Lana Bollers

I will do as you recommended previously, as I think that is one of my best bets to help him. We added new filtration to the tank a couple weeks ago, during the christmas holidays, leaving the old filtration on the tank as well, so we now have two canester filters on that system rather then one canester and one aqua clear... as I think part of the problem with my cousin blasting the music was to over power the sound of the aqua clear filter... I tested all the water a few days ago and all is fastastic, amm/nitrites are 0 and nitrates were a bit high around 20... I am trying which is why I am here, I know I don't know anything... I know to ask questions, to ensure good health of my fish... Tomorrow is our 40% water change and another dose of parasite clear then only one more dose after that... how will I know if he is getting better though or if I should use clout, if he is going to take a bit of time to gain his weight back... You know I can gain a few lbs each day why can't they....LOL... I know I hate trying to fatten things up...seems like it takes forever... rescued a mare a couple years ago, I wanted to see a difference next day and it took 9 months, partly because she was in foal then nursing... so I sure hope I see a difference in this guy a lot sooner then that...

Yes it was that entire remark that has kind of got me thinking about how I care to my fish... I know when I first joined here I was redirected to NLS and seachem products, which I use faithfully. I thought I was doing everything right until that remark, and my fish starting to look like a bi-afrin... I started to second guess myself and started to research what everyone was feeding, then I thought well maybe I am doing something wrong... maybe I should be feeding more raw diet then just the NLS... I guess a lot of second guessing has started to take place, and because I care so much about all my critters I try very hard to do right by them, even if it does break the bank... I have also looked into obtaining sulfametrazole and metrazole crap I think that is what they are called, they are in the MOPS cataglog, was told the metrazole was a good product and the sulfa one looked good too.... I just want to ensure that I am prepared or better prepared for disaster when it decides to hit! I am also looking at having a 3' x 6' tank built I have not decided on the depth as of yet, I know front's prefer deeper depths...so that will be my next research project...ugh, my brain wont stop...I think it needs a "Park & Neutral" gear.... Thank you so much RD for all of your patients and time you have given me, you have no idea how much I appreciate it.

How do you know if they have been flash frozen... I didn't read the article yet, I will read it when I get home, trying to complete expenses and checking posts here...LOL I do feed the NLS, I am on the frontosa board, and after reading some of the diet posts, I am so confused on what I should be doing... I was trying to obtain more protein for the one front that is ill, but at the same time, give all the fish a nice snack...

African cichlids (Lake Malawi & Tanginika) and I am feeding it to them, because it is part of their natural required diet... More specifically, Electric yellows borleyi cobalt blue red empress lemon jake electric blue c.moorii dolphin kipili fronts burundi fronts I think that is all of them... I just want to purchase the best quality which led to this post..

Great thanks for the info Valerie, and Blue Ram. I did find the kens site, but as I said I just thought the food with spirulina would have a lot more protein content to it... I have heard good things about his feed, and that it is the best quality you can buy. I have also gone to the hbh site, however kens site provides a lot more info on the products believe it or not. I did have powdered spirulina here for a horse that had heaves, not sure how that would work in the tank and I am pretty sure I don't want to find out...LOL

Okay I have done a lot of research and I am still unsure what is the best Spirulina product out there. I have heard praise on the HBH super soft Spirulina as well as the super soft krill... Where is the best place to buy it, price and quality wise? How many of you make your own "seafood" for your fish? If so what do you use and how do you ensure you are not giving them parasite ridden food...when feeding fresh food such as shrimp, mussels, cod etc.... What all do you feed for greens? I know this is a huge topic to take on, but it will be helpful to not only myself but to others on the list. I just hope I put it into the correct section.

When was the last time you cleaned out your filter? I am only grasping here... if you have more then one filter when was the last time each of them was cleaned out... Maybe it is some kind of internal parasite??? Sorry for your losses and wish I could be of more assistance.

Firstly I would like to say, HOLY CATFISH, they are sweet!!! I like "C" he seems more flashy...hard to tell from a photo though, in person is always the best... The blue on him seems more sharp, although it could be the lighting in his photo... and his read seems more deep again could be lighting.... I look forward to more photos.

