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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

colour of young guppies

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26 Mar 2008 15:27 #1 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
Hi all,
I've two female guppies I've bought in the last few months. they've been busy making babies. about a month ago I woke up to about 50 babies swimming around...so I scooped out about 25 and put them in little mini tank. all still alive and well. But I've been reading a bit about them since and I'm now just wondering are they going to be dull inbreed guppies. One of my females is pretty one is not so pretty. male is not the best either, but he may not be the daddy.
anyway at the moment they are all the same size with no odd looking one. they are mainly silver, some have black dot at start of tail, and some have a yellow hue... from what I've read this maybe as good as it gets...

Is it likely to be the case?

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26 Mar 2008 17:43 - 26 Mar 2008 17:45 #2 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
it is quite possible that the adults in the tank are not actually the parents, half the males in teh shop tank where your guppies came from probably got a look in. Females can have several batches of young from a single one night stand. However if you have a less than pretty female and a male that is not up to much either, the young are unlikely to be much better. The ones with the black dot on the tail, how big are they and are they noticeably males or females yet? Depending on size their colour may still be developing and you may get a nice surprise - but I dount it to be honest.

Wild guppies are very plain, see the photo in the Guppy section of the Wiki. www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...ambowiki/Itemid,100/ (you have to navigate from there to Freshwater fish, then livebearers, then guppies.

If you want to breed pure guppies or at least get a few colourful males to work with you will also need virgin females. The best way to get themis to separate out some fry and keep an eye on them and as soon as you see which ones are developing into males remove them, leaving only virgin females, then introduce you colourful males.

Have fun :-)
Last edit: 26 Mar 2008 17:45 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens).

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26 Mar 2008 18:10 #3 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Orlagh,
What Daragh has said is only to true i would suggest you start to split them now after 4 weeks they become active that way. i would suggest to help them along you feed some Daphina and brime shrimp or fairy shrimp the quality of the food will aid the colour personally i say variety is the spice of life so i fed a mix.

Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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26 Mar 2008 18:17 #4 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
they're a little more than a cm. no sign of male parts yet...as far as I can see. I've got another newer batch that I'm not going to save but gourami's must have got bored with them, cause they're not eating them anymore.
Not particurally interested in guppies..just was told to get one or two to see if the tank was mature enough to get the fish I really wanted...hence why I got the ugly fish...and the tank was mature enough.

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26 Mar 2008 18:55 #5 by nonie (leonie troy)
Hey leave the poor defenceless \"ugly fish\" alone. I have been keeping guppies for a while now and think they are great fish, very colorful and fantastic to watch.

IMO I would not recommend getting one type of fish to see if your tank has matured (in the event of it not being mature - potentially killing them)!!!

Just my pennies worth ooog111!!!

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26 Mar 2008 19:39 #6 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
I am a big fan of Guppys they are world wide probably the most popular fish and stood the test of time its just a pity we all to rarely see the varieties available! and usually in mixed tanks were the suttle differences are lost.

I have never seen swollows here which is easily as beautifull as any betta.

But everyone to their own

I will point out Guppys are know not to colour up when there is a lot of possiable predotors

Plus i would not expect to see true colours till they are about six month.

and one thing a guppy can offer that is unique. is the fact you can develope a colouration that is yours and will rarely if ever be seen out side your tank. and there are not to many things this can be said about!

but everyone to their own!!

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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26 Mar 2008 22:18 #7 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
tank was mature.there had already been happy fish in it for a few weeks ( after doing an empty cycling).. but wanted to get more sensitive fish... guppies were supposidly alittle more sensitive than what was in tank. not a lover of these extremely colourful fish, but that's me. and didn't mean that all guppies are ugly, just that i was given bad specimens who were not blessed with beauty.

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26 Mar 2008 22:22 - 27 Mar 2008 17:50 #8 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
but I bet you can't deny their personality :-)

The little ones, if only a month old will not have their colours yet, so give them a chance and a good diet, like Mickey said and they might surprise you.
Last edit: 27 Mar 2008 17:50 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens).

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26 Mar 2008 23:07 #9 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
interesting to watch at times alright...one minute you think they're alittle silly then they're really clever.I've been feeding them mushed up flake and every couple of days with mushed up blood worms(dried and jelly pack stuff). don't really have access to live or fresh daphina etc..have ordered some frozen multipack stuff for my other fish to see if they like it...if I chop some of it up fine for the wee guys will that be good enough? any other good things to feed that are easy to find?

was gonna try to keep some supplies of daphina in future. was chatting with one person, who made it all sound really simple...but then I looked on the internet and it all got very complicated. any tips on how to start and keep a small supply?don't want to end up with loads of big containers.

will continue on with the baby guppies for now and see how they turn out in another month

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27 Mar 2008 09:09 #10 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Orlagh,
you will get frozen daphina and blood worms here in Dundalk. linen hall street. ( make sure they scan it in) i got daphina last week less than €5. not sure about blood worms. if you use the frozen bloodworms just drop it in the fry will do the rest you will be amazed at how strong they are just watch a fry swim with a bloodworm twice it size!

As for the dried blloworms version well good for treats. not much else.

Daphina well i only defrost when i want to add vits etc. i would add one drop of Echinacea per block once a week i also add Tropic marin immuvit about half the measure per block.

Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 Mar 2008 18:00 #11 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Mickey I am interested in your use of Echinacea, what form is it in and what are the benefits. I just read up on it here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea and it does not seem to do much for people, so I am wondering what it does for fish. Never heard of its use for fish before.

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27 Mar 2008 22:01 #12 by pkearney (Phil Kearney)
I believe guppies can be sexed at a few days old.
The young guppy is placed in a champagne glass & held up to the light where the gravid spot can be seen in the female.
Line breeders use this technique to ensure a virgin female.
pkearney.

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27 Mar 2008 22:31 #13 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Daragh,
it was something i tried for a cold and when i had abacterial problem i was down to nothing left to try so with a kill or cure provado i tried this and i cut death rate afterwards i noticed the inprovement in colour thus now i use once aweek.

i have noticed earlier colouration in recent fry.

having read your post i am not suprised at it.
yet another example of science....

i think it was hanta virus or similar hit in america of course the scienctific comunity dismissed native american advice. it was a guy studying oral history learened that local natives moved in certain years because of a plague of deer mice the same mice that later was found to be the cause.

modern doctors are only one step up the ladder from witch doctors and sometimes they could do with taking a step backwards

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 Mar 2008 23:53 #14 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
Doctors are only practising :-)

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