A:  Methylene blue is safe to use in an aquarium.  Don’t add any unless you know what you are doing.  It will dye your tank seals (and any porous materials) a non-removable blue.  Ditto your hands, clothing, and floor.  You can remove it from counters and sinks with chlorine bleach and water. 

You can use methylene blue to retard fungus and algae growth.  It reduces the light in your aquarium, so it calms some fish.  Shippers use it to help fish utilize oxygen during shipping.  You can use it to test the efficacy of activated carbon.  You can use it to stain objects you want to view under a microscope.  You can use it on half your face to look like Mel Gibson.  You can slip it in a friend’s drink to make his urine green.  It will also treat a genetic disease found only in Kentucky.  If you have to use it, follow the directions on the bottle.  Do not buy it, David.  You have no idea what it does.

You can sex three-year-old clown loaches if you have several.  Males are slightly larger and more colorful.  Females are plumper.  Do not buy the methylene blue.  LA

Wrightslair, Februaty 21, 2005
Do you happen to have a pair of pink convicts for sale at the store?  They don’t have to be a “mated” pair, just a small male & female?  If so, what would the cost be? Thanks!

A:  Yes.  $8.  LA

Rachel Rushing, Northern Florida, February 21, 2005
I wanted to thank you about telling me to keep Archimedes (her slider) warmed up.  He is doing much better now.  Do you know if there is a way to determine the sex of these little guys??  I checked out your info sheet on the butterfly gobies.  Ours are doing great.  We still have 6 of them in a species tank set-up.  There are no other fish in there yet.  We do want to get a flounder and some kind of small algae eater here in another week or so.  Our fish actually do not fit some of what you say about them on your page.  Our wasp fish actually are not nocturnal.  They are VERY VERY ACTIVE during the daytime and do not hide at all.  We have plenty of plants in there if they want to hide. Rather than hiding, these little devils come right up to the front of the tank and swim around quite hyperly.  When we turn their light off (when we go to bed) they go to sleep.  As of right now we feed them mostly brine shrimp.  We have a 5- gallon full of brine shrimp that we “beef” up with cyclo-peeze (?) and live plankton so they are nutritious for our little buddies.  Occasionally we will throw a few ghost shrimp in there (mostly for our pleasure because we like to watch them play with it before one of them finally sucks down the whole damn thing!!!)  And their color is extravagant.
They are beautiful.  Two of them have a gorgeous gold color to the main
part of their body.  The other four have a great deal of the dark splotches
all over.  Well, we hope you have a good week.  We’re going to give it a
shot at breeding them.  Who knows, maybe Kevin and I could be the first US citizens to get these guys to breed!?!  We’ll keep you posted if we are successful!!!  Any general breeding tips?

A:  No way that I know to sex them.  No general breeding tips other than keep doing what you’re doing.  I plan to add your info to my butterfly/wasp page.  Send me a short bio so I can put you on our Board of Correctors.  LA

Joanna Seidel, Topeka, KS, February 23, 2005
MY, OH, MY!    What an amazing web site you have.  I was looking for a bit on Platies for a newbie when I found your site via a search engine.
I am overwhelmed with the amount of material/photos/depth of your
knowledge about fish ...
And, I enjoyed reading up on Newts.  You have an easy way of writing
that showed so well on the subject of Eastern Newts.
I will be back to read -- many times, I’m sure.  And, I am so glad to see you are a Midwestern site.

