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Just getting used to using low power flash settings with the supermacro on the the canon S2 IS. Thought a few of you might like to see some of my fish close-up. Well apart from the dwarf puffers, theyre only 4-5 mm long, so they still dont look that big

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6404.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6395.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6394.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6389.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6383.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6376.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6271.jpg


And yes I know these poor little neons are sick, they are in fact the survivors from an experiment I did when I deliberately bought tetras with NTD , they are not cured, but it seems various combinations of anti malarial drugs,protozin, tannin and blackwater extracts, have kept the symptoms at bay and them going for 3 months or so. I guess that basically means that quarantine for NTD needs to be around the 6 month mark huh? Oh dear....

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6370.jpg

So there you go, a photosession for people who like the little things

Id love to see macro shots other folks have done- go on, post a few

Very nice pictures! So clear!

Hahaha , thats no accident, that was an algae scraper, carbon filtration, and glass cleaner. Not bad for 5 meg res camera though. thankyou btw, all comments appreciated.

What is NTD? What are the symptoms and how can it be ID'ed?

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I like Led Zeppelin.

NTD is neon tetra disease, its a sporazoan parasite that affects a number of tetras barbs and a few others, but not all fish can catch it. Early symptoms include swelling and discolouration at the base of the tail,which then progresses to debilitation and wasting. Its pretty much 98% fatal to all tetras exposed. Theres a lot that isnt known about the disease, there is to date no reliable cure, although prevention can be done with strict quarantine and blackwater extract seems to slow its progress. Its mainly caught efficiently by ingestion, but there seems to be other ways to catch it, these tetras have never eaten cagemates (I have not allowed it) and all of the original animals in the group became infected . I have as you can see I have managed with extreme efforts to keep the wasting and debilitation at bay, but the swelling at the base of the tail still denotes a carrier, or an infected fish.

You might ask why Ive bothered, but there were a few things I had to know about the disease and a few myths that needed dispelling. I also wanted to know if its possible to keep infected animals alive long enough to breed from them and see if the fry have any increased disease resistance. They have started matings now, so hopefully I will get some fry pretty soon.If all the medications havent rendered the adults infertile , Im hoping for a nice result.

It was something I just felt I had to do in the absence of a cure, since the ramifications of NTD in the hobby are devastating. Rest assured that any animals I breed successfully will be tested by the best vetinary colleges I can find to see if they really are immune , or act as carriers before Id release any into the hobby.

Its about as close as I get to playing frankenstein, and believe me , I may only be undoing the damage done by selective breeding, and if I hadnt tried to help these tetras theyd have been doomed anyway.

If youre interested in more on the subject here is a thread that got quite extensive.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/thread.aspx?id=10835&rp=41

Nice pictures longhairedgit

The second seems to show a Rainbow, right? I almost thought it was a puffer fish fully blown up .

About the NTD thing. Although I am with you on this one, how can you be sure that what you see is NTD? I once purchased a batch of Neons and some of them developed what seems to be like a blister on their lip. Help from another member here revealed that a reliable LFS owner spoke of an illness (and no, not NTD) that seems to befall more and more of the Neons and can stike within a few days to some months. And sure enough, 1 Neon of that batch is still alive, plus one from an earlier batch. The syptoms in the fish were the same (besides the initial blister, but - if I remember that right - that one was not in all fish and even went away), with the discoloration and so forth. Just maybe NTD is becoming a catch-all illness for quite a few things that are currently happening with Neons.

Anyway, give us more pictures of your fish, and the next time get the whole fish and not only the front part

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

lol Ingo. are you sayin my aussie rainbow is fat? Thats fighting talk that is.

Yeah , ive seen that kind of thing happening too, tetras dropping dead with a small lesion and no other visible signs. You may well be right on there being more than one disease at fault.Im just getting a handle on NTD though, if anything else crops up Ill look at that too, but the disease you describe sounds even more difficult , quick deaths are always a problem.

I know what you mean about people blaming ntd for everything though, cant tell you how many people ( noticeably without test kits) assume it has to be NTD when their fish are ailing. Most of them in my opinion are probably killing them off with water thats too soft and too acidic, the blackwater thing has its own risks. Seen quite a few cases of tannic dropsy too since NTD paranoia hit. Gives you fair indication the tank perameters werent exactly perfect to begin with.

you are just the person i need to ask about this:

http://fishprofiles.com/files/threads/27256.1.htm?0#

no one seems to be answering my questions.. maybe you could answer them for me?

*Chelle*
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I love the fishes cuz they're SOOO delicious...

no problem , ill catch you on the other thread.

Wow git those are really great .

Love the first one with the puffer!.


