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
Video. Tank 1
- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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I added some music but couldn't figure out how to remove the audio from the video so there are clunks and clicks along the way.
This tank has a bit of everything.
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Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
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- scubadim (scubadim)
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seriously,very nice collection.how old is that M.festivum???haven't seen one like that in a long time!
Thanks for this.
Dimitri
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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scubadim wrote:
I'm surprised you are not looking for the Empire Gudgeon's as well.Hey Darren,I'll have all your sturisomas,the two lovely plecs,all your peacock gobies and Epyplatys thank you very much:laugh:
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seriously,very nice collection.how old is that M.festivum???haven't seen one like that in a long time!
Thanks for this.
Dimitri
The Festivum was born early October 2006. It got it (with 3 others) of a guy called Paul Allan (uk). They were 3 weeks old when i got them and this is the only one that made it.
She is great at changing colour as you will see below.
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Daragh
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- Tom (Tom Brecknell)
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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- JohnH (John)
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Almost appropriate you should have chosen 'Oxygen(e)' as the background music.
If ever I get around to sorting out how to take videos I could join this 'new style' of posting...you've a lot to answer for, Daragh Owens!!!
John
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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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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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I can't type that fast and I am a poxy speler, that's my excuse

I would much rather watch peoples videos than read their "for sale" posts, but nothing beats a good post of someones personal fishkeeping experiences. I can go to goggle anyday.
Daragh
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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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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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Very good, especially the Gobies - you must hurry up and breed those, I've been after some of those for years and years.John
Ever since i got my first fish keeping book and saw a picture of one in breeding condition i wanted some. But like you John i never came across them untill recently.
While at the show in Hayling we went on a few shop tours and by pure luck the first shop we went to had about 30 in a tank. They looked nothing like the photo's I've seen. All silvery/grey to clear. Even the fins were clear. They could even drop or show there eye spot.
After checking with one of the staff they were indeed Empire Gudgeons. The tricky part was trying to pick out a pair from these young fish. I would normally go for a couple of pairs but they were pricey.
There were no tell tail signs like head shape, dorsal rays, colour, or fin shape to tell the boys from the girls. So after gathering a few staff and myself we figured there were only 2 males and the rest were females.
So i paid for a pair and they were to be collected a couple of days later.
When i got them home and settled i fed them well and soon after they started to show some breeding colouration. One would go 2/3 red and the other 1/3 red and start bickering. This to me looks like i have 2 young males. What are the chances out of about 30 fish.

I am still hoping they are a pair. If they are i will keep them in brackish water to breed. This will give me a better choice of food for any fry. I beleave the fry are hard to raise. That is probably why you dont see them in the shops and when they do turn up they are expensive.
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- Acara (Dave Walters)
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A few of the Maidenhead stores have the empire gudgeons in at the moment,so you may get lucky when the one opens here.
always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!
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