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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

showing fish

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23 May 2007 17:51 #1 by derek (Derek Doyle)
just a few tips on showing and transporting fish
dont feed for 24 hours beforehand
bring plenty of extra water from home tank
dont show mouthbrooding or gravid females
be careful when netting as fins eyes and scales can be damaged with rough handling
fish with obvious illness or parasites should not be shown
when benching dont mess too much with water parameters such as temp. and PH as all fish hate sudden changes esp. a drop in either (if unsure benching stewards will advise)
if you have any questions or need advice on showing or benching feel free to ask
derek (show judge)

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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24 May 2007 04:33 #2 by C M C (C M C)
Replied by C M C (C M C) on topic Re: showing fish
I have a really important question that i think everyone is afraid to ask, do you you take back handers :?: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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24 May 2007 05:26 #3 by tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)

dont show mouthbrooding or gravid females


Is there a particular reason for this? other than the fish look out of shape! Lets say I'm not too concerned with a fish I wanted to show loosing a mouthful of fry can I still show the fish? or should I catch the fish, strip and dispatch the fry and then show the fish?

Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!

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24 May 2007 06:51 #4 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re: showing fish
I rember in the mid eighties at the open show in Pres Bray I showed one discus and got second prize, the fish was drugged up weeks before hand with methyl testrone got from the vet, I felt bad about it when I was older, thats teenagers for you. The discus came 100% with this own water, and was not stressed at all. I all brought some tiger barbs but trusted the stewards as bards are hardy, the barbs were dead in 20 minutes after coming from an alkaline tank to the bench water.

Word of caution never let Father Jack show fish as he will cheat.

Never bring Africans from ph 8 and trust bench water.

When you do release the fish into the show tank keep half of the original water so if the fish starts to pant fast you can return him to "his bag water"

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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24 May 2007 09:12 #5 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re: showing fish

Never bring Africans from ph 8 and trust bench water.

I've had a think about this (careful...) - you've raised a really important issue here...(and not the cheating - what was the name of that stuff you used again?).

The water out here is pretty hard and alkaline too.

Would anyone have an idea of the ph and hardness of Tallaght water?

I think it wouldn't be possible for me to fetch enough water for the fish I was going to bring along. I might have to re-think this a bit.

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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24 May 2007 09:38 #6 by Alan86 (Alan86)
Replied by Alan86 (Alan86) on topic Re: showing fish
im living down in kingswood nd my tap water comes out with a PH of bout 7 - 7.2 nowadays, ( aint sure on the hardness!) but only a 15min walk away my girlfriends water is coming out around 7.5-7.8....i aint sure if there from the same source (i know we got different electricity sources...she even got me some hot water one night during a power out!)...nd i know tetra tetras water stats are a bit dif from my own too!..nd he lives the other side of tallaght!....anyways not sure if ppl think this is a big diffrence or it matters much but just incase someone says there water is XX and when they gt to the show they find it differs a bit!...

The money was just resting in my Account!

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24 May 2007 09:41 #7 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: showing fish
@Sean

why don't you show your frozen clownfish in the section sponsored by Birdseye? :D :D :D

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24 May 2007 09:59 #8 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: showing fish

@Sean

why don't you show your frozen clownfish in the section sponsored by Birdseye? :D :D :D


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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24 May 2007 11:58 #9 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
We have tested the water in the hall at ph 6.8
Anyone needing water of a higher ph this can be arranged.
It is still best to bring as much of there own water as possible.

CMC; i will take the brown envelope off you. No problem :wink:

tanks_alot; showing a gravid female would be like entering an 8 month pregnant female in to a beauty pageant. It just ain't right.

3 days to go........

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24 May 2007 13:21 #10 by Tetra (Tetra)
Replied by Tetra (Tetra) on topic Re: showing fish
The PH of my own water is 7.0-7.2 just wondering lads has the tanks been cycling or are you's using filters of matured system.Just out of curosity.

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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24 May 2007 14:48 #11 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: showing fish
I don`t think there are any filthers.
Don`t feed your fish from Friday onward.

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24 May 2007 16:52 #12 by derek (Derek Doyle)
Replied by derek (Derek Doyle) on topic showing females
tanks a lot
gravid or mouthbrooding females would not be judged because of the additional stress the fish would suffer by being moved or displayed in a bare tank at this time. if you stripped a malawi fish it would be weakened and thin from partial fasting and needs to rest up to regain strenght again if moved it would be at grave risk.

as sean mentioned at one show in bray in the eighties there were fairly high fish losses, the reasons for this were a huge unexpected entry of almost 500, not enough show officers to supervise benching which led to
big fish in tiny tanks and vice versa, too much untreated tapwater, uncovered tanks (fish jumping) etc. also the water in bray at that time was very soft and acid. at recent shows there have been few if any losses due to good supervision and better technology (ph meters etc.)

