap water to water my plants. Cut costs mah...
^Lee^ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-11-2008, 11:30 AM   #176
illumnae
Dragon
 
illumnae's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,433
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by FND View Post
Hi Squid,

Good to hear that you're interested with AA. However, IMHO, if you wish to introduce them straight at pH7.5 it is quite risky. generally, AA is at home with lower pH values. Most AA keepers between pH 5.8 - pH 6.5. Perhaps elimmel & illumnae introduced them at lower pH range before slowly increasing the pH once AA stabilised. Maybe they can share their experience with you the methodology they stabilise their AA.

Then again, I heard some of LFS place their AA in pH 7.0-7.5.

I feel that the important thing in stablizing altums is a good preventive medication course. Treat in this order: bacterial, internal parasite then external parasite. This is based on my limited knowledge of how long each pathogen takes to kill a fish.

The worst enemy of altum keepers is columnaris (bacterial), so I'd start off with the 4 day recommended full course of API Furan-2. I've had great personal success with treating columnaris using this method, and a number of my losses were due to not treating this early enough.

Next, go with internal parasite cleansing. Jungle Labs Internal Parasite Guard is, in my opinion, the best commercially branded medication for this. This is because it contains both metronidazole and praziquantel. This should take care of most, if not all, internal parasites that may infect your altums. Most other brands only contain metronidazole, which is very good in itself, but does not clear tapeworm. This is ok in bred fishes, but in wild fish, you never know whether your fish was in contact with tapeworm previously or not. If you have the raw forms of both medications, you can go ahead and use them as well in the recommended dosage.

For external parasites, I have no personal experience as my altums came free of such parasites from a visual inspection. However, I have been doing some brief research on this as I just got in a batch of wild discus, and while the ones I chose did not have external parasites, I observed some of their tankmates in the LFS did have. The popular one seems to be Waterlife Parazin. If you don't want to get this, Jungle Labs Parasite Guard seems to be a good alternative. Take note that this is not the same as the Internal Parasite Guard as recommended earlier for internal parasites.

After a full course, continue to quarantine your altums for at least 6 weeks to observe if there's any reccurrance and if so, treat accordingly. I know alot of people don't follow this QT procedure and still get very good results, but if you want to play really safe, I feel that an extended QT is essential. I will be quarantining my wilds (altums and heckels) for 2-3 months before introducing them into their main tank.

After all this and your fish are clear of any harmful "denizens", you can proceed to acclimitize them to higher ph. This is as healthy altums are hardy altums. I am now doing 50-70% water changes with water direct from the tap (only anti-chlorine added) and my altums don't show any adverse reaction at all (remember, my tap water is 7.6 from the tap).

All the best for your altums!
illumnae is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2008, 01:05 AM   #177
wasaabi
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Today is a sad day, I lost in a gamble! All my AAs died as anticipated and I decided to overhaul my tank completely

I spent almost 3 hours scooping out the sand, and I poured a kettle of hot water to disinfect. Then I filled it up with water and chlorox, and allow the filter to run for the next 24 hours before draining. Hopefully I can be better prepare this time, I probably will drop into Gan Aquarium tomorrow and check it out. My friend was there last week and he got quite a number of healthy AAs, but the price is rather expensive $85 each; anyway better get my tank ready first before trying again.
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2008, 02:13 AM   #178
Waltz
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

i do agree with all that has been said abt AA. However, when u start keeping them, u cant stop..its addictive.haha.especially when we know they are hard to keep, its thus a challenge.once they stabilized, its a real beauty.haha.all the best.
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2008, 10:32 AM   #179
FND
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by illumnae View Post
I feel that the important thing in stablizing altums is a good preventive medication course. Treat in this order: bacterial, internal parasite then external parasite. This is based on my limited knowledge of how long each pathogen takes to kill a fish.

The worst enemy of altum keepers is columnaris (bacterial), so I'd start off with the 4 day recommended full course of API Furan-2. I've had great personal success with treating columnaris using this method, and a number of my losses were due to not treating this early enough.

Next, go with internal parasite cleansing. Jungle Labs Internal Parasite Guard is, in my opinion, the best commercially branded medication for this. This is because it contains both metronidazole and praziquantel. This should take care of most, if not all, internal parasites that may infect your altums. Most other brands only contain metronidazole, which is very good in itself, but does not clear tapeworm. This is ok in bred fishes, but in wild fish, you never know whether your fish was in contact with tapeworm previously or not. If you have the raw forms of both medications, you can go ahead and use them as well in the recommended dosage.

For external parasites, I have no personal experience as my altums came free of such parasites from a visual inspection. However, I have been doing some brief research on this as I just got in a batch of wild discus, and while the ones I chose did not have external parasites, I observed some of their tankmates in the LFS did have. The popular one seems to be Waterlife Parazin. If you don't want to get this, Jungle Labs Parasite Guard seems to be a good alternative. Take note that this is not the same as the Internal Parasite Guard as recommended earlier for internal parasites.

After a full course, continue to quarantine your altums for at least 6 weeks to observe if there's any reccurrance and if so, treat accordingly. I know alot of people don't follow this QT procedure and still get very good results, but if you want to play really safe, I feel that an extended QT is essential. I will be quarantining my wilds (altums and heckels) for 2-3 months before introducing them into their main tank.

After all this and your fish are clear of any harmful "denizens", you can proceed to acclimitize them to higher ph. This is as healthy altums are hardy altums. I am now doing 50-70% water changes with water direct from the tap (only anti-chlorine added) and my altums don't show any adverse reaction at all (remember, my tap water is 7.6 from the tap).

All the best for your altums!
Bro, I added your posting here I hope you don't mind.
  Reply With Quote
Old 08-11-2008, 11:59 PM   #180
itchy
Endangered Dragon
 
itchy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 11,159
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by wasaabi View Post
Today is a sad day, I lost in a gamble! All my AAs died as anticipated and I decided to overhaul my tank completely

I spent almost 3 hours scooping out the sand, and I poured a kettle of hot water to disinfect. Then I filled it up with water and chlorox, and allow the filter to run for the next 24 hours before draining. Hopefully I can be better prepare this time, I probably will drop into Gan Aquarium tomorrow and check it out. My friend was there last week and he got quite a number of healthy AAs, but the price is rather expensive $85 each; anyway better get my tank ready first before trying again.

bro, if you want to "clean" your tank, can just use PP and heavily bomb the tank can liao, no need to use boiling water.

Kudos to your never say die attitude to keeping altums
itchy is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +9. The time now is 06:29 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright © 2000-2008 Arofanatics.com (Since 30th August 2000)