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 Tank - Looking for specimen Fish
- root (Stuart Hart)
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Been a member/reader for a while, but never posted, managed to find all the answers to my questions before now

Anyway I just upgraded my starter tank to a Juwel Trigon 190. Current stock is:
18 Cardinal Tetra
9 Red Eye Tetra
6 Serpae Tetra
4 Gardneri Panchax Killifish
1 Pleco
Its my first go at a planted tank too, am hoping to keep these alive as well.
I'd like too add one or two specimen fish, kinda large and colourful, I'd prefer for them to be mid-upper level of the tank. Any ideas???
Have attached couple of pictures, most of the fish were hiding, on the fist picture the camera flashed

Cheers
Stuart
Thanks for looking.
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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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I would leave the old filter in until you know that your new tanks filter has enough bacteria in it to keep the cycle going.
For fish what about some dwarf cichlids ,there are some nice types there and not too big so your tetra will be ok.If you get too big a fish you may lose you cardinals to them.Also gourmais have some great coloyrs avaible a pair may be nice in the tank.Angle fish but i dont know how well they will do with the tetra.
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- louis (David Knowles)
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- root (Stuart Hart)
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Will have a look at the Congos and Rainbows...
Does my Pleco look OK? Just noticed some discolouration, it was late last night when I took the photos and I don't see him that often, maybe will get to see him some more when I get to install my "moon lights"

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- root (Stuart Hart)
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After a week or so the new tank was measuring 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite and 20 ppm Nitrate; been monitoring it every day and its been consistent for the last week

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- dyco619 (steve carmody)
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Does my Pleco look OK? Just noticed some discolouration, it was late last night when I took the photos and I don't see him that often, maybe will get to see him some more when I get to install my "moon lights"

im not sure what the discolouration is but i have a (Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps) sailfin pleco like yours,
when he was younger he would be discoloured like that from time to time, but never done him any harm, that was about 2 years ago, i still have him so cant be anything serious..
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- David (David)
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Just make sure you use a Quarantine tank for a couple of weeks before adding new fish to the main tank.Just to make sure they dont bring in any nasty's with them.
Pleco looks fine to me my chap does that a lot depending what he is feeding on.
I think that Red Fire Gourami could look nice in there.
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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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Bolivian Rams are beautiful fish i think they would be a great choice

Congo tetra are real cool to but i had them before and mine seemed to rule the tank and bully all the schooling fish into staying hidden away.
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- Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
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Jay
Location: Finglas, North Dublin.
Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.
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- root (Stuart Hart)
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Had an un-planned trip to Dublin today for work so I stopped in and looked around a few stores today, ended up chatting at length with Kevin in Limerick and taking a couple of Electric Blue Rams home, they look so cool!
Thanks everyone for the suggestions.
See you on the forums...
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- louis (David Knowles)
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- dyco619 (steve carmody)
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Agreed rams are a lovely fish. I could never keep them though tried a few times. Is there a few hints to keeping rams
not an expert on rams by and means..
but has alot to do with getting good stock, there are alot of weak strains of rams around.

i have had problems in the past keeping them.
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- root (Stuart Hart)
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