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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

dwarf puffers?

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01 Sep 2009 23:11 #1 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
hi all

i am thinking about putting some dwarf puffers
in my 54l juwel, there are 4 tetras in there
which i could give away or move to my 100l

i am interested in them as they seem to
be brimming with personality and to be fun in general

is it true that they have issues with their teeth
getting too long,

is a 54l too small?

any advice welcome, i have done a bit of reading
but would welcome any tips,

assume no knowledge

rgds

4

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01 Sep 2009 23:43 #2 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
i recently sold my puffers to dan, and yes they are brill to watch. they come strait to the glass to greet you everytime you walk by. they are vfinacy eaters and in my experience blood worm is the only thing excepted.iff you can get a few small snails for them every once and a while their teeth wont be an issue. they are vhardy water condition wise although soft is better. i had 20 in a 60l and they did nip at each other for a while and would destroy your tetras. but if you plant the tank well enough you wont have a prob. the only thing i could find compatible with them was ottos and small cats. .only prob is they stay vsmall some never reach past half an inch.but they all have different patterns and colours i would have lovin to have a macro for pics.
hope it helps
paddy

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02 Sep 2009 10:29 #3 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
thanks for that paddy

what would you be thinking for stock amounts
20 seems excessive in a 54l, is it?

are they expensive?
are they easy to get in dublin?

i havent checked the ph in my tank in ages
but will have a look later

thanks

4

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02 Sep 2009 12:05 #4 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
the more plants and crevises they have to shelter the more you can put in. you could safly get away with 10 and 2 ottos, but thats it(unless you wanted to try a few more puffs,try add them all at once though). if you ring wackers and ask them to order you some im sure they will. one of the lads of this site actually got them in for me. dont quote me but they are between 4-5 euro.but when you buy 2 you get one free i think.i think av have them sometimes too.dont worry 2 much about ph as soon as you add all the plants it should drop.
paddy

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02 Sep 2009 14:00 #5 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
thanks again paddy

regarding stocking, I like to understock more than anything
so 10 would probably be the max for me

one more thing...
i believe you should get 2 females for every male
to keep things peaceful

would your average lfs be able to sex them
and would they give you what you wanted male female wise

i have been to lfs's and they would look at you like
you were mad if you asked for a male female mix

regards

4

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02 Sep 2009 15:29 #6 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
its easy to sex them if they are a couple of months old as the males have a stripe on their belly. but when i got mine they were vsmall and it just came down to luck, as there was 20 there and i wanted 20 .so it was fun to see who ended up male and female.if you look at my photo galery i think there is a few pics of the tank from months ago

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02 Sep 2009 21:10 #7 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
If you are adding them to a tank with injected Co2 i would either add them before the Co2 comes on or do a 50% water change before adding them to the tank. I tried acclimatising them when the Co2 had been of for a few hours. They seemed fine untill it came to putting them in to the tank. They just rolled over and went belly up. Once i removed them they were fine. I added them again once i changes 50% of the water.

Also they quickly get to know there keeper. Try get someone else to do the handling of them and you feed them. They wont see you as the bad person.
Mine used to come to the front of the tank when i was in the room but once i netted them and moved them they will hide when they see me. Anyone else can approach the tank and they wont hide. Who said fish were stupid.

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02 Sep 2009 21:37 - 02 Sep 2009 21:45 #8 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
hi all

platy, i will watch out for that!
i like the idea of them having personality,
i have only ever had tetras and rasboras and need a
change to something more interesting!

BTW i am open to alternative suggestions in a 54l,
but they have caught my eye!

they will go in a low light planted tank
non co2, tetra ex600 filter,

is there any issue with light plant dosing and easycarbo?
its not vital but i may use it if its no problem

there's pea gravel in there at the moment?
is that okay for them, do they prefer sand?

i was going to use the usual low light plants
and maybe moss on roots, any issues there?

should i specifically create hiding holes
or will deep planting and rooty areas suffice
(im not huge fan of caves and that sort of thing)

many thanks

4
Last edit: 02 Sep 2009 21:45 by fourmations (NIall SMyth).

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02 Sep 2009 21:48 #9 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
as platty says they have great personality so dont get them in a strop or they will give you the silent treatment:laugh: good luck with them everything sounds perfect no probs that i can think of. they will prefer rutty surfaces than caves as long as there is enough

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02 Sep 2009 22:07 #10 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
I have had them in high light and low light tanks with all the usual fert'z. No problem.
They will use stem or bushy plants to hide from each other when they need to.
Once they have a few places to hide away from the rest they dont seem to be fussy on the tank decor.

