Hi all, :)

Hi all,

Great forum, after a small break, Im back into the fishkeeping . Previously I have kept Malawis, Oscars, general community setups and set up my first Tang tank 6 years ago. I have just stocked my latest one over the past few weeks.

Its a Juwel 125 that I picked up in a swap for a tank I had no space for. So far it has 3 J Dickfeldi and up til yesterday it had 3 Calvus that I picked up off Gavin in FinsFursFeathers, but 1 seems to have genuinely disappeared so Im left with 2, that are busy re-excavating under a rock ( I removed all the rocks earlier in an effort to find the missing fish and ruined their last dig site ). I checked all around on the floor, but cant see how it would have jumped as the Juwel lid is pretty tight, and I emptied the filter too. No sign . . . Im really hoping its in a rock.

Years ago, back in late 70s and into the 80s, my Dad was in St Pappins Aqua Society, and used to show his fish. Our attic is full of trophys and even old 70s TFH issues and old PFK magazines. Theres also a pile of FBAS books which seem to be for judges on how to judge fish. Anyone on here that used to be involved way back then. I do remember He had a pair of oscars that bred a lot in the 80s, and our house had tanks all over the floor, and in our bedrooms and all , they were everywhere.

Hi all . . .



I was at the show in tallaght in 2007, and its the 1st I have been at since I was small, and it was brilliant . . when's the next one

Thanks for the links, some day Ill be showing one

yes, the 07 show was brilliant, brought back lots of memories,

Heres a few pics of the tank and its inhabitants, these are the 2 calvus that are left.

Hi welcome along, there are a few people around from that era, myself almost included, though I had little to do with clubs back then.

Daragh

Some old memories include transporting either 1 or a pair of breeding oscars to a show in Drogheda, them in a tank if I remember correctly, in the back of our old Simca estate car, sometime around 82-85 maybe, and also a slate full of oscar eggs in a tank of blue water with an airstone beside them.

Some names that I can recall are John Dowdall, and Paddy Carr, think John was from Tallaght way, and Paddy may have been Whitehall.

I must go up to the attic and drag down all the old mags, some are TFH from 1968 & 69!! And all the trophies, and see whats what. Dad might be able to shed some light on stuff

I do know I have a 3rd place trophy for a Goldfish my Dad entered into one of the competitions

i was a member of st pappins aquarist society back in the 70s. in those days ballymun was the premier fishkeeping area in europe due mainly to the central heating in the flats.my pal the late tony keogh was one of the top fishkeepers.ken norton was the fbas judge and regularly had to judge up to 30 fish on a night. politics however got in the way and the north dublin aquarist society was formed and prevailed up to 2001.
phil

Brilliant, can you remember anymore names, or recall the ones I mentioned? I do remember the club had quite big shows.

Damn politics . . wreck everything.

Dad just mentioned Hughie O'Neill as well, He lives in Boston now.

Welcome to the forum. and.....did I see nostalgia jump out of the attic?

Wow....a nostalgia overload there. If the old TFH mags (in the A5 format that they should have stayed in) and PFK (not great in the 70s though) were not enough....then it was the reminder of Simca cars that topped the cake (I'm not saying that I'm a fan of Simcas though ).

In those days, my involvment in aquatic societies was in the UK. But, I did know a chappy from Bray (Hedley Wright) who I know was one of the pioneers of the socety scene in Ireland........I happened to know him as he was the photographer at my wedding here back in 83.

Going back to TFH......I wish TFH was as good today as it was then. I haven't bought it for 30 years!!

Anyway, away with the nostalgia, and on with future discussion on the forum.

ian

Wow I thought it was just my folks that were hoarders. I have boxes of pfk's and trophies inthe attic from the 80s and 90s.
I also have about 10 small show tanks that havent seen the light of day since about 88. We used to go to the fish shop in ballymun where they now keep the horses stabled. Also used to go to the shop in Joe's house in clonliffe ave.
My dad used to keep Jack Dempseys and won trophies for them and also for a brood of geophagus hondae he bred.
Pat

I'm a bit late coming to this topic. I'm the founder of St Pappin's AS in Ballymun, and remained the secretary until we lost the basement... and some bad blood sneaked in as will in all successful ventures.

A notice was put in the window of Miss Mary's shop in Ballymun asking interested parties to contact me. Ken Norton was one of the first to sit around with us discussing whether the club might work or not, and we decided to give it a go. The club was formed in my flat and that's where we started our meetings, moved to monthly meetings in St Pappins Hall and then to a basement in the flats, donated by Dublin Corporation.

We used to have great table shows at the meetings in the school hall, and the raffles were well worth winning. The auctions were fun, some items could be seen, but we also parcelled up our no longer required equipment (often rubbish) and the bidder didn't know what they were bidding on.. but it was fun and a good way of raising much needed funds for the club -- rent for the hall, printing, FBAS membership, trophies etc. We had a great treasurer in a chap named Jim Kenny (RIP) from Portmarnock, every penny accounted for and he was also a good fundraiser for the open shows.

The All Ireland Open Shows were well attended, lasting a weekend with aquarists benching from all corners of Ireland and good ol' Davy Jameson coming all the way from Belfast to judge the entries.

I'm getting on a bit now, but I've been thinking of resurrecting St Pappins A.S. So who knows, we may arise again, Phoenix-like.... and see more great friendships form and fishkeeping thrive here and in surrounding areas again.

Best wishes to all.