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
DISAPPOINTED
- noeleire (noel)
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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A shop around your neck of the woods that would take them!
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Lads here might take them off ya
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- bmcg38 (Brian McGrath)
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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What are the fish?
And as the lads said....There could be 'A shop around your neck of the woods that would take them' and also 'Put up a list of what you have and prices'.....
Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- wolfie (Anthony)
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- paddyc1 (Paddy Corrigan)
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Personally, I wouldn't be disappointed with any retailer that won't take stock back because remember, they are buying from trusted sources and knowing SH, they would QT your fish if they took them in which means 1 QT tank taken up for a few days just for your trade in.
I wouldn't take it personally...probably just a rule they have
Tallaght, Dublin 24
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- JohnH (John)
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HI all has it ever happened to you i am trying to change over to discus but first i have to move on my other fish mostly south american i rang seahorse today to see would they exchange the fish or give store credit for the fish as nearly all fish were purchased in the shop and was told that they would not take any back most fish are still small 3 to 4 inches still easy to sell on . I was very disappointed after the call because i bought my tank from them and loads of fish over the years i think this should be told when buying that they will not take fish back or give credit ......
In his defence I will say that noeleire has tried twice to sell his fish on the Forum - indeed several are 'on hold'.
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...le/131328-cheap-fish
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...fish-for-sale#146659
BUT...
If a shop has a policy of not buying back, or exchanging fish for credit - so be it.
The Sponsor's personal Section is not the place to air complaints, even though he wasn't openly complaining as such, merely stating his disappointment with that shop.
I should think that noeleire will not be making any further purchases from the shop in question but I would ask him to refrain from using the Sponsor's Section to air his views in future.
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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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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Hopefully Noeleire you will get someone to take them off your hands.
Gavin
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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The facility to bring back fish or trade-ins etc is an interesting, complex and delicate subject as not only does it work within specific policy of shop, it also works within the ability/inability to move certain species of fish on (as we know from experience, some fish will go out the door as soon as they come in and some will end up being shop decorations), available space for the specific specimens, and also asks questions on spurious buying of fish with a potential for an easy get-out clause when things get too much or too big (not saying that this is the case in this specific thread.....and why I would think that a general discussion on the subject would be better).
It may be that shop policy (I'm talking in general and not just one shop) quoted may be the more polite way of putting things.
Also within any shop, there will be different staff members and each may have differing authority to make a decision on-the-spot.
This also ties in with discussions hear on monster fish: some shops may say they don't sell what they won't take back (in the case of monster fish); I'm sure not all would offer such a guarantee.
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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- bmcg38 (Brian McGrath)
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- ck1 (chris)
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I dont agree thats like saying if you brought cloths wore them for 12months and expect the shop to take them back,maye seahorse were fully stocked and had no room od qt tank for themin my opinion if you have spent a lot of money in a place then you should expect good comeback and service after the sale , no matter what you are buying ..
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- davey_c (dave clarke)
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I dont agree thats like saying if you brought cloths wore them for 12months and expect the shop to take them back,maye seahorse were fully stocked and had no room od qt tank for themin my opinion if you have spent a lot of money in a place then you should expect good comeback and service after the sale , no matter what you are buying ..
That is not quite the same thing at all, I don't see the comparison between used clothes and fish that are potentially worth more now than when 1st bought!! They are known for not taking back fish in these circumstances but are quite happy to entertain you when you 1st bought them but thats alot of shops for ye!!
Personally I don't shop there too often and don't like their policy on fish returns but have to keep telling myself thats just business!!
Below tank is for sale
my plywood tank build.
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...k-build-diary#137768
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- Acara (Dave Walters)
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always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!
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- bmcg38 (Brian McGrath)
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- newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
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My 2 cent worth is that it makes perfect sense for a fish shop to have a no return policy
1)I can imagine the quality and condition of fish varies greatly so a simple across the board no return policy saves insulting anyone's fish keeping skills
2)As mentioned before the space issues.
3) I can also imagine someone constantly changing their mind and trying to haggle on both the purchas and sale of fish could lead to hard feelings and what most people forget is that with rates, rent and staff the mark up on fish stock has to be quiet high so it would not make any sense to be trading in stock you have already sold and then buy it back at a higher price(to save hard feelings)than the shop could buy it wholesale.
jim
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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So somewhere along the line, it has accepted fish back.
Some shops may take-in certain species but clearly state what they will not take in.
I don't trade in fish, but if I did then I would probably have a policy of accepting back awkward fish (in view of I would see that if I cared to sell them, then I would care about their future especially if being on the dodgy edge of normal fish-keeping) but possibly not be so willing to just accept at a drop of hat bread-and-butter fish, or fish that are not on the edge of fish-keeping normality but are nonetheless cautious species.
Maybe just as well I don't trade in fish.

ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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- cichliddave (dave coughlan)
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- sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
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I believe s.a shud have given u sometin,discus pellets r something,especialy thay u bought the tank a spent ur hard earned money tjere,tankfuly m lfs take my malawis when they get too big a give me some cr for tbem,wot theese places shud remember without the keepers they wudnt be in business,if it wer me id find a fish store with a diff att to their customers
I wouldn't be so harsh as that cichliddave, in fairness to lfs's some will take back fish they can easily re-home, but some of the fish in the list of the original poster to be re-homed wouldn't have a huge following due to tank requirements and aggression so many lfs refuse on that basis... considering it could be months before someone would be looking for x species of fish, it would mean they have tank space taken up for x length of time and they would be losing money on that tank space while they were waiting to re-home it themselves... they have wages, rent etc to pay so if a fish keeper buys a fish and after a while keeping it they decide they want to go down a different route well then its up to them to re-home the fish not the place they bought it from, you don't see dog owners after buying a dog and keeping it for a while deciding to change species and then expect the breeder they bought it from to take it back, its the same thing with fish... now if it was a case of you bought it and then returned the fish within a few days as it wasn't compatible with your existing tank inhabitants then most lfs's will take it back but after a few weeks / months or years well that's expecting a bit much in my opinion
Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild
currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick
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- newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
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jim
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- k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
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The snakehead can also be very aggresive, I saw one a friend of mine bought years ago, totally annihilate a pair of Salvini within hours of being put in the tank.
The Tilapia is another that could not be put into any old community, so you can see the point of the LFS not taking them as they could take ages to move on.
Rather than rubbish the LFS, I would be thinking how great to be able to move fish on to people who know what they are doing on here, rather than a member of Joe public thinking that a pair of JD's would be fine in a 20 litre.
Just my 2 bobs worth (showing my age now haha

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- newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
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jim
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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TBH i think its about the topic now not the people or any shop.
jim
That is what I think.....and I do think it is a valid discussion (as opposed to talking about specific people)
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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- murph (Tony Murphy)
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Paddys day, boredom.

Ponies: Easter.

Summer holidays?

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- ipcompto (Ian Compton)
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Cheers
IAn
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- belueberry (E I)
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you don't see dog owners after buying a dog and keeping it for a while deciding to change species and then expect the breeder they bought it from to take it back
Actually this is an area with which I am very familiar. Reputable dog breeders will actually REQUIRE the dog be brought back to them first as part of their sale contract rather than be re-sold to who knows where or what conditions. Puppy farmers and Average Joe who had a litter using the male dog down the road at stud because it was the nearest un-neutered male of the same breed......not so much. If the breeder won't take back a puppy they have bred later on in its life they're not a breeder to be recommended. Remember Barack Obama's Portuguese Water Dog named "Bo"? He was brought back to his breeder after 6 months because it didn't work out in his first home. The breeder then re-homed him to the Obamas. This is typical.
Bit off topic but I had to point it out. Shame the shop in question couldn't come to an agreement with the OP, as it seems a reasonable thing to do in this situation.
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