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
An interesting article
For me the Inhabitants of my tanks are my focal point but the tanks have to look right aswell. Maybe thats what retail does to you?? I have spent my working life trying to get people inspired with various set ups of all kinds but trying to instil that the welfare of their "Wet Pets" is the most important. Unfortunately iit translates better to some than others. 
260l South American Community tank
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Think I'm a bit of a mix!
I would agree with you ... I don't think I would be keeping the cichlids or discus I do without the benefit of the (relatively) expensive filtration systems on the market these days. Also I think the author is a bit confused. Does he mean to say that a well kept Amano type tank is not a better environment than a grimy 'trad' multi-coloured gravel tank? Better looks can mean a better environment for the pets as well - if it means clean water, good lighting and excellent filtration complete with compatible flora.
I always thought that Dutch style tanks have been around for a long time.
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The way I see it, and the chief content of the conversation I had, there are two camps of fishkeeping today. "
If that is what he sees, then he ain't been looking very far.
Where are his camps for Progressives?
I'm a prog-rocker and prog-aquarist. In both worlds there seems to be a general problem with peoples attitudes to progressiveness.
Maybe his camps should be renamed the buzzy-trendy-fashionable and the never-in-fashion groups.....now that would be a better conversation starter.
I think that there is a problem when bringing the 'trade' into this.....as the trade can model people so much that the statistics gathered by the trade have a weighting that can put the stats close to the invalid realms.
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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its an interesting article but i reckon there are loads of other types of fishkeepers such as the switchers who set up a lovely tank and as soon as the project is finished and looks well are breaking it down and moving on to the next big thing. also the collector who is fascinated by new species and impulse buy everthing that catches their eye even with no tank available at home. then the breeders who are obsessed with the buzz and sense of achievemant when encouraging the next species to spawn. then the big big fish keepers who are only interested in huge tankbusters. and many more.
and what about the people who love tank busters and farty little anabantoids and have little interest for anything in-between
Can we do psychological profiling on people based upon their mode of fish-keeping?
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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