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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

loach problem

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14 Oct 2010 22:40 #1 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
a bad day today, i found 2 dead zebra loach(Botia striata) in my young lads tank this evening and 2 more missing??
tested water and is perfect and all other fish are fine, including Botia kubotai, yoyo's and hillstream loach..
so i dont really have a clue whats going on??
they have been in the tank for about 3 months.
the only thing that i can think of is that the shop i got them from got another batch in 2 or 3 weeks after i bought mine and they all died within a few days,
any help would be great...
thanks

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14 Oct 2010 22:46 #2 by Alex (Alex)
Replied by Alex (Alex) on topic Re:loach problem
Well only thing i can think of is that the second batch Infected your loaches with something. There's always a risk when adding new fish to a tank... How did they die? any symptoms?

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14 Oct 2010 22:55 #3 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
couldnt see any visible signs,
the other batch i was talking about died in the shop 3 weeks after i got mine,
and werent in contact with my fish, unless they had been in contact before coming into the shop//
but that still leaves 3 months of a gap between deaths??

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14 Oct 2010 23:04 #4 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Sounds odd that it is only the loaches. I cant think of anything that would only effect the loaches unless there were meds added to the tank or some fish was picking on the loaches (unlikely).

Just keep an eye on all the fish for odd behaviour like hanging around the surface, hiding etc..

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15 Oct 2010 09:59 #5 by doreilly (Donal O Reilly)
I lost 3 or 4 Cory's last year - all other fish were fine, water fine, etc. Only thing I could put it down to was what I was feeding them (frozen bloodworm at the time which I will never touch again).

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15 Oct 2010 11:02 #6 by Jim (Jim Lawlor)
Replied by Jim (Jim Lawlor) on topic Re:loach problem
doreilly wrote:

I lost 3 or 4 Cory's last year - all other fish were fine, water fine, etc. Only thing I could put it down to was what I was feeding them (frozen bloodworm at the time which I will never touch again).


I feed frozen bloodworms all the time. Unless you drop frozen blocks straight into the tank, I can't see why it would cause a problem for any suitably sized fish. Even my molly fry eat it without me losing any.

I wonder if loach-only deaths in tanks are to do with something in the gravel - anerobic areas or more exposure to decayed food or fungal spores etc etc.

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15 Oct 2010 11:20 #7 by doreilly (Donal O Reilly)
I would always thaw them out firstly in tank water before adding them to the tank.

I know many people feed bloodworms all the time without any problems but it's the only thing that I could put it down to for the losses. My Cardinals, Neons & Harlequins were all fine.

I lost 1 Ancistrus Plec L144, 1 Bronze Cory & 2 Panda Cory's :(

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15 Oct 2010 12:36 #8 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
I wonder if loach-only deaths in tanks are to do with something in the gravel - anerobic areas or more exposure to decayed food or fungal spores etc etc.[/quote]

thats an interesting point, i did move around a few rocks the other which would of stirred up some of those areas, and maybe the Botia striata are move prone to infection than the other breeds of loach.
its a possibility!

as for feeding i do feed blood worm about twice a week but i feed all my fish blood worm and have never had a problem, so i dont think that has anything to do with it.

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15 Oct 2010 13:37 #9 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:loach problem
I reckon the problem occured before you even bought em, and they were living on borrowed time till they eventually died, if all the other fish are fine with the same food and paramenters.


I have never lost a fish to bloodworms and I feed them almost daily though I can't obviously vouch for the producers of the bloodworm product and a contaminant could have easily been the issue though wouldn't otherrs have suffered too.

Mark

Location D.11

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16 Oct 2010 12:41 #10 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
doreilly wrote:

I would always thaw them out firstly in tank water before adding them to the tank.

I know many people feed bloodworms all the time without any problems but it's the only thing that I could put it down to for the losses. My Cardinals, Neons & Harlequins were all fine.

I lost 1 Ancistrus Plec L144, 1 Bronze Cory & 2 Panda Cory's :(


They are all bottom feeders,I doubt it was the bloodworm caused their deaths,surely the cardinals and other fish would of eaten the bloodworm also.Sounds like a substrate problem or something down that area of the tank as all of them seemed to suffer. I feed mine frozen bloodworm and never had a problem.

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16 Oct 2010 12:46 #11 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:loach problem
Fishowner wrote:

Sounds like a substrate problem or something down that area of the tank as all of them seemed to suffer. I feed mine frozen bloodworm and never had a problem.



Good thinkin there Gav


Mark

Location D.11

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16 Oct 2010 20:57 #12 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Might be worth giving your substrate a bit of a stir. Its possible there is a build up of poisonous gases beneath it that are seeping into the water. Maybe your mid/top dwellers were not affected this time round but its definately worth doing.

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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16 Oct 2010 22:26 #13 by pkearney (Phil Kearney)
i have to say i dont trust loaches. i have seen clown loaches acting very aggressively with discus and with each other.i ended up with 4 dead loaches killed i think by their own.i also had large pakistani loaches which were aggressive.they are beautiful but beware.
phil.

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17 Oct 2010 10:14 #14 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:loach problem
I've seen a bit of this loach aggression, not an attack as such but have seen the clowns hassle a rosiebarb and Rainbows, swimming alongsize and shoving and clicking.

This was the older larger Clown loaches. Aggression can also be down to numbers too small.


I have also been reading that temprature too low or fluctuations can give em a spironucleus related infection that affects the intestines, they can have this for some time then die after months, they will eat but still thin out and eventually die, stress during transport cold water is said to be some causes of it, but I guess an unhappy loach is very susecptible to it. I am unsure if this affects the loaches you had die on you though.

The article also covered a very interesting breeding project, yet without success but offers good info as to what might be needed.

www.bollmoraakvarieklubb.org/artiklar/pr...ia/clown%20loach.htm

Mark

Location D.11

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