^_^

Thanks babel, in fact ive gone photo crazy this week, heres some blue rams I saw at the shop the other week, they practically begged to come home with me

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6551.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6550.jpg

Obviously theres a nice warm place in the gittish house for any fish that asks so nicely

Awesome LHG

Nice Rams, did they have this coloration in the store already?

I hope they will like the gittish house

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

No. they were a bit more blanched than that,but they were in a tank with about 30 males and 5 females, so things were getting a bit competitive, I chose the ones that were the biggest and strongest looking, and they went to a better colour in about 4 hours of getting them home. They had a bit of a pale day on the first day in community, then the little fella in the pictures came and had a look at me, phased colour quickly and I took the photo. Hes generally that colourful most of the time now, and the female just went into gravidity colouration.Not expecting any fry success yet, theyre still a bit young and only half grown, but at least theyre showing willing. Theyve started to dig gravel out from under a bogwood arch.

Just shows how happy they are in pairs rather than in large groups.Thats a fast start to courtship by any standard. I hope they wil be happy too, as long as they dont look outside the tank ( the tanks are actually less messy than the house) im sure theyll be fine.


and Ingo, just for you (lol) heres some full frame piccies of some of the other fishies in the various tanks round the house, I hardly need any encouragement to show off the rainbows and others lol.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6511.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6496.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6499.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/flametetrafp.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6470.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6481.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6446.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6429.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6532.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/pictuscatsfp.jpg

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6440.jpg
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6455.jpg


Well thats me all photo'd out, takes ages to put those things on photobucket. phew. Ive submitted a few to the profiles too, hopefully theyll get accepted, I chose them as decent average representations of the species.

Hope you enjoy.

Hey ingo, post a few back, its always a joy to look at your rather pristine and nicely decorated tanks.

wow great pics. i love how they are so clear and it is so easy to see the fish. my camra is a pain the but most of the time so i stoped talkin pics with it. i have to get back and doin it again
but anyways great job

Thanks LHG for the compliments on my tanks

And triple thanks for the info on your Rams and the full body shots of your fishies, very nice. Quick question: are the first 3 pictures all females and is the very first one a Dwarf Neon?

About posting some pictures back, Here is a link that shows some of my fishies .

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Nope,you'd soon tell if she was a dwarf neon if you saw her in the flesh, shes about 4 times the size! the first one is a female parkinsons rainbow, the second is a male, the third is a male madagascar rainbow.

The we have a flame tetra, a new guinea red rainbow female,a royal rainbow female, a boesmans rainbow male, a herberts rainbow male,a kutubu male, the pictus cats,a a new guinea red male, and two royal rainbow males.

It was a bit churlish of me not to label them, but kudos to anyone who guessed them correctly, the females can be tricky.

This is the one that generally really confuses people - one of the paler coloured specimens of a boesmans female. Its not often you get a mature female retain that juvenile look for so long. Shes the offspring of some rainbows I bought waaay back. I like it when the females look very different to the males, a lot of the females these days look too much like the males, sometimes theres almost no difference.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_6486.jpg


Nice pics on that link Ingo, I see we have at least 3 species in common, the neons, the sunset platies, except mine are old and huge, and the ottos - yours are much prettier than mine, mine look a bit dowdy in comparison, life with you must suit them well. Heres one of mine close up.


http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/smallotto.jpg

Keeping the vallis nice and clean for me .

LHG,

life with you must suit them well

Yeah, for the 6 that survived long term in my tanks out of 13 that I initially bought life is good

They have a 125G with quite some algae on the plants and no predators, how much better can life be for them.

Thanks for naming the fishies

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I lost 1 out of 13 on the second day, probably the shock caused by being back in proper water quality (I hate to go with my lfs on water quality, I tend to keep to the type locale for the fish), the others are all fine, if not a little overweight now, and Im really chuffed cos one is definitely gravid. I'll probably foul up keeping the fry alive though, theyre supposed to be really difficult, and if they lay in community... well, the odds arent good. Ive been quite lucky cos they all eat hikari wafers, hence the rush round the country to stock a years worth when I heard the supply had stopped!

Its strange im getting results, cos mine look rubbish next to yours! And mine never come out except at night, yours are in a much brighter tank and clearly allow themselves to be seen. Youd think that confidence would lead to babies . Oddness.

Are they actually hiding, or are they just hangin' where the algae is? Mine don't seem to hide, although when the krib is on her rampage they have learned to get out of the way quick!

Beautiful pics Git! Or should I say Earl?

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Yo crab man Im crossing you off my list .lol.

Maan I love that show. Just my sense of humour.

Must be karma. Gee I missed the karma points when they went , it was coincidentally too funny.

I think my ottos have habituated to being nocturnal, theyve been like that over a year now.