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Jayba

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About Jayba

  • Birthday January 20

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  1. Wasting disease, sunken belly, etc. usually characterized by the fish trying to swallow some food and ends up spitting it out only to go hungry - looks like a sore throat. Apistogrammas are nutorious for this one. This kind of thing is most often caused by a couple or three opportunistic protozoa. These would be Protozoa which are around most of the time and feed on most any decaying protein. Problems happen when the fish are stressed, poor water conditions or just dont find food they are wanting. For some reason the throat becomes a bit inflamed through nonuse and the inflammation allows bacteria to work on the sore area. Thus the fish picks up the food, rolls it into the back of the mouth but cant make it go down and then spits it back out. As part of my wild apisto quarantine I dose Flubendazole. It does not have to be eaten by the fish to be active on the parasitic Protozoa. It will also help a fish recover from the sore throat and allows swallowing again. Raise the quality of the water and add some food the fish will chase, things will improve over 3 to 5 days. Since starting this my Apistogramma are bulletproof. Jay
  2. A few tricks for ya. As I have literally have cored thousands of holes in my past life as a stone mason. -Buy good bits -Cut a hole through a scrap piece of plywood with your coring bit, then clamp it this jig to the glass. -Use lots of water (heat is your enemy) -lift the bit frequently so water flows into the groove you are cutting. -Let the bit do the work, not muscle. (Overheating the bit causes the abrasives to glaze over) Unglaze them by drilling into an old grinding wheel off a bench grinder or cinder block) -Once you get the whole started remove the wooden jig. -If you are working in a flat position, and can't run water continuously, place a a roll of masking tape or other cardboard tube around the hole area, this will allow a little water lake to be formed. -If possible, keep the bit loose in the drills chuck, (or use a clutch system drill) so that if you get off axis and the bit binds, it will spin in the chuck. This will help reduce some of the torque placed on the glass potentially causing a break. Hope this helps. Jay
  3. I would hit them with Flubendazole and RO water. This could be a water problem, in that they at a cellular level cannot tolerate the harder water.w If nothing else, it wouldn't hurt. Flubendazole is a go to for new South American fish for me. It has eleminated wasting in apistogrammas and rams I have had over the last few years. Good luck
  4. Hopefully these are in the breeders cull tank. They are deformed version of a beautiful fish that have no business being offered for sale. Just my 2¢
  5. Copadichromis Azureus.....did they have more? I love these guys!
  6. If I was to take a couple guesses I would say. Wild caught fish used to soft acidic water and having cellular level. Also, due to the high number of Apistogrammas (and other south american fish) that suffer from wasting, Flubendazole is now a painless part of my QT process. It has all but eliminated wasting for me. But hey....what do I know. ;-)
  7. After lights out, make sure the room is very dark as well. Wait an hour or so, and sneak in with a flashlight.no more light than is necessary... I do this all the time with cichlids that are holding.Sometimes I wonder if they even wake up...
  8. I change my answer. If your water chemistry is fine and there is good surface agitation, my money is on Gill flukes. Another 2¢
  9. That's how dads say they love you. They silently allow without disapproval. He obviously knows you have a passion, and what makes his little girl happy makes him happy. Plus, if you have filled his basement with tanks, you gotta come by to look after them. So he wins either way. Dads often say they love you without saying a thing. We don't like all that emotional verbiage risking potentially teary stuff. Good to hear dad loves you!
  10. I would dose Flubendazole. Since making it part of my regime with dwarf cichlids, it has all but cured wasting. The flashing makes me think its a nematode. It's a very stress free medication on fish as well. Just my 2¢
  11. I often help people with this particularly effective parasite with Levamisole treatment. Levamisole is the best medication for dealing with camallanus cotti we often see in tropical fish. Symptoms of Camallanus worms in aquarium fish include abdominal bloating, wasting, and disinterest in food. Well-maintained fish may be infected without exhibiting any symptoms at all, and Camallanus worms are fairly commonly found among wild fish without any obvious link between infection and mortality. But negative environmental pressures such as overcrowding, poor diet, and poor water quality will reduce the immune response of infected aquarium fish, making it easier for the worms to multiply and cause damage to their host fish. There are numerous species of Camallanus worms, and while some parasitize only a limited range of fish species, others can