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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25 May 2007 02:47 #13 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re: showing fish
Fish can take a big jump in the positive direction. ie they can be put into higher pH water no problem, the real problem when is the other way around, I dont see any risk for south American and Asian entries, its more the Africans I am worried about. At home you would never change more than 60% of the water in one go, and lets face it the water is going to be made up with tap water this Saturday, to put them into 100% 12 hour old water may not kill them but will de colour them with the stress, I would personally buy a 25L bear fermenting bin and siphon some tank water and bring it in the boot of you car, if you are going to use bench water only use a 50% mixture. For african entries its at you own risk, as fishes blood can not hold/ transfer oxygen if they have had a sudden 1.4pH drop with a 12 hour period (borr effect), also how are they going to heat the water? To keep the bench tanks at 24C the room will need to be heated to 25-26C the reason for that is water always holds a temperature one degree less than air temperature to to the evaporation. Personally I think 26C will be uncomfortable for the public, if I was organising the show at night time I would raise the room to 28C at night and drop it to 21C when the public are there, the bench water through out the night would not go over 26C if you heated the room to 28C and would very slowly drop to 24C over a 5 hour period in a 21C room.

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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25 May 2007 13:51 #14 by derek (Derek Doyle)
in my experience the species most affected by temp. drop are discus, angels, rams and black mollies. having said that no fish react well to sudden changes in water conditions. and as sean says ph drops are very bad but easily avoided.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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27 May 2007 07:41 #15 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re: showing fish
By the time you read this one will have the results, may the best fish win?
What happens if you got the best fish and you half got third place? You are wondering thats not fair?

Let me explain, usually the most un tropical and most un exotic fish are the cat fish, dont know why any one would want to keep them as they are ugly bastards, midly aged men with tatoos for some reason tend to be attracted to keep them, any way they unlike most exotic fish commerically inported and grow the FULL size in an enclosed enivoment this means they will get 10 marks for size, as the get 10 marks for colour as their colour is lite shite or dark shite , basically they tend to always get first on second price, if you have a discus or african blue as the ocean moori which was clearly better than the aquatic shite bottom deweller thing you may be gutted, but the rules are the rules, most exotic fish grow to 80% of their full size in an enclosed system as most fish release chemicals into the water which slow growth, so its hard to beat a catfish which will always grow full size. Well done for everyone that helped put the show together, and if you did not get first prize hopefully my tread will put a smile on your face and make you less sick you did not get first or second place.

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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27 May 2007 14:12 #16 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: showing fish
There are some stunning catfish around, but as they say. Ignorance is bliss. By the way I got best catfish. :lol: :lol:
I could have got more marks but I did not bring my own water and they were in bags for hours. I did not enter to win I just wanted to support the show.

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27 May 2007 14:19 #17 by Red Empress (Red Empress)
Replied by Red Empress (Red Empress) on topic Re: showing fish

There are some stunning catfish around, but as they say. Ignorance is bliss. By the way I got best catfish. :lol: :lol:
I could have got more marks but I did not bring my own water and they were in bags for hours. I did not enter to win I just wanted to support the show.


Well done mate. :D

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27 May 2007 14:50 #18 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)

By the way I got best catfish. :lol: :lol:


Congrats Anto, stunning collection of Synos, seen side by side. BTW did you spot you're Snowball? He was still very washed out, so not like his usual self.

Daragh

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27 May 2007 18:17 #19 by goldy (goldy .)
Replied by goldy (goldy .) on topic Re: showing fish
well done anto. i hae to say the standard of fish shown was really excellent. i have never shown fish before and it was hard on top of the whole orgainsing thing but it was well organised and orderly so it worked out quite well. i am sure most of us have never really benched fish like tis before so for aboslute beginners it ran like clock work

did i mention that we had a streaker... :D ..yes a real live streaker out front of the venue in black jeans and not much else...well done that lady...commiseration to anyone who missed it. Bernard nearly crashed...

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28 May 2007 00:08 #20 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re: showing fish

There are some stunning catfish around, but as they say. Ignorance is bliss. By the way I got best catfish. :lol: :lol:
I could have got more marks but I did not bring my own water and they were in bags for hours. I did not enter to win I just wanted to support the show.


Sorry Anto I posted the anti catfish post before I knew the winners, like i said catfish always win for the above reasons, my post was to perk up the guys or girls that got 2nd or 3rd place who may of though their fish was more attractive than the catfish, so alt east they had some answers and a laugh. :P

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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28 May 2007 03:30 #21 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: showing fish
I only entered for support.
It was my first tme benching too and next year I will be more wiser and take it very seriously. That snowball has got some size.
Does anyone know who owns the Decorus as I would like to purchase it. :lol:

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