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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

New Project: Custom Corner Tank

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08 Jan 2013 14:52 - 08 Jan 2013 14:53 #1 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
What better Christmas gift than a new tank for yourself?

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
Last edit: 08 Jan 2013 14:53 by Melander (Andreas Melander).

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08 Jan 2013 20:33 #2 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
Thats a deadly looking tank lucky you it looks great looking forward to seeing it in a few mts when it takes off, well done

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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08 Jan 2013 20:38 #3 by mossy (gavin blanchfield)
looks great andreas
well done bart
its great to see something different in tank shape

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08 Jan 2013 21:37 #4 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
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

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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09 Jan 2013 11:27 #5 by Melander (Andreas Melander)

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 :cool:

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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09 Jan 2013 12:09 #6 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
It's a beaut, Really nice Andreas and awesome work Bart


Mark

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09 Jan 2013 14:55 #7 by bogman (Charles Coughlan)
Excellent original home brew project, a quarter of an octagon :P

Difficult to say how much you saved but well worth the effort

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09 Jan 2013 15:56 #8 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)

Excellent original home brew project, a quarter of an octagon :P

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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25 Jan 2013 21:19 #9 by pit (Piotr Urbanski)
Really good project :) Will filter give so much air all the time?

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01 Feb 2013 19:08 #10 by Melander (Andreas Melander)

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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09 Jun 2013 20:25 #11 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Finally an update,

File Attachment:


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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10 Jun 2013 18:44 #12 by bart (Bart Korfanty)
najsssss

That microsorum will look great in the middle when gets bigger

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11 Jun 2013 21:22 #13 by des (des)
WoW
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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12 Jun 2013 07:26 #14 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Many thanks lads, I'll try to post another photo in a few months.

Andreas

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14 Jun 2013 19:41 #15 by blade (Michael G)
it looks amazing Andreas ,i love the shape and layout

michael

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15 Jun 2013 21:15 #16 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
@Michael thanks for the compliment, appreciated.


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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16 Jun 2013 07:56 #17 by cichliddave (dave coughlan)
thats lovely.wit type of branches r the wood in it

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16 Jun 2013 10:29 #18 by Melander (Andreas Melander)

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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16 Jun 2013 11:03 #19 by JohnH (John)
That's very good Andreas, tell us - Did the eggs survive the overnight period (from the 'attention' of the Ancistrus)?

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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16 Jun 2013 13:17 #20 by Melander (Andreas Melander)

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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16 Jun 2013 13:38 #21 by JohnH (John)
Sorry,
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

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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28 Jun 2013 12:59 #22 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
You were right John, the feeding has not been problematic as the family has been quite adventurous.

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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28 Jun 2013 13:13 #23 by JohnH (John)
Great to see them Andreas,
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

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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28 Jun 2013 13:23 #24 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Thanks John,
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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12 Jul 2013 21:40 #25 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
The little fry are becoming fish:

File Attachment:


File Attachment:


Eating very well on brinshrimp and baby mosquito larva, awfully hard to photograph though (broke my camera taking these :pinch: )

Andreas

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09 Aug 2013 17:18 #26 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
The little lads are now about 10+ weeks old now, I don't know how big they "should" be at this stage but they seem to have grown well. They certanly feed very well.

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.

File Attachment:


Andreas

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10 Aug 2013 07:07 #27 by bart (Bart Korfanty)
Good job. I'm interested what will be the sex swing.

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10 Aug 2013 20:35 #28 by des (des)
Brilliant Thread Andreas
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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10 Aug 2013 22:58 #29 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
congrats on the new babies man and the tank is looking absolutely freaking amazing love it well done

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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26 Aug 2013 20:05 #30 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Update: Another spawn, plecos this time! Without pictures :(

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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