A:  Aw shucks.  (How’s that for Midwestern lingo?)  My son (Robert “Linear” Arnold) in Kansas City has a Midwestern web site even closer to you:  linear1.org   LA

David Kleynberg, Florida, February 22, 2005
I am here today with somewhat of a serious problem on my hands with my discus tank.  Before I go into it, let me tell you about the tank setup.
46 gallon bowfront; planted. with outside filter and sponge filter.  Houses 3 clown loaches, 14 inch dragon fish, 5 medium brown discus and 1 larger blue discus.  Current readings are: temp 84, NO3 20, NO2 0, hardness about 200, alkalinity about 50, pH of 6.6ish.
Here is my problem.  About a week ago, I brought home a small diamond discus and did not quarantine him.  After placing him into this tank I noticed that he was generally malaised and was either a. sitting on his side on the gravel, or b floating on his side.  He had slime coat issues as well and did not look good at all.  I removed him and placed him into a 10 gallon hosp tank. 
Now for my main tank.  All of the discus are sickly.  The larger discus became dark and started hiding behind some slate rocks I propped up against the back wall.  He developed whitish streaks on his body (slime probably) and fins are clamped.  The smaller discuses were all very lethargic and would rest on their sides a lot (They just lay there on the gravel) or float sideways inside a big piece of driftwood I have in the tank (it’s hollow on the bottom so it’s like a little cave thing).  Their coats became less healthy (less shiny) than usual and they do not move around much at all.
Here is what I proceeded to do after taking the newcomer out (that bastard!).  I  dropped the water level to 1/2 or so.  The only filter currently working there is the sponge.   I installed an R/O water unit and am using that water to do 5 gallon daily changes (so about 20 percent or so daily, adding half a teaspoon of R/O vital by Mark Wiess).  My local pet store owner told me to add metranidazole to the water at a rate of 500mg /10 gal daily which I am doing.  I am also adding "Rid Ich+" by Kordon which is a formalin/mal green mix to the tank.  This is the 3rd day of treatment. 
The fish have shown improvement (somewhat) and have even come out to eat at times during feedings.  They no longer lie on their sides, but they still hide inside the driftwood for most of the day.  The larger fish is still facing the back (black) of the tank.  This does not seem to affect any other fish in there including the clown loaches or the dragonfish. 
As for the newcomer, he is getting the same treatment in the hosp tank (I donno, I felt better taking him out even tho the whole tank was already infected.)  He has livened up some and doesn’t lie on his side for the most part anymore, but he developed white, cloudy appearance towards the back of his body and his tail has become yellow instead of clear.
I am really sorry about the length of this question.  Prior to this issue, I have not had much problems with discus and this teaches me a valuable lesson!! QUARANTINE. For now however, please advise how to correct my current situation.  Eternally grateful,

A:  Whoa.  Nothing like a discus problem to mess up your day (and wallet).  Seems like only last week I said your discus were too crowded.  And now you added a dragon goby, three clown loaches, and plants.  Then you took out half the water to crowd them more.  Hmm.  
I’m not sure how you have a 200 ppm hardness if you’re using R/O water.  Comment:  You have added three stressors to your discus tank.
Temp okay.  Maybe warm up to 90 until cured.
Remove the dragon goby, clown loaches, and plants.
Refill your tank.  If you’re worried about your cartridge removing the RidIch+ and metranidazole, just take out the cartridge or the carbon.  However, I’d recommend removing them. 
RidIch+ is really for killing ich.  It does not sound like you have ich.
Metranidazole is for killing hexamita (hole-in-the-head disease).  It does not sound like your discus have hole-in-the-head disease.
Add a teaspoon of salt per gallon to lessen any NO₂ (nitrite) stress and/or neutralize it with Prime or water changes.  Ditto for ammonia.
Time will heal the strong discus.  LA
PS  I’d also recommend reading a good book about discus (or five).

Alberto Quintana, Tampa, Florida, February 23, 2005
To the expert:   Love your web site. It’s very informative. I am starting a brand new 20 gal. long brackish tank with swordtails and mollies. The question is: when do I start adding the salt to the new tank?  Do I have to wait until the tank cycles to add salt ?  How often do I add salt to the brackish tank?  Thank you.

