Just Sharing my Fish List

I have always like halfbeaks, since I was a kid catching them at my uncle's plantation in Mersing. During this trip, I brought a male and female pair back. The next day, the female gave birth to fries (the female early early already pregnant lah). Guess what? The fries got no beak! Mike suggested that maybe the father is a guppy...

[yoyofish]

nice, rich man collection........... thanks for sharing.....

this is some serious fish keeping!

[deaDFisHFood]

Just a sudden thought about why your c.barca might have suddenly fought...

Was it recently that you they started fighting? If so, I think it could be due to the higher temps which we have been getting these days. Being highly territorial and aggressive, these channa often need a lot of stomping ground, to hunt and to have enough to feed. Being found in systems in the Brahmaputra River, its natural temp. averages around 26 degrees celcius or lower, with heavy flooding from melting glaciers in the himalayas and monsoon rain during the wetter seasons. As i believe your speciments are wild caught at a larger size than normal, they might have spent a longer time in that environment, and might have grown accustomed to it.

Before this sweltering heat, the temp in your tank might have been around normal for them, and with plentiful food, there was no need for the larger space to hunt. This made comming them possible, as without any threat to their survival, there is no need for aggression. However, as the temperature rose recently, the channa might see the change as a possibility that the river would be drying up, due to higher levels of evaporation brought about by warmer temps. Should they feel that the water level is dropping in their environment, the need for aggression rose, as now, the volume of water is getting lower, and the amount of food that they can subsequently get is lower, as often a larger volume of water equates more hunting opportunities in the wild. In order to eliminate the possibility of starvation, and to "feed" their survival instincts, they might have tried to eliminate the direct competition, the other channa. This might have lead to the fight, which caused the demise of the other.

Just a random thought of a guy stressed out over studying for exams

Cheers

Thanks for your comments, they are valid. I believe that's how aggression comes about, it's alsways about survival, for food or breeding. I run a 1/3 hp chiller for this setup and the temperature is set at 27 degrees celcius, however the water temperature do change abit during water change, as I realise the chiller kicking in everytime during water change. The temperature coming out from the tap is around 28 degrees celcius.

Medication, is next. I have had my fair share of fish problems through the years of keeping various fishes, I have kept kois for a long time. One of the strangest treatment I have done is using Dettol (disinfectant fluid), to bath kois in, to get rid of gill flukes. Never tried on Monster fishes and don’t recommend. Today, I am going to share the kind of medication that works for me and is so far safe for my fishes. After kinda organizing the kind of medications I have, they fall into four brands, the first is by API, I use their salt on a regular basis to keep my salt level in my tanks at 0.05. I am a firm believer of salt as a treatment and preventive agent ( I guess it’s a habit from my goldfish and koi days). Usually when I first purchase and transport a new fish, I would put them in my quarantine glass or fiberglass tank. Usually there will be damages to the fish, due to struggling during capture and transport. My first line of defence is always salt. If the injury are more serious, i.e. really bad torn fins and open wounds, I will use Melafix. Melafix is also amazing on Rays, especially those that have very bad injuries due to mating. They recover quite fast from it, when you use Melafix. Pimafix, is only used when there are fungal infections, rays seem to respond well to this too.The second group of medication that I use, is a brand call Doctor Aqua, it seems that only one LFS in Singapore carry this (Tiong Bahru Wuhu) The external parasite is colorless and works powerfully against anchor worms and lice (very safe with rays and all the fishes I have kept). The Ich cure is also very good, but it is blue in color, so your tank becomes like totally black out in the first 24 hours of medication and becomes lighter and lighter blue over the next week or so, but it really works (doesn’t harm rays also) Third group is from Ocean Free, my favorite is the O anchor worm and fish lice, although it cloud your water abit, water becomes clear the next day. It is very effective for gill fluke (safe with rays). My ST is always susceptible to gill problems, especially if you have live feeders. ST will consistently rub themselves against rough surfaces when they are infested. For anchor worm and lice you can see them, for gill fluke you can’t. ST are also susceptible to Ich, which seems to infest themselves below the skin and appears like pimples. O disease, which is also a Ocean Free product, is OK to use for a preventive measure, especially with intro of new fishes, but I feel it is too mild for more serious cases, it is abit greenish like algae water. As a matter of fact, rays and aros seem to be cool with all the medication used here.

OK, now comes an interesting product that was recommended by farms that specializes in keeping rays in both Penang and Taiwan. When I first heard of it, I thought, what the hell is this??!!! But it comes strongly recommended. And after trying on some of my rays, it is damn good. It is call Bei Hai Dau (Chinese translation for Hokkaido… don’t ask… I also dunno why) I believe they are from Taiwan. The packaging is really really bad, it makes you feel that it is a lousy product. Seriously, if it’s not because of me asking a lot of “are you sure??!!!” and getting a lot of assurance, I will never look at it, let alone buy it (one lesson learnt here). It comes in A, B, C type and they are not cheap. A is a liquid form and it cost S$78, B and C are in powder form and cost S$36 and S$24 respectively. They cure all sorts of problems that your ray could encounter. After reading what that was written on them, I was more confident of this product, as it seems to know what rays are susceptible to. A lousy product will just say cure all disease right? Here is what is written on them:

A: Human medicine grade of preparation for sensitive fish. Special for infection of intestine and gill by Gram’s stain positive and negative bacteria (sounds cheem right?). Suitable to: Rays (Chondrichthyes), pleco, arowana and those fish sensitive to water quality. Symptoms of treatment:
1) Excellent effects for curing fin rot, abdominal dropsy, exopthalmos, oral fungal infection, ulcer, poor appetite and fungal infection.
2) Effectively improve lack of appetite, hard to eat then promote the appetite (am typing exactly from bottle).
3) Please use medicament A simultaneously when symptom is serious.

B: Special for infection by Protozoa and external parasites. Symptoms of treatment:
1)Excellent effects at curing the diseases caused by Cyclochaetiasis sp., Chilodonelliasis sp., Costiasis sp., Oodinium Limneticum and Gyrodactyloidea sp.
2) The medicament B for Rays is best choice for quarantining and releasing stress. This prescription can release the stress caused by long term transporting and poor water quality. It is also effectively improves the symptoms of serious mucous-excreting and pale body caused by protozoan infection; fin damage, rapid breath, chafe on substrate gravels, rust disease and oral fungal infection.
3) Please use medicament B simultaneously when serious. The symptoms will be solved easily.

C: Remove the internal parasite, and promote appetite of fish.
1) Dark body, lack of appetite, enteritis, white excrement, abdominal swelling and thin back caused by abdominal infection.
2) Promote appetite, absorbing and growth of ray.
3) Exclusively cure the popular infection of internal parasite that ray is transferred from wild to aquarium circumstances.
4) To cure the enteritis, inflamed anus caused by Flagellates andThread worm in only a medication treatment.

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

Medication, is next.

hello, may i ask when treating your ST, was medication dosed directly into the main tank, done isolated or u took it out for a bath? sorry very amateur question, just curious

Yes, medication was dosed directly into the main tank, every fish in the tank gets treated. Isolation is done only before intro in the main tank, i.e. out from pond to tank, or if there is some serious fighting and injuries.

Originally Posted by Kingfisher

Yes, medication was dosed directly into the main tank

icic, so am i right to say those medication are bio filter friendly?