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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

convict keeping

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04 Jun 2010 10:19 #1 by tippstar (colm norris)
Hi all

Read an interesting blog on convicts and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. What are the pros and cons so to speak?

i have a spare 180l tank and was thinking about getting a pair of convicts and maybe some dither fish like tiger barbs. i read that they are extremely aggressive but what other tank mates could i put in.

i also like the look of electric jack Dempsey’s. Has anyone ever kept these?

Thanks

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04 Jun 2010 10:30 #2 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Hey there,

Ive kept a breeding pair of Convicts with Firemouths, Oscars and Tiger Barbs, all in a vision 180ltr until the O's got big and things had to change. If you plan on keeping a pair I would suggest keeping them in a setup that contains tough species that can hold their own as Convicts are aggressive and become even more so when breeding, which I should mention is pretty much all they do. They are a very productive species and show great parental behaviour. They will vigourously protect their fry and its amazing to watch both parents taking shifts watching over them. Sometimes, at least in my experience, when the Firemouths felt lucky they would try to get at the cave where the female kept the fry and both the male and female would colour up and go nuts. You should get away with a breeding pair of Convicts and a large shoal of Tiger Barbs but I would leave it at that. In my opinion the Electric Blue Jack Dempsey is not a very good fish to try to keep. They are prone to deformaties and often dont live too long. The original Jack is a much better option but may grow a little large of the setup you have in mind. Hope this helps,

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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04 Jun 2010 11:16 #3 by tippstar (colm norris)
thanks jay for that. i had two firemouths and gave to a friend. might be asking for them back:) is there anything else that could be kep apart from the firemouths and barbs. just looking for stocking options before i go ahead and try sourcing convicts. have not seen them in any of the LFS in cork. might have to try further a field

thanks again

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04 Jun 2010 11:54 #4 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
A Severum may suit a setup like that or mabey some Jewel Cichlids. Jewels, however are an African fish and are aggressive in their own right, especially when breeding. They are beautiful fish, but not everyones cup of tea because of their reputation but will do well with Convicts. That said, in a 180ltr setup like the one you are planning, you may run into problems if both species breed so try to get all males if you do decide to get Jewels.

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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26 Aug 2010 00:23 #5 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
How about a female salvini for some colour or a pleco ?
I'm have 2 black widow tetras as dithers

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26 Aug 2010 01:00 #6 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
a breeding pair of convicts can be a bit of a pain in the a****! as you cant get them to stop breeding!
you will have fry everywhere!!!
i had a pair in with my oscars and silver dollars, the problem i had is that they decided to breed in the middle of the tank, which meant that there was oscars pinned in one corner and silver dollars in the other.
got rid of the female then.

but you should give it ago anyway, there great to watch,

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28 Aug 2010 00:42 #7 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
I set up a rock structure to one side of the tank and she fell for it, only prob now is they're moving to a bigger tank so thinking of recreating it in this one too.

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28 Aug 2010 08:27 #8 by mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
JustinK wrote:

I set up a rock structure to one side of the tank and she fell for it, only prob now is they're moving to a bigger tank so thinking of recreating it in this one too.


Only pics will make me believe.....:laugh: Pics of old setup and then more for the new bigger one, go on ye know ye want to..

Follow me up to Carlow

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28 Aug 2010 09:53 #9 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
JustinK wrote:

I set up a rock structure to one side of the tank and she fell for it, only prob now is they're moving to a bigger tank so thinking of recreating it in this one too.



thats what i done as well, but didnt work so good for me!!:)
mine dicided they wanted to breed in a piece of bog wood in the middle!!
typical!!!

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