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
just some of my favorite fish
- derek (Derek Doyle)
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anyway all comments, even criticism are welcome.
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- sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
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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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- dubfish (Alan Martin)
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Regards Alan..
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Follow me up to Carlow
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regards
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- 2poc (2poc)
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Not a fish I'd have associated with you.
Those Victorians are crackers as are the male Orthopharnyx. Are the Petricola still breeding away?
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- Gedas (Gediminas Derkintis)
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Gedas
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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Wow; the fishes looks amazing; esp liked the tropheus; and the male (alpha?) that popped up midway in the video looks majestic.
regards
The guy that popped out from somewhere did look a stunner alright: a proper Tropheus stance it had.
Great stuff Derek.
ian
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- Pat (Pat Coogan)
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Is that an old style corner cotton wool and carbon corner filter running on an airstone.
Havent seen one of those running since before my dad switched to powerheads in the 80s.
Few of them still in the attics with rena 101 and 301 pumps.

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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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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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@alan. the rock in the tropheus tank is actually artificial and extremely lightweight. i love this stuff and it is so much safer than the usual solid rocks, esp in an active fish house situation. its flippin pricy though.
@2poc and roscelt. pictures dont capture the full glory of the male victorians. i have set up the petricola to breed again. and i always try to grow out fish such as the otopharanx separated by gender,as growth is better with no agression.
@ian and andrew. the male doubosi had to be taken from the main group due to hyper agression but as you can see in video all other species and young trophs are ignored. he is a huge fish and to put it in scale the young doubosi in same tank are over 2 inches.
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- JohnH (John)
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(What's that you say? - You'll have to speak up).



John

Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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I hope that if I ever get invited to your fish house you turn off the pumps etc, my hearing is far too delicate to be being subjected to that level of noise - I mean, I've never sat in front of speakers at Led Zep concerts...no way!!!
(What's that you say? - You'll have to speak up).
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John
lol its not really that bad john, i must have had the speakers on camera too high and i dont know how to mute the sound on moviemaker. i use one very large industrial type fish house blower which runs all tanks. fish love the strong aeration.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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Stunning vid.
Is that an old style corner cotton wool and carbon corner filter running on an airstone.
Havent seen one of those running since before my dad switched to powerheads in the 80s.
Few of them still in the attics with rena 101 and 301 pumps.
yes pat, it is indeed and there is at least one in every tank, rarely use carbon though, just gravel and filter floss. they are essential for use in breeding set ups. also use internal power filters in larger tanks with more active fish.
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- Tom (Tom Brecknell)
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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Fantastic as usual, I must drop up for a chat again soon, it's been too long.........Tom.
always welcome tom.
did you notice the koi male angel in the video and remember where i got him. he is an absolutely brilliant father and will even raise other pairs young singlehanded when required.
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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I noticed the corner box filters.....I still use slightly adapted versions of them in 7 or 8 of my tanks (and not just breeding tanks); some are in with power filters as well. Awkward gadgets, but they can work really well (.....did someone say "old-fashioned hippy"? )
ian
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- JustinK (Justin Kelly)
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What size is that tank ?
A shot from a step or two back would help get a better idea of the scale of things.
The noise sounds like its coming from the recorder itself.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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Thats a nice selection of fish Derek.
What size is that tank ?
A shot from a step or two back would help get a better idea of the scale of things.
The noise sounds like its coming from the recorder itself.
thanks justin
the tank with young tropheus is 300 l. i'll try that tip next time. the camera is new and i'm not too used to it yet, but the air filtration and blower is reasonably noisy anyway and i probably had the camera sound at max volume lol.
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- JohnH (John)
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John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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Is that a sneaky discus in there at 0:37 Derek?
Not a fish I'd have associated with you.
patrick i was having trouble sleeping so i heard discus could help to solve this zzzzzzz.

so while arabu and sheag were battling for every lot at the recent auction


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- JohnH (John)
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I fear a backlash to this...
Browny-Greens, indeed - sound like the potatoes I bought from Lidl at Christmas and forgot about!
John
Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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It's a pity your video doesn't show quite how aggressively the Angels are protecting their young - I wouldn't want to be putting my hand it there - that's for sure!
John
absolutely john, its extraordinary and after keeping angels for such a long time, i would not have thought they could surprise me but this pair really do defend with every fibre. in fact it is difficult to even feed them, as for water changes or removing fry, now that is something else. i hate to unduly disturb them but for posterity i will try to take a short video at the next water change.
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- 2poc (2poc)
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It’s a slippery slope Derek...
Remember Sean Connolly used to liken brown discus to flattened out trout.

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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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ps
sorry to hear of the red empress, i'm sure he would have been a beautiful mature specimen by now.
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