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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

Live Food

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10 Jun 2011 15:53 #1 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
Having real problems raising brine shrimp to adulthood. I know 8 year old school kids can do it, but every batch I try have failed and can't find a whole lot of useful info on the net.

I'm trying to grow them in 6L of hard water made up with 35g of sea salt/litre (much of it food salt, but the 100% sea salt type) and a pinch of Bicarb of Soda. I have an open air line going in, with no air stone. A heater set to 27C and a thin layer of fresh coral sand to raise the kH and GH (and ultimately pH).

The shrimp are added to the tank and fed after twelve hours and then every twelve hours after that. I know they lived for a few days, but took a beaker of the water out yesterday and no sign of life again.

Any tips (other than just buy them!) much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

L

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10 Jun 2011 17:23 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Assuming that the food you have is the right stuff.........how about getting some ammonia removal resin (zeolite).

It could be an increase in ammonia.

Are you using mature seawater? if not, then that could be the problem.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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10 Jun 2011 18:00 #3 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
No, it's freshly made water- I don't have any marine tanks, so don't have access to mature water. I just added a sponge filter, as I read you can have that to both filter and aerate water. Presume that will take as long to mature in saltwater as it will in fresh? I'm guessing I can't use filter squeezings from fresh in salt?

The food is just JBLs Artemio food, made for brine shrimp.

L

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10 Jun 2011 18:13 #4 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
It is worth trying to get some ammonia absorbing chips then. Yep....it will take some time get the old bacteria working.

Once you have the system set-up, then eventually the same water could be re-used and that will eventually get a bacteria growth.

I don't know off hand what the limits of ammonia concentration are for brine shrimp.....they are not normally something that envisage keeping alive for years :) But it is likely to be very much lower than many fish....and even a test kit may not be sensitive enough.

Of course, they are also vulnerable to chlorine/chloramine.

I haven't really bother trying to raise brine shrimp to a large size for years....but when I did, I always found they did much better in well aged water.
And even now, I don't really bother doing too much with even hatching them as I get free tops-up from an LFS of the fresh-hatch. How things have changed....but it is still nice to do your own as well.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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10 Jun 2011 22:47 #5 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
I get free top-ups from an LFS too, but just want some live food source for them as a treat, and obviously newly hatched shrimp are not really sufficient for the bigger species. I bought Hellweg's excellent book (on Colin's advice), so wanted to start easy (or so I thought!).

I'll leave the sponge filter in the tank and wait until it's good to go again. In the meantime, anyone have an idea where I would get starter cultures for any other type of easy-to-grow, largish live foods?

L

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10 Jun 2011 22:56 #6 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
It is much more exciting to grow your own food.

What type of largish fish do you mean? I have cultures for things like arowanas. Do you mean that type of large? For that size I culture cockroaches (and the tarantulas and lizards also like a treat of them as well).

Young cockcroaches are not that enormous though.

What about earthworm cultures? or even woodlice cultures?

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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11 Jun 2011 10:28 #7 by DJK (David Kinsella)
Replied by DJK (David Kinsella) on topic Re: Live Food
Lorcan, here's a thread I opened some while ago. Since that post my angelfish have really taken to them along with rams. If you want a starter culture or a few 'testers' just give me a shout.

Dave


www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/fforu...brandlingtiger-worms

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12 Jun 2011 00:19 #8 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)

What type of largish fish do you mean?


Didn't mean to say large fish, my bad. They're discus and dwarf cichlids. Meant to say fish too large to see new brine shrimp as a meal. Was thinking about earthworms, but is it just as simple as getting them from the garden and letting them at it?! What medium would be used instead of soil (which I presume would lose its nutritional value pretty quickly)?

Think I will call up for that starter culture from you Dave, thanks. Would like a ready supply of something live to give them as treats.

I'll probably get up Monday, so will give you a buzz. Thanks again

L

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