Shoot forgot to mention he is now being treated with parasite clear, all carbons are out and I hope that in itself works... Does anyone know if wal-mart sells clout?

Oh I am not talking cloudy, I am talking orange, I mean it is so think with iron you can not see the kids legs when they are in the tub, there is no way I could put my fish in that stuff! It is fine to be a little hard with a little rust, but that amount of rust... I don't think so I would have to have carbon gallore to clear that sucker up and change it every day! I am not kidding you... Big Iron came here and the guy looked at me and said he could put an 8000.00 filtration system on it but we still would not be able to drink it... so to me that is not good water quality by any stretch of imagination... I had it tested but they didn't send me the results, had it done at work, and there was some kind of bacteria in it, so we now have to shock the well regularily... If our water had no iron and no bacteria in it, then we would probably be okay...

I love your work Ryan, but you already knew that!!! Although I do have to say I did not realize your work was so diverse! Why are you not in cabnetry or something where you can really show off this work?

Our well water it way to hard, I mean there are days where you can not see through it and it IS on a filtration system... I want to see my fish...LOL... I do appologize for over reacting, I am sensitive and take things to heart. Also no one here know's me well enough to make that kind of judgement on me... and I should of known better then to stoop to that level. I do have the parasite clear here, I will start it tomorrow as I have to head to bed right away, it is now 1:09am. He is eating very well, right now, he is usually the first to the food. So I will start with the parasite clear, I will do my entire tank, that way if any of the other fish obtained parasites, this will help them too. Once I have the clout, I will start that in six days... that would be when I am done the run with parasite clear... this fish is not lethargic, not depressed (off to himself) he is with the other fish, and his fins are all down... .as you could see in the one photo... I will also obtain some shrimp/mussles/cod and grind it up and feed that tank some of that for a couple days... freeze what I don't feed into single feedings then I can take it out of the freezer and feed it as a weekly treat or something... so that is my plan of attack so far... I will keep you all posted on how he is doing, but as of today he is not curving his tail anymore... As for my cousin, she is in a situation where her mom doesn't want her and neither does her dad.. mom and dad divorced several years back, she was born as a replacement child for her brother who was born with a health defect, sadly she was born a girl and not a boy....so when I say this girl came from hell I am not kidding... so as the fish are my responsibility, I did want to give some of the responsibility to my cousin so she would have something to care for and would have something to live for... she has made several attemps of suicide, fortunitly not since she has been here... I have now realized that was a mistake (giving her responsibility so soon) as she is still healing herself, so now she knows I am in her room a lot to care for the fish and she seems okay with that... we live in a moble home, so there really is no where else for her or the tank... I will get through this hopefully with the fish and all will be good and all a learning experience... but if I didn't learn anything then this problem given to me would of been worthless... so I will learn from it and prevent it from ever happening again... night

I have had these guys since they were an 1.5 - 2" they are now a good 4", they have been growing steady and maintaining excellent. I did take in my cousin who is 14 she used to blast the music and sadly that was the only room she can stay in. When I notice my fish were more flighty and seemed bothered by me, I told her she had to ensure the music was not loud as she was scaring my fish half to death. I did not go in the room as often, I asked her if she was feeding them and she would say yes... lately I have been going in there every day because they are my favorite fish and I was beginning to miss them.... am I over my head with the Fronts ...NO, am I over my head with my cousin...Hell YES!!! She is 14 years old, and came from hell.... so I wanted to give her, her privacy... was it my mistake I have a sick fish, HELL yes.... am I trying to do everything in my power to make him/her better yes I am... My fish were all fine, with the exception of my electric blue who I think has pop eye...don't know what else it could be, he is on his second dosage of melafix and I don't think he is getting better, he seems to like his new home, which is only a 10 gal tank, but he is the only one in there, he eats really good, and swims around. I am also treating the tank he came from with jungle parasite clear, because I don't want any of the other fish to get what he has... Do I try my best with my fish and the knowledge I have yes I do! Do I ask a lot of questions, yes I do not only here but on the Frontosa board... Am I trying to learn all I can, obviously or I would not be here.... I did notice yesterday and today, that my front is not curving his tail anymore, I think his belly is starting to fill but I might be wishful thinking too... am I feeding more, yes.... am I worried it will cause bloat yup....Does he eat, yes he does, he doesn't seem to spit it out... when I fed them the spirulina/brine shrimp mix he was the first one to get up there and eat, he tried to even eat the clump, but found that to much and couldn't get it in his mouth...I will continue to watch him closely, and make some home made shrimp food for that tank... I am unsure what other kind of sea food they like... so any suggestions I am here to hear it...

