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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

i just can't win

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18 Nov 2009 22:08 #31 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
so just a quick question for anyone who has bread brichardi b4 ...... i read on the net that the male is prone to eating any male fry to eliminate competition ... and that seperating him when the fry get to a free swimming stage is advisable ???

any comments ??

so far all the eggs have hatched and the wrigglers are still inside the flower pot ... i guess in the next day or two they should be free swimming in the tank

martin

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18 Nov 2009 23:43 #32 by derek (Derek Doyle)
never heard that one martin. they are among the best parents in the fish world and the fry can be left with them for succesive generations. i imagine the adults might attack very large fry but thats way in the future.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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21 Nov 2009 15:04 #33 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
well as promised here's the latest update on the brichardi fry ..... 4 days old now and only just this morning starting to free swim out into the tank



this is my first ever successful spawn in all my years with aquariums ..... and i wasn't even trying to get them to breed . Ah well such is life .... enjoy the vid

Martin

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21 Nov 2009 23:19 #34 by funkychic (trish coughlan)
great vid martin congrats on fry . will they all live ??

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21 Nov 2009 23:27 #35 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
well i'm sure a few of them could possibly not make it ... but a few of the guys more in the know than me here on the forum have told me that the parents should make excellent guardians and that the family bond between this species is very strong .... so fingers crossed

martin

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21 Nov 2009 23:32 #36 by funkychic (trish coughlan)
wow a amazing

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21 Nov 2009 23:33 #37 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
best part is .. the adults were actually bought as wild caughts a few months ago ... so if i'm not mistaken , that makes the fry f1's ???

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22 Nov 2009 03:03 #38 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
not only do they have a great maternal instinct but you will find duzzy that the fry will grow and then help rear and protect the next generation, which will do the same for the next batch and on and on, hopefully soon your biggest problem is needing a bigger tank to grow them all on,
hope this helps mate
Seamus

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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22 Nov 2009 18:59 #39 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
i know theres only been one day since the last video but i'm gettin more and more excited every time i look into the tank and see fry ( finally ( lol ))

they seem to be gettin braver ( or hungrier ) by the day and this morning they were all completely out from under the clay pot and free swimming ....

Mother and Father are doin a great job and the 4 endlers in the tank are stayin well out of the way



hope you enjoy

Martin

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28 Nov 2009 15:56 #40 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
quick update

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28 Nov 2009 16:32 #41 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
and the main tank too

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03 Dec 2009 17:40 #42 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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09 Dec 2009 21:00 #43 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
so the main tank got an overhaul during the week and some of the stock reduction has begun .....

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09 Dec 2009 21:02 #44 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
and then this evening after getting in from work i turn on the lights in the tank ........ and low and behold ...... they've spawned again ...

here's hoping ............ AGAIN

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09 Dec 2009 21:21 #45 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
just one more pic which i just shot a few minutes ago



the proud parents lol ( i hope anyway )
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11 Dec 2009 09:12 #46 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
so two mornings on from the original spawn and i took a quick peek into the tank this morning , there are only four or five eggs in the clutch that have turned white and both parents are still defending very well . This time around i took some very good advice from derek and turned off the light in the tank . I also covered that end of the tank with a towel to try keep the stress of the parents to a minimum . So i'm hoping if everything goes well to have some hatching hopefully in the next day or two . Will keep the thread updated as things progress . I think i will try hatch the eggs artificially myself next time if they aren't successful this time but here's hoping .

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12 Dec 2009 10:59 #47 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
bump bump .... latest update is .... the keyholes were yet again unsuccessful .... but on the upside ... my breeding pair of brichardi have gone agaqin , 3 weeks on from the last time ....... the original fry are swimming around the small 60 litre tank still so i reckon i might have to try catch them and move them to my pother tank .... i know the brichardi form very strong family bonds .... but i just think the tank might be a bit small for trying to raise 2 successive batches of fry ..

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14 Jan 2010 14:38 #48 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
so as i sit here typing this , the mains water has been frozen now since last friday night , which means both tanks are now well overdue a water change ....... but to add insult to injury , the keyholes spawned again lastnight ..... they seem to have an uncanny knack of doin it when its gonna be toughest to do anything about it .

suppose all i can do is wait now and hope water quality doesn't affect the eggs . I have the tank blacked out ( as Derek suggested ) and have turned off the light in the tank too in an attempt to keep the tankmates a bit more relaxed and hence the parents stress free

such is life i guess

martin

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15 Jan 2010 22:38 #49 by cardinal (Lar Savage)
Hi Martin
any sign of your water coming back on yet....now that we have had a bit if a thaw....?

Lar

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16 Jan 2010 00:08 #50 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
hi lar , it only came back today at around 4pm and i'm afraid to say it was too late for the eggs as almost half of them have turned white at this stage . Definitely gonna try hatch them artificially the next time

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17 Jan 2010 03:11 #51 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
so i'm sure at this stage ppl are gettin sick of this thread but i have a question !! Does one or two wrigglers out of a clutch of approx 200 eggs count as successful breeding ? Cos thats wot i have . Unless the parents have some more fry hidden somewhere that i can't see .

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17 Jan 2010 16:38 #52 by cardinal (Lar Savage)
Hi Martin
Any result is a result..........better luck next time....
Lar

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17 Jan 2010 17:14 #53 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
there's just one major problem now ....... doin a water change today on the same tank and i found what look like eggs stuck to the underside of a piece of bogwood in the tank .

the eggs are white (so i reckon dead ) and seem to be placed everywhere rather than in a group .... so now i'm wondering if they could be eggs from the pair of plec's i bought a few weeks ago . ( The tank they were bought from had a small piece of bogwood in it which was covered in little white eggs that were exactly the same )

so now i'm left wondering if the little wriggler i found is actually a keyhole .... or indeed a baby plec !!!!

this just gets harder and harder

lol

martin

p.s. i'll put up a few pics of these eggs in a few minutes

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17 Jan 2010 17:38 #54 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
here's the pics ... apologies for the quality but took them with my phone ...... if anyone can suggest wot they are it would be great

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17 Jan 2010 17:38 #55 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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17 Jan 2010 17:48 - 17 Jan 2010 17:52 #56 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re:i just can't win
Hi.

Yep, if you have Nerite Snails in your Tank, I'd bet they are Nerite Snail Eggs, they need brackish water to hatch.

Kev.
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Last edit: 17 Jan 2010 17:52 by stretnik (stretnik). Reason: Add Photo

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17 Jan 2010 17:50 #57 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
no nerites in there

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17 Jan 2010 17:55 #58 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re:i just can't win
OOOPS! you can see why I jumped to that conclusion, are they flat and stuck to the Glass or are they completely round?

Kev.

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17 Jan 2010 18:18 #59 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
they are round and stuck on to the underside of a piece of bogwood

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07 Feb 2010 16:23 #60 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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