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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

BIG fish video

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14 Jun 2009 17:56 #1 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Derek Doyle shot this about 7 years ago in a friend of his' fish house. Some amazing specimens here. They are all large.

Just think how many corys you could keep in one of those tanks :laugh: :laugh:




Daragh

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14 Jun 2009 18:16 #2 by Blake123 (Blake O Leary)
WOW...
He has some amazing fish:ohmy: :woohoo:
How many tanks does he have altogether?:huh:

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14 Jun 2009 18:20 #3 by TomNolan (Tommy Nolan)
Some amazing fish there. What was he feeding them? :woohoo:

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14 Jun 2009 21:20 #4 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
TomNolan wrote:

Some amazing fish there. What was he feeding them? :woohoo:


We showed this at the club meeting the other night and Derek was there to talk us through some of the details, someone asked the same question about feeding and the suggestion was small children :-)

I honestly don't know, but I am sure Derek will be along at some stage and let you know. It is hard to appreciate the scale of the tanks and fish until you see a human nearby or a hand in front of the tanks. Note the pond filters over all the tanks!

Daragh

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14 Jun 2009 21:22 #5 by thommocunningham (Thomas Cunningham)
TomNolan wrote:

Some amazing fish there. What was he feeding them? :woohoo:


Steaks I suspect lookin' at the size of some of 'em!!!

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14 Jun 2009 23:51 #6 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
That is some set up. Beautiful selection of fish. I can only dream of such a set up.
I was trying to make out the cats in the second tank shown. Are they Pseudodoras niger?
Also the cat in the vat beside the red tail?
There must be some selection of food used to feed all these, and some amount.
Fair play to the owner.

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14 Jun 2009 23:59 #7 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
I think they are one of the Platydoras.

Don't know what the big lad next to the RTCF is, but he is HUGE!


Daragh

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15 Jun 2009 00:28 #8 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Do you know which platydoras it is? I cant picture any large one's. They are beauty's what ever they are.

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15 Jun 2009 00:41 #9 by derek (Derek Doyle)
darren
they are platydoras? or oxydoras? niger, the mother of snails cat or gentle giant. these specimens are about 3 feet and are very peaceful fish.
the other catfish you mention is a real terror, a metre long and very snappy.
i cant remember the name but its south american,greenish coloured, some kind of giant pimelodid.
most of the fish in the vid (except the butofekeri and african cichlids) are still thriving.
all the giant catfish and the gourami are more than 20 years old.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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15 Jun 2009 00:50 #10 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Oxydoras looks like it Platy, the Platydoras are as you say too small.

The sawtooth like spokes of their sides look very forbidding.



Daragh

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15 Jun 2009 07:31 #11 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
stunning vid, fantastic fish thanks for posting.... love a set up like this maybe someday i'll get there too

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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15 Jun 2009 12:56 #12 by 2poc (2poc)
Replied by 2poc (2poc) on topic Re:BIG fish video
Wow, really wouldnt have thought there was anyone in Ireland with a setup like that... Is it possible to get this person onto the forum?

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15 Jun 2009 14:20 #13 by serratus (Drew Latimer)
I have known this hobbiest for many years, he has a true passion for the hobby!!!! the large cat (i think) is an Zungaro zungaro (Jau or Jelly catfish)from Amazon river, he has had it for many years, got it in a small petshop and was told it wouldnt get much more than a few inches..... they can reach just shy of 5ft!!!!!!

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15 Jun 2009 17:24 #14 by Ian (Anthony Ramirez)
The RTC fiber tank would be great with 2-3 large silver aros to complete the monster fishes....maybe even some Motoro Stingrays and alligator gars.....Wow impressive and lots of ideas for overhead filters!!! This would be a ITFS good field trip if in case this still exist.

Fishkeeping CV: Co-founded, 1st President of the only surviving Fishkeeping Club (Accredited by Dept. of Fisheries) in the Philippines (mypalhs.com). I have mostly reared tropicals - Arowanas and monster fishes. My oldest arowana is 13years old (died in a tropical storm). Ive since reared a Black,...

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16 Jun 2009 00:45 #15 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Oxydoras niger, nice fish. They do seem very peaceful in the vid.

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20 Jun 2009 23:14 - 20 Jun 2009 23:25 #16 by derek (Derek Doyle)
seeing as the forum is so quiet i will add a bit of detail and scale to this video.
the large catfish and gourami are about 3 feet long and even the smaller fish such as balas and clown loach are 5 to 7 inches.
the large cichlids at start are oreochromis tanganicae and these specimens were bred by gerry evans and are more than a foot long.
the tanks are very large, most are 6 by 3 by 2 1/2 feet. the fish that would be most difficult to move are the huge niger cats as they have massive sharp spines along the flanks and are quite heavy. when younger they were moved by enticing them into large plastic bags and then with much water splashing and at personal risk the heavy bag full of fish and water was moved to new home. they are still in the same tank to this day.
the very aggresive striped fish is the legendary tilapia butifekeri, which is probably the most ferocious of all the cichlids with strong jaws used for crushing snails.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
Last edit: 20 Jun 2009 23:25 by derek (Derek Doyle).

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21 Jun 2009 23:26 #17 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Quiet is an understatement, eneryone must be doing the garden or something!

The pond filters over each of the tanks are a great idea and a good deal cheaper and easier to maintain than massive eheims or any externals for that matter. Of course I don't think they would go down well in most sitting rooms, but perfect for a fish house, even better than a sump in some respects.

I can see how crazy the butifekeri is, I assume that you can not keep anything with him in the same tank ??? Have they been bred in captivity? It would be a brabve fishkeeper that introduced a female to that monster.


Daragh

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21 Jun 2009 23:32 #18 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:BIG fish video
That was a most interesting video, they wouldn't be my choice of tank inhabitants - but, as they say 'Each to his own'.

It wouldn't do for everyone to keep the same fish - trips to Fish Shops would be very boring without variety!

It would be nice, though, to see one of those large, deep, tanks stocked with Altums - well, I'd like to see it, anyway.

I did once have a pair of Buttekefori (that might be misspelt) which were in now way anywhere near as aggressive as the one in the video, they were like kittens by comparison...until they had fry, then it was a different story. They absolutely loved shelled, cooked Cockles. And Shrimps - which they would eat - shell and all.
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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21 Jun 2009 23:36 #19 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
I know what you mean about the tank contents, when I see a tank that size I think how many small fish I could fit in there!!

But still it is a great site to see a) big fish you don't see every day b) fish you do see everyday but in conditions where they can grow to their real potential.

How many fish featured in that video are been kept in tanks less than half the size... it would be great to get a video update 7 years on and see what they are like now.

Daragh

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22 Jun 2009 00:26 #20 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:BIG fish video

I know what you mean about the tank contents, when I see a tank that size I think how many small fish I could fit in there!!


My guess would be that the fish total would end up twice the number you first thought of...(if you're anything like me!!!)

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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