Dongross

Merry Christmas everyone. While waiting for the family to get out of bed so we can open presents I decided to count and calculate 41 tanks ----2874 gallons Crazy thing is I know where I can put a few more Don Gross

For what its worth I do not believe that these fish have ammonia burns Ammonia burns normally attack the fins and turn them a whitish color and the fins start to look really ratty Maybe a delayed ammonia poisoning--are the gills a purple color--I do not think it is poisoning Parasites normally do not kill quickly--actually takes quite a while Bacteria is my guess--it will kill quickly and spreads like wildfire Bacteria is sneaky--it may have been in your tank but your fish were immune or it may have come in on the new fish--bacteria is the main problem with new fish that start to die It is hard to know what type of bacteria you are dealing with --personally I keep certain meds on hand but have been lucky and have not had to medicate for years even though I import fish from time to time The name of the game is to quarantine all new fish or be prepared for problems Don Gross

Any ideas on how I can encourage the split in my SD guy's tail split to heal? Back in the day when I was showing guppies on the IFGA circuit the common treatment for split fins was to add vitamin B12 to the water I do not remember the dosage but perhaps google can help or maybe a guppy site It used to be possible to obtain liquid b12 from a good pet store-- Not much help but maybe it will point you in the correct direction Don Gross

I have been remiss in not thanking Brett for the excellent pictures he took of my fish---Thanks Brett Several people have contacted me with regard to my feeding program It is really quite simple I feed tiny fry with freshly hatched brine shrimp and at about 2 weeks , I start adding finely ground flake food When the fish grow a bit I start adding NLS growth--once they are eating the NLS, I cut out the flake I occasionly feed white worms or grindel worms--mainly because I get a kick out of watching the fish chase them down. I have tried red worms on several occasions and my fish refuse to eat them I tried putting the red worms in a blender once, to chop into smaller pieces---do not do this--do not ever do this When the fish grow enough, I start with NLS 1 mm pellets and thats what they will eat forever I do not feed any homemade mixes Contrary to what many discus web sites say--beef heart is not required and it is very messy in a tank I only wipe my tank sides down every few months--if you feed beefheart you will be wiping down the sides every few days--I do have bristlenose plecos in all of my tanks I keep the breeders in 100 ppm water All the rest of the fish are kept in tap water which in Red Deer is about 230 ppm ,according to my meter Thats it KISS

I would like opinions regarding a situation About a year ago I bought 4 groups of fish as fry . 3 groups of tropheus and 1 group of cyps. I imported them from the USA and paid a pretty penny but that part may be irrelevant All the fish were sold as f1 All the fish grew fine and are healthy--Out of 90 fish I think I lost one 2 of the groups have nice color 2 of the groups have such poor color that I will probably have to cull them or give them away . I certainly would never breed them I contacted the Vendor and he blew me off and suggested a color food. I feed mostly NLS . The interesting issue is that most vendors will stand behind live delivery but end result is never mentioned I had this happen once before when I was breeding discus and the vendor replaced them all with no questions asked What should we expect I do not intend to reveal who the vendor was--I am not interested in slamming him but am more interested in hearing peoples opinions Don Gross

Seems to be up to 7.2 now---go figure--wonder how low it went before the got it back under control

Red Deer water is usually7.8 or so Recently because of plant upgrades it has dropped to 7.3 or 7.4 I checked tonite with my electronic Ph meter and it is 6.8 out of the tap The massive rain has obviosly had a large effect---be careful with water changes Don Gross

Hello--I have been watching this board for a while and I think it is a great idea There are several very experienced fish keepers in Alberta and hopefully they will join and contribute to making this board successful I have been keeping fish for 35 years and at the present time have about 2000 gallons. I have bred discus, IFGA guppies and everything in between. At the present time I am breeding my first love which is Africans. All my breeding stock is wild or F1, with a few exceptions. I sell mostly wholesale due to time constaints I probably know many of you to see --I have spoken to both the Calgary Aquarium club and most recently to the Edmonton club on discus. I am always willing to help a fellow hobbist but to be honest I have little patience for questions such as 'is it ok to keep guppies with frontosa' I have listed my fish below--I am looking for a few more but it is often hard to find the rarer fish that interest me--especially since 9-11 has changed the rules about shipping from the USA Tropheus Moorii Kambimbwe Red Rainbow Tropheus sp. Red Chimba Tropheus Moorii Ilangi Tropheus moorii Bemba orange flame Tropheus duboisi Maswa Tropheus moorii Ikola Kaiser Tropheus moorii Kiriza kaiser II Tropheus moorii Bulu Point cherry spots Julidochromis transcriptus Gombi Julidochromis ornatus Cyprichromis leptosoma Utinta “Fluorescent” Paracyprichromis nigripinnis “Blue Neon” Cyathopharynx foae sibwesa Cyathopharynx foae kekese Opthalmotilapia boops neon streak Cyathopharynx foae mbita Cyphotilapia frontosa Mpimbwe blue Neolamprologus brichardi Neolamprologus "daffodil" Neolamprologus leleupi Neolamprologus cylindricus Neolamprologus multifasciatus Enatiopus (Xenotilapia) melanogenys Xenotilapia spilopterous mabilibili Sciaenochromis fryeri "electric blue ahli Labidochromis caeruleus "electric yellow" Aulonocara Cobue regal Don Gross Red Deer