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
Sex of fish
- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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have a few guppies and Platties, can anyone tell me how to sex them by looking at them??
Also looking for something nice to go into the tank with them, only a beginner so go easy on me:P

Thanks
Gerryberry
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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What type of fish have you got at present and perhaps more importantly what size is your tank and how long is it set up?
Gavin
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Have 8 tetra neons, 5 Platties varies colors and 2 guppies. Tank is a Rio 240 setup for a month now with assistance from Organic Aqua.
Cheers
Gerry
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Saw this big brown grourami's out in Kinsealy petstore and i have to say it was something else, I say it was a gourami but i wouldn,t be a 100% sure, would have to confirm. Would you have any to recommend??
Gerry
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- dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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So in short,its not possible to tell male and females the same way in all species,makes our hobby even harder when on the lookout for a spawning couple!!!!
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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How can you tell the sex of a platty fish???

Cheers
gerryberry
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Gerryberry
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- pkearney (Phil Kearney)
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and the males all have gonopodiums(willies)and the females have
dark gravid spots on their bellies.egglayers on the other hand
are completely different and vary from one to another.
phil.
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- Puggy (Fergus Cooke)
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it is easy once you know, have a look at fish.orbust.net/livebearers.html . On younger fish it can be difficult.
Also if you start to find fry swimming around, you know you've got male and female;)
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the picture below is of males
these three males are Guppy and Endlers livebearer you will note the colour is more eye catching in males second as Gavin said the male bits can been seen here now personally i would look for females first.
In the bottom right is an orange female as you can see the colour is more down beat you will also notice the female is a more rounded and the gravid spot will become more pronounced as it closer it gets to the drop. the silver female with spotted orange tail would have been days away from dropping fry.
there are a number of choices of eye catching tank mates a plec is always a good talking point. corys small but fun loaches etc
personally I go for a busy look something to see at all levels
but it is all a personal choice
check out the christmas practical fishkeeping it has some nice suggestions in there and a nice peace on breeding rays.
mickey
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Thanks for the pics Mickey and Puggy, as they say a picture paints a thousand words.Thanks for the help aswell LB, Phil and fishowner.
GB
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