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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Leaving for 16 days! Can fish be OK w/o feeding?

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14 Feb 2013 12:28 #1 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
Im planning to take an extended holiday and I may not have a fish minder to look after my tank. Do you think the fish will be ok with 16 days without feeding? If I had a minder I would have asked feeding once in 3-4 days and maybe even 10% water change once a week for the duration. Any insights?

Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...

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14 Feb 2013 12:40 #2 by arabu1973 (. .)
16 days its way to long for the fish not to be fed. They'll have to be fed at least once every 3-4 days. You might get away with not doing water changes but it all depends on what fish you have, how many, what size are they, fish tank size, what filtration. Better if you can get somebody to feed/check on the fish every few days, a lot of things can go wrong

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14 Feb 2013 12:45 #3 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Ian,
I have an Eheim auto feeder if you want to borrow it for the time you are away.
I am not using it at the moment and have just moved to marines.

Greg

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14 Feb 2013 12:53 #4 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)

Ian,
I have an Eheim auto feeder if you want to borrow it for the time you are away.
I am not using it at the moment and have just moved to marines.

Greg


Good on you Greg.

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14 Feb 2013 12:57 #5 by derek (Derek Doyle)
depends on the type and size of fish to some extent, but 16 days would be pushing it for anything. if you were going for a week you could get away without any feeding but i would agree with adrian that every 3 to 4 days would be the minimum feeding for that period and with the reduced feeding, water changes are not necessary during your absence.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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14 Feb 2013 14:45 #6 by ricko10 (jamie)
I would be more worried about equipment faults. Heater or filter stop working or a leak. Auto feeders are good but still worth getting someone to call in just to check temps and stuff

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14 Feb 2013 15:15 - 14 Feb 2013 15:16 #7 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
Thanks Greg I'm thinking about your autofeeder offer. I might just get someone to stay in the house for some days. I dont know yet until I can speak to him if he can check on the 180 liter tank. I dont have an external filter that may leak - I have a airpump and internal filter just running because I do 15%water changes every 2 days now without a external filter. I feed sparringly twice a day. I have 2 large redhhooks, 5 Clown loaches of varying sizes and several sterbais and other cories. I have other small fish, a clown plec etc. OH I have one Torpedo barb as well.

Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
Last edit: 14 Feb 2013 15:16 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez).

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14 Feb 2013 23:48 #8 by bogman (Charles Coughlan)
What would the story be if you put in a load of Canadian pondweed, my fish love it, mightn't look the best but they devour it

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15 Feb 2013 06:20 #9 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
well done greg for the offer, Ian i agree with the lads above 16 days is a bit too long, if you get your mate even to drop in every 2 or 3 days to check equipment is ok, do a small feed and see that all the fish are alive you should be fine, put the food in a tablet dispenser so who ever is feeding them dosent over feed your fish and maybe do a water change before you leave and get your friend to do a 10% each week and i think you'll be fine..

oh ya write down all instructions and tape it to the lid of the tank so your friend knows what to do, and if he isnt a fishkeeper see if you can get someone number who lives near you to be able to drop by in case of emergency

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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15 Feb 2013 11:27 #10 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
As it turns out the person I'm eyeing to look after the fish is planning to join us! So I need to get someone trained soon to do the 10% water change and feed every 3 days. The plan is in July to Aug so still have time to prepare the crashcourse

Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...

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15 Feb 2013 11:30 #11 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
excellent another member of the fishkeeping world, and when they join if they have problems when your gone we can then help

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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16 Feb 2013 12:01 #12 by theangryman (chris)
ian

I work abroad a lot and my tanks dont get a water change for maybe 4 weeks while I am away, the wife and kids do the feeding but not much else :angry: .I have chosen fish that I know (hope)are hardy enough to take this, I also tend to use pellet food and freeze dried food so they cant overfeed them. Still everytime I go there is a problem of some sort, it might not be a big problem if you are there but the dreaded "theres a funny noise coming from the tank" or "the fish seem to be acting diferent to when your here" is all you need to hear.
I would suggest skype if the person your getting to look after the tank is not used to the hobby, has helped me many times.Not sure what I can say about no food for 16 days, too long IMO
Hope you find someone to help, you could always ask the wife or one of the kids to stay at home but I`ve found this wont always work :laugh: :laugh:

"I try to incorporate melody. Even though I'm screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming."
Tom Araya

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim........Lyndon B Johnson

All my...

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16 Feb 2013 15:06 #13 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
I have a 6 foot community tank and when we went on summer holidays (In the good old days when I was working!!) I would do a 20% water change the day before leaving and put in 2 Tetramin holiday blocks, after 14 days there was no ill effects, in fact my sand substrate if anything looked cleaner because the fish would be picking it over more with no food magically appearing above them for 2 weeks. :lol:

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16 Feb 2013 17:33 - 16 Feb 2013 17:33 #14 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Ian,
If you need the autofeeder as a backup let me know when it gets nearer your holiday time.
I went on holiday one time without feeding the fish for about 7 days and when I came back my 2 Bala sharks had eaten my twelve Cardinal tetras :crazy:
I suppose when a fish gets hungry enough it will eat any other fish that fits in it's mouth.

Greg
Last edit: 16 Feb 2013 17:33 by ghart (Greg Hart).

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18 Feb 2013 09:23 #15 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
Thanks Greg and thats my fear with my red hooks eating my sterbais. So I will consider your offer next month when you come to visit Seahorse lets meet there. The trip is in the middle of summer so we got time.

Thanks for the insights from others. I will watch this space every now and then.

Ian

Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...

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