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02 Sep 2009 22:16 #11 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
thanks again guys,

just wondering, are they antisocial in a group?
do they hang out together or are they loners?
are they at each others throats all the time?

cheers

4

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02 Sep 2009 22:24 #12 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
a little bit of everything thats what makes them so intresting they usually stay in packs when swimming, but still nip at each other occasionally and if the lights are off and you turn them back on you can barely find any of them as they are all in their own little areas, camoflaged if you like. iv seen them nip other fish and cause damage, but they never seem to do to much damage to each other. this is only my experience with these fish, platty may have a different one.
im starting to miss mine:(

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04 Sep 2009 01:01 #13 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
4 i would go with how paddy described them. Mine seem to be the exception to the rule. I have them in with killifish and shrimp:ohmy: . They dont touch them. But it would be safer to keep them on their own. They are notorious nippers.

You will have to consider how to feed them. Mine will only eat live food. If it dosent move, it's not food.
Snails are great for keeping there teeth in check. Ramshorn snails are easily cultured. Just use a plastic tub filled with tank water. Lightly aerate if you can. Add some snails and feed them something like algae wafers. They will eat almost anything but i say algae wafers because it is a good idea to gut load your live food for carnivorous fish with vegetables. A little bit of green in there diet will do them good.
I also feed them white worms and brine shrimp. They dont touch any prepared or frozen food for me.

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11 Sep 2009 23:28 #14 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
hi guys

my ramshorns in my planted tank are tiny (1-3mm)

are they all this small
or have I a funny strain or something

will these suffice for breeding for dp grub

i see a lot of folk use pond snails as well,
Is this a better road to go down?

regards

4

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12 Sep 2009 23:03 #15 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Your ramshorn snails do sound small but there are diffrent types. Your puffers will still eat them.
I found some pond snails can get to big for the puffers but they can mannage most under 1cm.
Dont forget to suplement their diet with other food.

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13 Sep 2009 20:23 #16 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
thanks platy

They have annhilated about 8 cherry shrimps
(including two big females)
since i got them on thursday!

so much for a peaceful co-habitation!
i chanced my arm, as i have read that
a lot of them dont give a monkeys about shrimp
whereas some do, mine certainly did.

i went in to look at them today
and they had fat bellies!
and not a shrimp in sight

rgds

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14 Sep 2009 00:54 #17 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
:laugh: :laugh: Welcome to the world of puffers. As i said mine seem to be the exception to the rule.
Since they have gotten a taste for shrimp maybe you could supplement there diet with frozen prawns? (€5 a bag in aldi).
If the puffers trust you, you should be able to hand feed them. Use a small piece of prawn and gently wave it about at the surface. This should get there attention. It may be a few days before they take food from your hand, that's if they do at all. But if they do you wont be just trowing food in to the tank watching it sink to the bottom. That's what my puffers would do. Once it hit the bottom and stopped moving they weren't interested.

Hope this helps.

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14 Sep 2009 01:23 #18 by fourmations (NIall SMyth)
hiya

i might even supplement them with cherrys now and then,
at the rate they are breeding in my main tank
the odd shrimp treat would not even dent the numbers
and may keep them in check

having said all that, i did a 40% w/c
and a bit of a clean up on the dp tank tonight
and noticed a few cherries cowering in my redmoor roots,
so the dp's havent had them all, after all.
but they are obviously scared, they are all over the place
in my main tank and practically swim with my rasboras

i left it as was, as trying to catch them would have
upset the tank too much, i might try trap them tommmorrow
and return them to my main tank.

rgds

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