A:  Add the salt now and every time you make water changes -- preferably weekly.  Your tank will lose about an inch of water per week due to evaporation, so your salt % will go up every week.  You need to make weekly water changes to keep your salt % level and to get rid of fish wastes.  LA

Adrian Philp, Hagerstown, Maryland, February 23, 2005
Hi,  I heard that even if you boil sea shells they aren’t good to put in your fish tank because they’ll kill the fish. Is that true? and if so why?
Also you might add to your page on African Knife Fish that although they need places to hide during the day, you should be careful about extremely small holes because they sometimes try to wedge themselves in where they can’t fit. Mine, although he had plenty of hiding spots to choose from, wedged himself in a tiny hole in an ornament and I ended up having to pull him out. He ended up with a huge scar on his back the SECOND TIME he did it, and then I think he figured out there were better places to hide. Your website is awesome.

A:  Depends on the shell and the tank.  Seashells leach their lime into the water.  In most cases this makes little difference.  But shells do make great spots for uneaten food and dead fish to accumulate.  One seashell should make no diff.
I’ll add your comments to the African Knife Fish page.  Are you ready for spring break?  LA

A:  We do not ship waterdogs at this time.  I’m sure your local retailers would carry them if they could find a source.  2004 & 2005 have not been good years for waterdogs (or tiger salamanders).  We’ve seen very few.  The waterdogs we got were from Segrest Farms in Florida -- a one time batch of six.  I’m not surprised no one in Houston has these.  Maybe they’ll pop up again this spring/summer.  LA

A:  “New tank syndrome” usually hits new aquarists hardest.  But it can happen to experienced aquarists as well as fish store owners.  It is the main reason you see 10-gallon tanks in garage sales.  It takes about 40 to 60 days to “cycle” a new tank unless you add bacteria in some form or another to kick start your bacteria ranch.  Water test kits are sort of an aid but don’t always give you the info you need.  There are many ingredients in your water that our kits do not even hint at.  Your fish are better testers than the kits.  Unfortunately, we have no kits that say:  “Your fish died because ________ .  Thank you for asking.”
So, we concentrate on prevention.  We discovered what was on that third tablet Moses brought down from the mountain:
I.  Never put a whole bunch of fish (new or used) in a brand new tank.
II.  If you do put fish in a brand new tank (because Moses knew most people have already forgotten # I), do not spend more than $2 per fish or $10 in toto.
III.  Always use a quarantine tank (especially if you have a perfectly good well cycled 10-gallon tank in operation).
IV.  Do not add a clown knife or other predator to a community tank no matter how cute or harmless that little fish eater looks.
V.  If your dealer’s water looks nasty, move on to the next tank.
VI.  Add one teaspoonful of salt per gallon of water.
VII.  Add a good quality water conditioner.
VIII.  If fish are dying in your tank, do not add more fish.
IX.  Add filter bacteria when you add fish to a new tank.
X.  Stuff happens.
I used to work for Moses.  He showed me the tablet.  He told me to follow those ten suggestions religiously.  And even then, we still have problems.  I hope this info helps, but as Moses said, “No guarantees except death and taxes.”  LA

A:  We probably have a half dozen 7” to 11” female managuenses for sale at this time.  You can see most of them on our web site.  Go to Jaguars and More Jaguars on our Table of Contents.  We do not ship fish thru the mail at this time.  LA

A: The good news:  I bought three batches of ten red angels from Czechoslovakia via a Florida supplier.  They didn’t look dyed.  The bad news:  I couldn’t keep them alive long enough to tell whether they were dyed or not.  The supplier insisted not, but he probably went by what the Czechs told him.  Let’s assume they’re not dyed.  LA

A:  Thanks for your comments and thanks for welcoming us to the show.  LA

Brandace Parham, February 28, 2005
I have a couple of questions that I was hoping you could help me with!!  I have just recently been given four very small (silver dollar size) turtles.  We have looked around and taken them to the vet and from what we can best guess, they are red eared slider turtles.  We have them in a 20 gallon aquarium with plenty of water depth and also plenty of space to sit out of the water for as long as they need.  We also have a light for heat, etc.  My main question is what type of animal will go best with them as a companion for right now?  We were looking to get frogs or maybe water dogs, or something that could be in/out of water also.  If you could help with any suggestions, that would be great.  Thank you very much and have a wonderful day.