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
New Project: Custom Corner Tank
- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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I had slowly noticed that my tanks have gone more practical and less nice to look at.
There was a perfect stand for a tank in the living room and I decided to get a nice custom built community tank to please both myself and visitors that don’t care about fish more than that they are nice to look at.
The tank is 62 x 62 x 40cm with one corner “cut” off, holding roughly 125 litres.
Many thanks to Bart on this forum for building it for me, he did a great job!
Here it is just after the background was painted with acrylics:
With the stand:
Front:
I have a few things left to do. I’m planning on framing it with wood, perhaps ad another piece of wood in the tank and stock it.
Since the last photo was taken I have also added another sponge filter.
Can’t wait for the plants to grow a bit now and add a few more fish.
Melander
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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well done bart
its great to see something different in tank shape
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- BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
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Have seen a few tanks that bart has made and have to they they are very good and great quality
As you already know i am a very big fan of white tanks and i think a hood frame in white would look very nice like the ones on the clearseal tanks
Sean
Sean Crowe
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Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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Very nice tank love the shape
Have seen a few tanks that bart has made and have to they they are very good and great quality
As you already know i am a very big fan of white tanks and i think a hood frame in white would look very nice like the ones on the clearseal tanks
Sean
Thanks Sean. For some reason I seem to paint everything black by default

Did not even consider other colours but now when you mention it and having seen your pictures, it could be an idea.
Trial and error i suppose.
Andreas
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- SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
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Mark
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- bogman (Charles Coughlan)
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Difficult to say how much you saved but well worth the effort
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- JustinK (Justin Kelly)
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Excellent original home brew project, a quarter of an octagon
Difficult to say how much you saved but well worth the effort
Or is it quarter of an 8 sided polygon ?
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- pit (Piotr Urbanski)
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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Really good project
Will filter give so much air all the time?
Thank you!
Yes it will but I can turn down the flow if I want. It does need a larger sponge which is on the way but the flow will be the same unless it would get clogged but that would take a long time.
Melander
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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Changes:
* "New" warmer light, actually an old hood for a 54 litre with standard bulb.
* 2 Vallisneria, which really makes the difference.
* -2 swordplants, I foolishly let the two that are left be ravaged by a pack of hungry Ancistrus but I'm hopefull that they will come back.
* 2 new twigs
Fishwise:
* pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus
* group of Corydoras panda
* 2 juvenile Ancistrus
* pack of guppies
In the long run I might move the guppies and get a large school of Ember or Cardinal tetras. Another thought would be to go complete West African but at the moment I'm happy with a general community.
There's currently a drama unfolding in the tank, my P. taeniatus spawned (wohoo) and are fighting of two eager young Ancistrus gals that are trying to get in and have a snack of eggs. Did not expect a spawn this soon but we'll see what happens.
Thanks for watching,
Melander
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- bart (Bart Korfanty)
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That microsorum will look great in the middle when gets bigger
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the Tank looks great, very natural looking
agree with Bart on the Microsorum...
Nice Photograph too
Very Nice, thanks for sharing Andreas
Des
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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Andreas
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- blade (Michael G)
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michael
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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Update: came home from the Heiko talk and saw that the Pelvicachromis eggs have hatched. I must say I'm really impressed by the parental instincts of these fish, fighting of two hungry Ancistrus is not an easy task.
I had no hope myself for this, their first spawn.
Fingers crossed.
Andreas
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- cichliddave (dave coughlan)
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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thats lovely.wit type of branches r the wood in it
Cheers mate,
I collected the branches from the local beach here in Arklow, and could not tell you what tree they came from as any I pick are very weathered.
Andreas
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- JohnH (John)
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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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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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That's very good Andreas, tell us - Did the eggs survive the overnight period (from the 'attention' of the Ancistrus)?
John
At least some eggs survived and have hatched. The parents have now moved the fry to the back of the tank which will make it a bit awkward to feed them.
I used a flashlight lighting up the cave during night time so that the parents could see the cats which might explain the result (thanks for the tip Bart).
I had planned to use a baster to feed the fry baby brineshrimp in and around the cave but now when they are moved there is no way i can do that. I might just ad them to the tank and hope for the best.
I'm really very new at this, common kribs bred in my tank when i was a kid but there were never any surviving to adulthood, (random community tank with many fry eaters).
Andreas
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- JohnH (John)
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I misread your update from yesterday, I hadn't spotted that they actually hatched yesterday.
You might just find that they move them around reasonably regularly, which might just make things a little easier to feed the fry once they're free-swimming they'll become more bold anyway and will start searching for the brineshrimps (under the attentive watch of the parents).
Good luck with them.
John
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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I believe the Ancistrus got a clutch of the eggs, it looked very guilty with a big fat belly one of the mornings, i however have about 20 little ones that survived and are doing well being fed on brineshrimp and microworms.
Here's a video from about a week ago:
Andreas
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- JohnH (John)
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There's something a bit 'magical' (I know - that sounds silly) about Dwarf Cichlid parents minding their fry - it never fails to please...(again, that sounds silly, but it's true).
Thanks for sharing the video, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.
I hope everyone else did as well.
John
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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I do agree and must say that this little family has been the centre of attention around here for awhile now. Watching something like this live beats any drama National Geographics (or Ballykissangel for that matter) can bring any day.
Andreas
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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They now reside in a separate tank away from the parents which seem to be at it again. Courtship started roughly at the same time as I removed the juveniles.

Andreas
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- bart (Bart Korfanty)
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Enjoyed reading down through it, Excellent Photographs too, Sorry to hear that the Camera got damaged in the process...
Great Stuff
Des
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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As the pH was around 7.5+ and the water was quite hard 120ppm I have slowly over time changed the conditions towards softer water with a pH at 6.5 a.t.m.. I’m going for a pH of 6 when finished.
I have as said before moved the young P. taeniatus and the cories from the tank.
There was too much rivalry going on in one of my pleco tanks and for that reason I moved a group of five Hypancistrus debilittera, L129 to this one. The group consists of two males and three females.
I have only had them for three months and it was the same again, did not expect a spawn but they spawned and I have some little wrigglers in the tanks at the moment!
Delighted with this, unfortunately it looks like I have lost quite a few. I think the male fanned out many and they got eaten straight away.
Now its decision time; breeding trap in tank for the fry, move the fry or move the P. taeniatus.
At the moment I’m leaning towards moving the cichlids as it would be the easiest choice and as it will not disturb the fry at all.
Andreas
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