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
Corydoras inbreeding?
- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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I know there are allot if experienced people breeding Corydoras on this forum so thought I might ask about inbreeding and Corydoras.
I suppose in smaller groups this can be managed as usual but how do you manage this in larger groups?
My group of C. panda are breeding regularly now, the adults consist of:
2 males + 2 females from the same source, most likely farm raised.
1 wild caught male.
The thought of having 30-40 pandas looks very appealing to me but when the young grow up I'm afraid I won't be able to stop them from breeding with parents, siblings etc.
Is it enough to add specimens, preferably wild caught to the group every few generations? Or should I just forget about creating this large group that will be harder to manage?
Melander
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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but you are quite right that cory inbreeding can be a problem and you only have to look at current sterbai specimens from asia to see this. they are badly shaped and patterned and sometimes have fins missing entirely and are a far cry from the beautiful originals from thr wild.
it is always a good idea to introduce new blood to existing broodstock when possible. having said that most fish can hold good form and quality through several generations of even sibling inbreeding before they start producing mutated young.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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You should also look closely at the physical characteristics of the young with a view to culling any that have kinked spines, crooked mouths, abnormalities in general, Fish like this would be quickly eaten in the wild ensuring tip top specimens that will survive.
Kev.
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- JohnH (John)
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The first Pandas I had were much bigger and stronger than the rubbish we are now offered. A couple of years back we were offered some true wilds which were at least 50% bigger than the 'large' adults from the East and were much stronger in colouration as well, the black areas were just that - black, not some washed-out brownish hue.
I still regret to this day not buying a batch of them but they were quite dear and I wouldn't have been able to have afforded the group I wanted.
But I would suggest you let yours progress - if the strain degrades too much you can always let the eggs be eaten, or exchange the less-good youngsters for better specimens (if ever you see any, that is).
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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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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So far all of the fry seems to look strong, it’s however still early days.
I can definitely pick out my one supposedly wc male from the crowd by having a darker hue and by the black spot at the tail end being more extensive. He is however the same size as the others.
Too me the others seem strong too and I would definitely not discard them as being rubbish, so I'll keep them and try to do the best I can with what I have.
Cheers, Melander
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- fergusq (Fergus Q)
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I had a floating breeding tank for my albino cories but they were so small they all sneaked out

dont have a spare tank...any idea what you could use to hold them in and still have some water flow?
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- JohnH (John)
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I ask because I do not think (in fact it has never happened with any fry I have kept in the 'spawning' nets) the mesh is coarse enough for the fry to escape from...however, I have had it where adult fish - Angels and other Cichlids in particular - have managed to literally 'suck' the fry through the mesh.
I have recently bought these:
cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&it...geName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
(I don't generally approve of posting non-sponsor links, but these are not available here just yet).
They look to be 'just the job'.
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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- DJK (David Kinsella)
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I use a Marina brand net 6X3" for corys which works well without any escapees and position it in the tank where there is reasonable flow.
Have you checked for any holes in the nets you have used to date?
Also the fry could have died after a few days and resembled just a speck of dirt and you may of not known any different.
Dave
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- Melander (Andreas Melander)
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I use a spawning net of this type:
www.fishandfins.co.uk/images/sera-net-const_small.jpg
None of the fry that hatched in the net have escaped so far. At first I had a separate air stone in the net but lately I have found that placing the net in front of the flow from the main pump being sufficient.
I'm not sure about the size of albino fry, Pandas seem to lay quite few and large eggs, perhaps their fry are larger when hatching?
Melander
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