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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

Using coconut shells

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01 Feb 2010 14:45 #1 by alkiely (alan kiely)
Hi all,

can i use coconut shells as caves in my tank, i meaan the ones you can get i tesco etc...?

Alan

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01 Feb 2010 15:13 #2 by JohnH (John)
Yes, of course,
They're a bit of a hassle to cut, mind your fingers/hands, but they make brilliant caves - I use them (cut through the centre - looking at the Coconut from top to bottom) with a smallish hole drilled then elongated with a round file) for Apistos and other cave-spawning fish and cut along the centre (end to end) with one end modified to form an entrance/exit for smaller Plecos.

You will obviously need to scoop out the 'pith' from inside which the wild birds will thank you for but I don't bother to attempt to clean off the 'hair' on the outside of the shell, the fish, especially Panaques, will soon make short work of that.

Hope my cutting directions make some sort of sense.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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01 Feb 2010 15:16 #3 by alkiely (alan kiely)
They are for my apistos, hoping to get my honglsoi breeding soon then the A.viejtas F1 also

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01 Feb 2010 15:31 #4 by JohnH (John)
That's a great plan for the future, let the Forum know how it progresses - sadly I lost the Hongsloi I had (so wouldn't mind being first in the queue for youngsters) and have never seen the others in Ireland (so similar comments apply).

Best of luck with your project.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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01 Feb 2010 15:58 #5 by alkiely (alan kiely)
The honglsoi and viejtia are from A. macmasteri complex so they are very similar but have some noticable differences, hoping to breed a few different types of apisto and setup a few tank with the differnet types.

Alan

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01 Feb 2010 16:17 #6 by JohnH (John)
Great stuff!
Nice to see someone else intending to specialise in Apistos...

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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24 Mar 2010 17:58 #7 by skimask (stephen)
Anyone know where stock coconuts,ive tried dunnes and tesco,and 1 veg shop. No luck in either

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24 Mar 2010 18:12 #8 by JohnH (John)
I saw then in my local Tesco, and in Lidl too last week.
If they don't have them perhaps anyone here has seen any?
John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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24 Mar 2010 18:35 #9 by alkiely (alan kiely)
I couldnt find any in dunnes tesco etc, you will get them in a chinese store no problem. they were 70c each.

Alan

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24 Mar 2010 19:09 #10 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Dunnes normally stock them, I have some in my tank and I found that placing a small hole in the top of the cave works well for target feeding fry that remain inside the coconut shell once born. My L144 fry get target fed without the rest of the fish getting in there.
Gavin

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24 Mar 2010 20:11 #11 by Dioza (Adam Bell)
I find too that leaving a small hole in the top will help release any air that could get trapped. I have mine in a good few months now and it still looks good, none of my fish have any real need for it but i spent so long sawing the bloody thing i'm keeping it in!

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24 Mar 2010 21:35 #12 by skimask (stephen)
Someone else mentioned chinese or indian shops to me before,Thanks i will try a couple out tomorrow

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