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
anorexic fish
- mig (Meadbh Gaughan)
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I reciently had to put down two serpae tetras that went for months without eating bairly anything. I tried everything to get them to eat from grinding up flakes to trying to give then liquifry.
I dont see how they could have been stressed as they were in a shoal of 7 and in a planted tank with fairly good water con. All other fish in the tank are healthy so i dont think it was a parasite. The only thing i can think of that caused it was a change in tank. But it was too a much bigger tank.
Any feedback would be great as i dont want this to happen to any more of my fish
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Hi Mig
do you ever feed greens or peas cucumber?
i would look at your food
is the ash content high?
is the fiber content low?
do you use a variety of foods or one type
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- mig (Meadbh Gaughan)
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I feed the fish a combo of flake food, blood worms and loach pellets. Newly hatched brine shrimp, but not very often.
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- Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
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Jay
Location: Finglas, North Dublin.
Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.
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- mig (Meadbh Gaughan)
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when i see months been mentioned i don't look at diseases or parasites unless new fish have been added or water source changed(someone moving house).
i note you say blood worms really only as a treat. brime shrimp no problem there again nice treat.
i make a puree of peas, cucumber , courgettes a little sweet potato and spinach which i give a short boil and then i add clove of garlic (fresher the better) blitz it i add some gelatin and and allow to set then i cut to suitable blocks for each tank or in to ice cube squares this can be stored for a few days even months. or for smaller fish i just put a few drops in the tank.
the normal feeding rules apply!
treat as a supplement to normal feeding
(sorry about spelling)
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- mig (Meadbh Gaughan)
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Could i make that mixture up without the gelatin and freez it in an empty blood worm pack??
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just keep an eye on your stock for a while for any signs of this reaccuring. Animals like people may not take to a new enviroment this maybe the case here or some unseen abnormality
as for blood worms a treat once or twice a week.
any more signs or problems let us know and we will try to help
Mickey
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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This went on for months with theese two fish. First I noticed that ther bellies were flat and not rounded like the rest of the shoal. When I asked my Lfs about it she suggested that they might be females that had just spawned.
even if they had spawned they would look a normal shape, not emaciated. when ready to spawn the females swell with an egg mass and after shedding the eggs revert to normal.
So i ignored it for a while until i was watching them at feeding time and saw that they weren't touching the food, and any they did nibble at was spat straight out. After time their bellies became concave and their spines were showing. Other that this they looked fine, no marks, spots, swellings and their eyes were clear. When I found that they barely had energy to swim i couldn't bare to watch anymore so i had my husband put them down. I was so upset as i had these fish for over a year:(
you were correct to euthanase these fish as they were beyond help.
bloodworm should only be given occasionaly if at all. a good quality flake is the best staple diet for most small fish. frozen cyclops or brineshrimp as a treat.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- mig (Meadbh Gaughan)
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Throwing bloodworms in daily is a habit i'll have to break.

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