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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

180l new setup for a 9 year old

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28 Oct 2016 09:30 #1 by Blue Land (Brian McGeever)
Was in a friends house some 9 months ago and there was a brand new rio 180l tank for his 9 year old.

Recently asked him how was the tank going, and to my surprise he said its still sitting there because he said " I haven't a clue what to do" So he has asked me to set it up, which is no problem.

The issue is what fish in a community tank that would keep a 9 year old interested in the hobby. I was thinking along the lines of danios, cardinals and barbs, along with the usual cleanup crew.

Any views?

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28 Oct 2016 10:53 #2 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
Fill it with about 50 male Guppies and Platties....
The colours will amaze a young person.....

You could do a couple of kewl rarer Plecos aswell....The sucking on the glass is always amusing...

Maybe add a big peaceful centrepiece showfish...There are lots of more peaceful ones that wont bother Guppies....Maybe a larger peaceful Cichlid or Gourami... A single smaller Angel might work or a Pearl Gourami....

Just remember if you do decide on Guppies avoid any fish with a Fin Nipping tendency....There beautiful tails will be destroyed otherwise....

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28 Oct 2016 13:47 #3 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
I would 2nd guppies as well. There are so many different sorts are fairly cheap and alway active.
Great choice.

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28 Oct 2016 21:45 #4 by JohnH (John)
Perhaps it might be worth considering looking at this from a slightly different perspective.
My suggestion would be to take the youngster to a well-stocked Fish Shop and let him/her look at available fish and let them pick - of course, some choices might be impractical, which is where some advice would be invaluable.
But, I think that if the child has made some personal input to the fish choices he (let's assume it's a boy for the minute) could become far more involved in the tank and its well-being into the future.
Remembering back to when I was a pre-teenager (long while ago, now) I was absolutely transfixed by the way livebearer-fry would (almost by magic) keep appearing. As has been suggested previously, Guppies were something of a favourite for me back then - but they were a lot stronger strains then, even though the huge-tailed ones were very expensive fish - never seen, but often talked about.
The hobby certainly has changed since then - sadly not always for the better. Livebearers from the Far-Eastern stewponds are abysmal in quality and life-expectancy, but I digress.

Anyway, as suggested at the beginning, it might be worth involving the youngster - the children of today are the Aquarists of tomorrow.
Just my thoughts.

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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28 Oct 2016 22:01 #5 by robert (robert carter)
Totally agree with John , very important to let the young person have an imput into what goes into the tank both layout and fish wise , that way they are HIS fish and therefore he is more inclinded to look after and care for HIS fish . We need young blood in the hobby they are the future of it

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29 Oct 2016 12:29 #6 by PENEV10 (Brian Farrell)
My 11 year old loves Guppies. We don't have any but he has always been drawn to them.A couple of bn plecos to keep the glass cleaner and cut down on maintenance (the big bug bear for kids I find) would be good too.

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30 Oct 2016 00:44 #7 by paulv (paul vickers)
I set up a 150l tank for my 9yr old daughter. Lots of male guppies and rosey barbs. She picked them out herself in the shop. Really enjoyed the experience.

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