Firstly I only have 9 frontosa's I have had two since June and the other seven since August or so... We have to get water because we live on a farm, our water is way to hard and has softening salt in it... even with our filtration it still turns my tub orange in one day.... so I obtain water from town to ensure my fish are obtaining the best possible water I can provide them... the water is not store bought it comes from my husbands place of work... I have never had any problems with my frontosa's before... so I take your post as you be an A$$, I also have only had a couple sick fish, most when I first started back in July in the hobby... sorry I am not as fluent in the aquarium hobby as you are.... guess when I am learning I am not allowed to make errors or ask for help. As for feed they get shrimp and NLS... all my fish are on nls. by the way all other fish in that tank are fine!

I just have to obtain some water, my son's betta died, he was pale for a week, not sure what happened there, I have that 30 gal, that I can probably put him in... I have put lots of food in the tank, where it sits on the ground and logs the last couple days... soon as we get the water I will move him.... I do have a 10 gal and a 5 gal, the five gal only has a couple cory's in it right now... do you think he would get to stressed in the 5 gal? The electric blue with pop eye is still in my hospital tank... his left eye decided it was going to pop out now..UGH... As for owning that guy, I have owned him since Caressa came out this way, so a long time, I think since August or something like that...

I have attached photos above....

I think it looks like a war wound... my big blue cobalt had one that looked similar, and it is now slowly very slowly healing, I decided to treat the tank with parasite clear, and I think that is helping... either that or it is coincidence...LOL... I hope you lil guy will be okay... Lana

What if you are unsure what you are dealing with???

Sorry for your loss...

He is eating normally, but he is so skinny, he is not sucked up on the gut, he looks like someone sat on him and squished him flat, except his head ... if that makes sense... He was acting more normal the last time I went and checked on him... it is just bazzaare I have never seen anything like that before... I don't know what to make of it. You can see how skinny he is in the dorsal view photo... you can see he still drops his fins and from a quick glance looks okay...

I have also posted on my frontosa group, waiting is a bugger when you are in a hurry.... Have I ever said I am not the most patient person...LOL

I don't understand where it would of came from if that is what it is... he can straighten out and swim fast if he wants to, but he doesn't always want to... I think I will euthanize him, I think that would be the best for my other fish and if I see anymore signs of this in that tank, I will have to euthanize that fish and tear it all down and bleach it out and let it dry before restocking... gosh I hope that is not what it is, I have not added anymore fish in quit some time and it said it can take up to three weeks to show...oh wait I added to pleco's... just last week... but they are not showing any signs nor are the rest of the fish...wonder if he just got stressed with the new additions...ugh...i am getting stressed.

I have a frontosa that is thin and his body is curving like a "C". I have never seen this before, he almost looks retarded... I never noticed anything last night and this morning when i fed I did it quickly and went off to work. Can anyone tell me what is potential problem could be and how do I fix it?

I think if i were you I would treat the entire tank. As for that worm thingy I have no idea what the heck that is... I think if I were you I would complete a huge water change, then add melafix or something along those lines... I sure hope they all get better for you... nothing worse then feeling helpless in these kinds of situations.... I am knew to aquariums, only been in it now 6months and a few days, so I am sure anything that can go wrong does go wrong with my tanks...LOL... I hate learning this way...

I agree with majority, I obtained majority of my fish from individuals on this forum, not only are the fish healthy, but they are at the best price too! You also get to meet individuals on the forum and make new friends :beer: Lana