be found in many different hosts. The North American species Camallanus oxycephalus has been found in shiners, sunfish and bass, among others, and the South Asian species Camallanus anabantis has been recorded from hosts as diverse as clariid catfish, spiny eels, barbs, and gouramis. The species most often implicated in infections of aquarium fish is the East Asian species Camallanus cotti. In the wild this species infects a range of hosts including gobies, bagrid catfish and carp, but in aquaria and ponds it can be found parasitizing other types of fish as well, most notably livebearers, rainbowfish, loricariid catfish, cichlids and labyrinth fish. A second species, Camallanus lacustris from Europe and West Asia, is sometimes implicated as well. Again, this species naturally infects a range of hosts including eels, sticklebacks, and perches, and has been reported from an even wider range of hosts under aquarium and pond conditions. Mature worms are red because they feed on blood. In addition their activities irritate the digestive tract and adjacent organ systems, potentially causing internal bleeding and secondary bacterial infections. The life cycle of Camallanus worms passes through three key phases, a free-living stage, a series of molts during which time the worms infect an intermediate host (a crustacean) and then another molt that takes place in the final host (the fish). After mating, mature females begin the cycle by producing large numbers of first-stage larvae. When the fish defecates these will be carried out into the environment. These larvae quickly settle out onto the substrate where they wiggle about in an enticing way, thereby tricking small crustaceans into eating them. Once that happens the larvae move into the hosts gut where they feed and grow. Known intermediate hosts include Cyclops and Gammarus, but Daphnia have not (yet) been observed to carry the parasite. Brine shrimp (Artemia) dont normally carry the parasites because theyre reared in high salinity environments that Camallanus worms cannot tolerate. Within about a week they will have molted twice to form inactive third-stage larvae that sit inside the host. Should the crustacean be eaten by a fish, the third-stage larvae become active and start feeding again, eventually molting twice to form the sexually mature male or female adult worms. These are the distinctive red worms aquarists see protruding from the vents of infected aquarium fish. The length of time it takes the life cycle to complete varies with temperature and for different Camallanus species, but in the case of Camallanus cotti it takes less than a month at 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Most Camallanus species cannot complete their life cycle without an intermediate host, but Camallanus cotti is unusual in being able to skip this stage, and mature females produce first-stage larvae that can infect other fish directly if they do not find a suitable crustacean host first. Possible pathways include cannibalism and ingestion of feces produced by infected fish. There are numerous medication options for treating Camallanus worms in aquarium fish including fenbendazole, levamisole, and praziquantel. These do not necessarily kill the worms, and in some cases only paralyze them, which results in them being pushed out of the gut and into the aquarium (which the aquarist will see when the pink or white worms emerge and detach from the anus). Within 24 hours of medicating the substrate should be thoroughly cleaned to remove the worms. Normally three treatments are required, each one week apart.Bare bottom tanks by far offer the best results. Antihelminthic medications are usually toxic to snails and shrimp so these animals should be removed before use. Antihelminthic medications may be toxic to fish if used other than as described by the manufacturer, and when treating expensive or delicate fish veterinarian advice is highly recommended. Because Camallanus cotti in particular can infect other fish directly, it is best to treat all livestock simultaneously rather than to move only the obviously infected fish to a hospital aquarium. Quarantining new livestock and treating prophylactically with an antihelminthic medication is recommended. Since Camallanus worms infect crustaceans, such fish foods should generally be avoided, or at least sourced only from ponds known to contain no fish. While Daphnia dont appear to carry these worms, if collected from ponds containing fish, any Cyclops captured with the Daphnia are quite likely to bring the parasite with them.
  12. Contact Jarmilla at Angelfins.CA and she can send you some. Jay
  13. You can't really go wrong with over filtration. As long as the fish aren't put off by the water movement some big canisters offer. Simply set up the new canister, squeeze the crud out of your old filter into the water, this will seed the new filter with bacteria to kick start it. Let both filters run for a couple weeks together then unplug the old one. See if the new one can maintain proper water parameters for a day. If it can't, simply plug the old one back in and wait another week and try it again.
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