Hello from Belgium

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:31 pm

Caesars wrote:Most people feed them at lights out as in nature they will eat after dusk. Mine are quite used to eating with the lights on - they will come out and feel safe to compete for food. I thought I'd better get them slowly used to eating with lights on so I could observe them and make sure they are allright.

thanks for your advice .
When I feed them, I cut the pomp ... but i don't know if it's good ...
I know that they like hunting but with the pump , the food fly in the tank and i'm afraid that a good part goes in the filter ...

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:40 pm

What food are you giving them? The pellets for catfish are usually heavy and sink to the bottom pretty fast. I have a reasonably high flow in the tank (about 5 times per hour) and that doesn't cause any problems. I have noticed, however, that sometimes some of theTetra Prima granules will float for a bit and will thus end up in the filter. There is a trick for this: half fill a jar with tank water and let them soak there for 5 minutes, until they sink. Then you can add them to the tank with the water

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:01 am

I give frozen food : artemia, worms of red vase , mysis, black worms vase, ...

and soms live artemia .

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 4:26 pm

Defrosted food is lighter than pellets. Strange though, I also give defrosted food and mine goes straight at the bottom. Maybe try switching the pump off while you are putting the food in, then turn it back on again as soon as the food settles at the bottom.

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 7:25 pm

ok thank

When I feed today, I just can see that my zebra have white point ...

I have increased temperature and put methylen blue in the tank ...

my small loves ... I will look after you ...

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:10 pm

Sorry to hear .... I am sure they will be ok soon. Have you taken any readings lately? why did they develop white spot suddently?

You may also want to put a bit of aquarium salt in the water - solution 0,1%. It will kill whitespot. Be careful with the medication - monitor your fish closely, sometimes they react badly to it. If you see them distressed, do a water change immediately.

Dana · Post by **Dana** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:34 am

it has been very quickly . I observe them almost each day when I feed ... and my dominant was most reached ... but today after a treatment, I can see that He goes better ... He had less white spot ...

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:07 pm

Be careful with whitespot. The problem is not so much what is going on on the fish,as is what is happening in the water. The adults (the white spots you see on the fish) leave the fish and go in the water to procreate. Their offspring then goes back on the fish to feed! So you may see some reduction on the whitespot on the fish but that doesn't mean anything - you need to kill the ones in the water

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:51 pm

Zebras can handle pretty high temperatures, much higher than the white spot parasite. I would never put salt in my Zebratank to combat white spot, better with increased temperature in my opinion.

Others may disagree though.

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:24 pm

McEve wrote:Zebras can handle pretty high temperatures, much higher than the white spot parasite. I would never put salt in my Zebratank to combat white spot, better with increased temperature in my opinion.

Others may disagree though.

I have used salt with zebs McEve - in fact I keep them steady in less than 0,1% solution just for the added sterilisation of the water and parasites and never had any problems. You think it affects them?

Would you just raise the temperature and leave them without medication?

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:42 pm

If they weren't too severely effected I would raise the temp first, if that didn't succeed I would use eSHa Exit. But never salt - but that's just my preference.

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 7:50 pm

Well touch wood mine as just fine and healthy, but was wondering about the use of medication, Lyretail noted that if we use the standard anti-Ich it may make them infertile.

To be honest, there is no need to use salt in my tank as I have the UV steriliser but I read up on salt and it adds electrolytes in the water as well as sterilises. As the Manchester water is very soft I thought well no harm in using a very very mild solution. I will stop and see what happens .. I was wondering if there was a health related reason you were avoiding it.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:02 pm

Plecos are generally very sensitive to salt, not to be confused with minerals even though salt is a mineral - confusing huh. My tap water is also very soft, but I do not see a need for adding any minerals to it, and surtainly no salt

I might misunderstand you, but I don't think as sterile as possible enviroment is what you really want, at all cost, so to speak. Seem to me you have salt for sterilizing. and UV for sterilizing, and.... I'm sure it might be a good thing if used properly, as I'm sure you are, but it's not my cup of tea

And my Zebras are doing fine too

Never been sick (except for the osmosis break down in one batch of fry, and one damage that got infected and I couldn't cure as I had lended my medication to a friend, she (the fish) died

) once so far - touch wood!

This doesn't mean that my way is right and yours is wrong though, we still have a lot to learn about these fish.

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:16 pm

Nah, its not about right and wrong - its about exchanging ideas and practices, thats how I see it.
I take your point about over sterilisation and I agree with you, its good to let their own immune system develop and by oversterilising that can't happen. I use sterilisation mainly for the organic waste bacteria - to make sure nothing "nasty" develops in there as you appreciate the tank is too big to ensure a good syphoning does the trick ...
As I got a mixture of plecos in the tank at the moment and some of them can be very .. "vocal" when they are disturbed - I am rather concerned about wounds and bites healing properly etc. So far no probs, touch wood.
I will give up the salt in the new zebbie tank and see what happens.
On the issue of minerals - probably because my tank is overstocked - I have noticed a difference. I was using the Seachem FreshTrace religiously. They have now stopped doing it, so for the past 3 weeks I used nothing and I noticed some split fins and tails appeared - and that is on the biggest fish (L23 and L14 so far and my common gibby so far only). So I went and got another similar product and started with that. I am hoping it will make a difference

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:29 pm

I looked up Seachem FreshTrace, and it seems like a good idea, especially in an overstocked tank.

But then again, personally I try to achieve a natural balance, with plants, wood, sand, snails and even allow certain kinds of algae

This is mainly due to me no being vigilant about keeping all the values stable if I start with additives.

But I can see the point in adding the trace elements declared on Seachem FreshTrace.