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
wriggly things in a bucket!
- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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i have some wriggly things
in a bucket that was out in the garden
with old plants in it
i have seem them before in pots
that had filled with rainwater
and sat around for a while
any idea what they are?
they are about 3mm long transparent
with a black head, snake like shape (no limbs)
and they constantly wriggle,
there are spent cases on leaves over the water line
and the real question, would they make a nice snack
for my rasbora hengeli
regards
4
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- Mick0075 (Michael OSullivan)
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Mick
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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live food such as daphnia, cyclops and mozzie larvae have gone out of fashion, but the old fishkeepers always used them to get fish in breeding condition.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- bart (Bart Korfanty)
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i was feeding them to fish for many years back in poland and never had any problems with health, but they were always from buckets and pools with no presence of any fish. Only problem that may occur is that the not eaten ones may quickly turn into mosquito and fly around and drink your blood hehe

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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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the water they are in is fairly old
rainwater thats just sitting around
any idea on how to collect these fishy treats
without scooping up a load of the smelly water
but i suppose a net isnt gonna hold much water,
rgds
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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Same thing really I guess.
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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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fishies are loving them
rgds
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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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im bumping this
will my mozzie larvae supply be a non runner in winter?
i'm guessing it will be.
its the handiest live food supply ever,
a bucket, water and plant matter in the garden
and i get mozzie larvae and some bloodworms
regards
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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When they die off depends on the temperature of the water and also the depth of the water. I have 2 tanks outside for live food. One is 1 meter deep and the other about 30cm. The 1 meter tank supplies mosquito larvae longer than the less deep tank.
Some people disagree with using live food that mother nature supplied because of possible parasites been introduced to the aquarium. This is possible but in the past 4 years since i have been using mother natures own i have had no related problems.
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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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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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I do usually keep some fish outside for the warmer summer months in these tanks, but i have been lucky to have no problems (that i am aware of) so far.
I had no fish outside this year because the brother decided to add some minnows. I didn't collect any live food from these tanks because who knows what these fish brought with them.
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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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re: grindal worms
where do i get the culture?
i see it on ebay, is it a posted thing?
its hardly in the local lfs, is it?
rgds
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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I have never seen these for sale in any fish shop. AV had micro worms for a while but that's about it.
You should be able to get them through one of the clubs or someone off the forum might have a starter culture.
They are easy to maintain and dont worry you wont have worms crawling all over the house.

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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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that was a hint if i ever heard one!
i though you were literally crawling with them!
i'll put the feelers out!
rgds
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- fourmations (NIall SMyth)
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just bought some culture on ebay for 4 quid posted
we will see what happens
rgds
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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PM sent
Lar
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