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
Hi from Captain Bob
- Rjb3 (Bob Borger (Captain Bob))
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My name is Bob. I live with my wife Gale and our daughter Shannon in Wisconsin here in the USA. I may be a long way from Ireland, but I love to share information and I love the fish keeping hobby, so this should be fun.
With 40 tanks from 5 gallons to 72 gallons we (my wife and I) have 1000 gallons running with freshwater fish: Angels, Rams, Plecos, Corydora, Loaches, Livebearers, the list goes on and on. We breed mostly Cory catfish and Plecos although recently I have been collecting Swordtails and plan to work with them for a while. At any given time we have thirty species of cory and a dozen or so pleco species. We make our own pleco caves and we make our own food. Our web site describes some of the things we do. Please visit www.captainbobsfishtales.com
I belong to lots of fish clubs and forums all over the US and attend swap meets all the time in the Milwaukee/Chicago area. Thanks for allowing me to join your forum. I look forward to chatting with you soon.
Regards-Bob
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- JohnH (John)
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I hope you enjoy your time with us.
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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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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happy (?) band
Hi Bob ...pay no attention to our (cynical...? ) admin ... we really do love one another here...



Lar
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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just had a look at your site and i'm loving the whole "personalize your pleco cave" thing....


Lar
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- lestat (Stuie)
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Stuie
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- SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
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- Gerry The Chip (Gerard)
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- Frontosa (Tim kruger)
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Midlands - in the heart of Ireland.
Keeping and breeding : Frontosa Blue Zaires , Synodontis Petricola , Tropheus Red Rainbow (Kasanga) , Tropheus Moliro . Regulary fry for sale.
Community tank with P.Kribensis and different livebearers.
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- mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
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Follow me up to Carlow
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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great to have you aboard mate
rgds
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- Denis (Denis Goulding)
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Welcome to our humble forum. Glad u signed up..
I am sure the guys on here will be haoy to hear all about ur breeding escapades.
Over the last few months i have certainly leant lots from u.
Take it easy and i will chat to u soon.
Regards,
Denis
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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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- Rjb3 (Bob Borger (Captain Bob))
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Thanks for the warm welcome. Pictures are on my list of things to do. I'll get them posted soon. To answer a couple questions, I think the biggest spawning tip I ever give out is "Change something". Especially water temperature. If the water conditions are right, then the temp must change to induce spawning. Nothing drastic, just a few degrees up or down. How easy is it to unplug the heater for a while? Food and conditioning are key as well, but changing the water temp triggers something.
Thirty percent water changes for forty tanks takes five hours. It's a labor of love.
Just one more thing on temperature. I have no scientific proof, but over the last five years, my Endlers livebearer females grow much bigger in 84 degree water and grow fewer males in the population while the male population is larger in 77 degree water where the females don't grow as big. My point is experiment with temperature.
Regards-Bob
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- Denis (Denis Goulding)
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Very interesting about water temp cahnges, i hve noticed that the cherry shrimps i keep were doing just fine but were not really breeding as i have read they can. So i increased the water temp slightly and hey presto two weeks later i have ten berried females.
I also noticed with the bn's that a change in temp can bring on a batch of eggs, although wasnt deliberate, we had a powere cut arouind christmas and the following morning the male was fanning eggs in the cave.
Again a two months after that, i did a water change and hey presto another baych the following morning.( i do water changes every 1-2 weeks(not every 2 months) just to let u know)..
Tell us all about the food that u make bob, especially the Frenzy, all my fish love it, your new pellet is also really good, all my plec and corys, loaches adore the suff.. What are their make up. protien etc.
Regards.
Denis
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- Rjb3 (Bob Borger (Captain Bob))
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I have several new foods that do not appear on the site. Sinking "40" is a 40% protein and 10% fat sinking pellet and Sinking "50" is 50% protein and 16% fat. Adults need less protein and fat, babies need more. Two new fry granules have just recently been added to my growing list. Fry "40" and Fry "50". Just as the sinking pellets, one has 40% protein and the other 50%. However, I may reduce the protein down to 45% from 50%. The newest is a Livebearer powder for adult and fry. It is 40% protein with fish and krill meal, spirulina and kelp powder, brown micro-algae, and garlic added.
If I ever get the new high-tech protein additive from the manufacturer, I will have one more new food in production this summer.
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- Denis (Denis Goulding)
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I will be ordering some fry food shortly.
Talk to u soon.
Regards,
Denis
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