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
Any other monster keepers?
- Trimax (Trimax)
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So if you happen to have a fully grown festea, synspila, ocellatus or rivulatus post em here! for the latinly challenged i'm talking oscars, green terrors, red heads, midas/red devils, uaru, trimacs etc!
Plus does any one keep Cichla, ie peacock bass?
If your the type of fish keeper who buys their fish food from a butchers or fishmongers then this is your thread! Come on lets talk monsters! ya know who you are.
ps forgive me if my typings ropey i'm using a ps3 joypad here!
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- 2poc (2poc)
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But there were some threads here a while back, think the username was 'oconnordaithi'.
Unfortunately he was selling off his setup but one of the fish that stood out was a 24inch Dovi!!
There were a few other large cichlids + large catfish too.
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- Trimax (Trimax)
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Big dovi eh? NICE !
by the way my collection consists of a green terror, albino oscar, Jack Dempsey, an electric blue JD (small) , An absolute b*#tard of a red devil, and a pike cichlid (stunning fish).
Non cichlid companions include 3 birchers of different species, fire eel (huge!), armoured catfish, common pleco, a gibbiceps, a syno catfish hybrid, and asilver arowana
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- 2poc (2poc)
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How big is the Aro?
I was looking at a 2 foot fish for sale at a good price recently but he had drop eye in both eyes & there was something odd about his posture..
I really want to get my hands on an Asian Arowana, might be a green one coming up soon according to my sources..
The only *monster* I have at the moment is a non cichlid - a fahaka puffer.
2nd largest freshwater puffer in the world.
He's about 8 inches at the moment.
Cool fish but so aggressive...
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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www.arofanatics.com/members/ian
I also founded this organization and this site:
www.mypalhs.com/
Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- 2poc (2poc)
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I still keep a 34in silver arowana about 10 years old. I've kept around 9 arowanas and my most cherished ones are my n1wan super red and panda I did own 4 Rtg's 1 green 1 yellow tail, 1 banjar red, 1 black arowana and 2 jardinis. I did some journals of some here but many of them not here:
www.arofanatics.com/members/ian
I also founded this organization and this site:
www.mypalhs.com/
That is one big Arowana Ian.. Must be quite a sight.
Have you managed to avoid it getting drop eye?
I was looking at some 3 inch juvenile silvers for sale recently & was very tempted..
Super reds are amazing, I bought the Aqualog book on Asian Arowana recently, some of the pictures are unbelievable..
Did you find the jardinis to be as aggressive as their reputation?
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Where'd you buy the Aqualog? That should be a nice book to have. I have 2 big bind books of Indo ASian Arowanas I bought way back - one had a autograph of one of the farm owners in Singapore.
Jardinis are indeed the most aggressive ones - prone to popeye but are not picky with food. I only had success having Tiger Datnoids and Silver DOllars as tankmates but later found out that he's bin chasing after them....need a big space for escape! So Jardinis are good starter arowanas as silvers - when i had my Jardini and black both actually ate 80% pellet diet which is rare in these times....I miss all of them...
Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- 2poc (2poc)
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Really great book though the English translations can be a little dodgy in places

I have never seen Jardinis, Asian Arowana or even Datnoids for sale anywhere in = Ireland before.
There are more & more silvers available but the large eventual size puts me off.
I'm not into feeding live food either, what do you feed you current silver on?
Chicken breast is supposed to be a great food for filling them out.
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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I picked up the aqualog from petshoponline.ie - at the time it was only 30 euro or so.
Really great book though the English translations can be a little dodgy in places
I have never seen Jardinis, Asian Arowana or even Datnoids for sale anywhere in = Ireland before.
There are more & more silvers available but the large eventual size puts me off.
I'm not into feeding live food either, what do you feed you current silver on?
Chicken breast is supposed to be a great food for filling them out.
I guess if there would be demand for those fishes we would probably have imports? What'd you think Drew? Datnoids are this close to becoming endangered in the wild and its hard to breed in captivity so most are probably wild caught. Jardinis are better stocked compared to Black sometimes called 'Blue' arowana in the Americas
Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- 2poc (2poc)
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Re: demand, I agree there is probably not sufficient demand here.
Fishkeeping is still really in its infancy here compared to other countries.
If anyone can get them Drew can though

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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- serratus (Drew Latimer)
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Can get Dats. incl. campbelli which are VERY RARE, but have to bring them in large..8-10" or 20+ small ones, hard fish to sell!!!!
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- serratus (Drew Latimer)
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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- Trimax (Trimax)
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- Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
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Oh my god! Ian I love your aro's! What a collection of tanks do you have other pics?
Hey Jim, sorry just read this. Unfortunately I had to let them go except my silver arowana which is my first arowana. I have volumes of pics that I've kept all these years. I used to have albums and albums of online pics in a Singaporean website which I helped as Forum Moderator for 3 years but due to bandwidth problems they're only been small thumbnails and you cant view them for a month now. I would love to go back rearing arowanas - hopefully when the climate improves and space allows.
Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...
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