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
First betta spawn
- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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The male was frantically guarding the bubble nest and the female was hiding in a cave so I took the female out and glanced into the bubble nest and low and behold they spawned I expect the eggs to hatch tomorrow or the next day.

Problem is I have no bbs or micro worms and on the late shift so don't know what to do
I need to get something tomorrow morning before they become free swimming.
Any other suggestions oh how I could feed the fry.
Regards Craig
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Crush pellet/flake will do the job if you have no BBS......I crush up pellets using a small glass pepper mill you can get in Aldi.
Ger
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A Wonkey....duh ha

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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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Craig
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- Eric (Eric Corcoran)
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If using egg yolk be careful as it fouls the water quickly.
A squeeze from a sponge from one of your filters will keep them going for another day or so at least.
Seahorse sell live bbs. A fiver for a small bottle and then all refills are free
Excellent news by the way. Best of luck with them
Eric
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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The f1 pair I got off Eric through Alan spawned on Saturday morning so I expect the fry to be free swimming tomorrow.
I can see about 25-30 dragon scale fry can't be sure tho to small and to fast so that's a very rough count.
And thanks to all who gave me advice on keeping and breeding bettas delighted with my first 2 spawns.
Regards
Craig
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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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- Eric (Eric Corcoran)
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Just be careful and not to over feed on the micro worms. You don't want fish with no ventral fins.
Keep us updated
Eric
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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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The baby fish will also eat it.
If the tank is mature enough then you may have enough micro-food in it for a while anyway.
When big enough to take fresh-hatch brine shrimp.........feed them. (and it may be a good idea to start hatching your own).
I would use chunks of aquarium peat in my breeding tanks and seeded a good few weeks ahead of breeding to get loads of good micro-food going.
ian
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- Eric (Eric Corcoran)
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Craig how are yours doing ???
Eric
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