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
- derek (Derek Doyle)
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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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- C M C (C M C)
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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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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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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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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- JohnH (John)
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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?).Never bring Africans from ph 8 and trust bench water.
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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- Alan86 (Alan86)
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The money was just resting in my Account!
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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why don't you show your frozen clownfish in the section sponsored by Birdseye?



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- Anthony (Anthony)
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@Sean
why don't you show your frozen clownfish in the section sponsored by Birdseye?![]()
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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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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- Tetra (Tetra)
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Don`t feed your fish from Friday onward.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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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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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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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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- Anthony (Anthony)
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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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- Red Empress (Red Empress)
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There are some stunning catfish around, but as they say. Ignorance is bliss. By the way I got best catfish.
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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.

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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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By the way I got best catfish.
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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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- goldy (goldy .)
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did i mention that we had a streaker...

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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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There are some stunning catfish around, but as they say. Ignorance is bliss. By the way I got best catfish.
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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.

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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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.

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