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
pleco BN with ich?
- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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I'm in unknown territory here,
I purchased 8 l144s last week 4 in one shop and 4 in another
Had a tank ready crawling with algae right beside a window
About two days ago I had lost to over night from the same batch
I could tell because that set of plecos were slightly smaller and a lighter
Shade compared to the other set!
Anyway didn't think anything of it as I put it down to the stress of the move.
So today I was looking in and one of the smaller plecos was on a piece of bogwood
And I could see he was peppered with crusty white spot and I only noticed
On the fins first and at a closer look it looked like a bad dose
So my question is this is there a med I can use to treat the tank?
The other four are fine and I cant see the sixth but if it's ich I may need ti
Treat the tank!
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Dangle a bit of cucumber in there and that sixth dude wont be long in coming out.
Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Sounds good,
Would that be a full or half dose of the esha?
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- Gonefishy (Brian oneill)
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- JohnH (John)
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Alright lads,
I'm in unknown territory here,
I purchased 8 l144s last week 4 in one shop and 4 in another
Had a tank ready crawling with algae right beside a window
About two days ago I had lost to over night from the same batch
I could tell because that set of plecos were slightly smaller and a lighter
Shade compared to the other set!
Anyway didn't think anything of it as I put it down to the stress of the move.
So today I was looking in and one of the smaller plecos was on a piece of bogwood
And I could see he was peppered with crusty white spot and I only noticed
On the fins first and at a closer look it looked like a bad dose
So my question is this is there a med I can use to treat the tank?
The other four are fine and I cant see the sixth but if it's ich I may need ti
Treat the tank!
Just an afterthought here - is it definitely whitespot? When you mention it being 'crusty' gives me a picture in my mind of - just perhaps - velvet disease.
The problem with that is, as with whitespot, if it gets so advanced as to reach the gills then it can prove fatal.
Protozin, as mentioned, will be a remedy for this (I've never felt the need to try any other medications such as eSha but am told that it's good too) and - if it turns out to be velvet then the Protozin will work better if the tank can be made dark (not just turning the lights off, I remember a scenario some years back where a member here had an outbreak in a tank with quite valuable Ancistrus and he had the whole tank 'blacked-out'. I'll try to find the posts and add a link here.
As usual, if at all possible a picture would help.
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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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Turns out I had a bottle of Esha exit there,
So I treated the tank this morning,
As far as I know Esha treats velvet also,
So my fingers are crossed on both hands!
Unfortunately I made a critical mistake of taking coconut shell
With anubias on that had loads of algae from my apistos tank put it in with the plecos
When they done the bis on it I returned back to the apistos.
School boy error I know,
So I had to treat the apistos also!
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Just want to clarify that no blame is on any shop for selling dodgey
Stock,
As I understand ich is a pathogen and can be present in aquariums
With no ill effect?
And it's the stress of the move that can bring on effects?
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- paulv (paul vickers)
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Good to know,
I'm using Esha exit at the min
I'm not sure if Esha 2000 is the same
I shall google it now and have a look.
Il keep a good eye on everything when I get home.
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
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When you mention it being 'crusty'
John
Blamed again ...........
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Up to your old tricks again!
When you mention it being 'crusty'
John
Blamed again ...........

Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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All stock doing well so far,
active,eating well after a full dose this morning.
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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So it would be unfair not to mention failures just as quick!
Lost another 3 today,
There's one there that seems to be unaffected and remaining
2 seem to have a bad dose,
Peppered all over with white flakey spots
Back and bellies plus fins.
Have to say I'm gutted now,hate losing fish.
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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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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I hate to loose fish, nightmare, it's a pity the treatment didn't work out for You...
Des
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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I have two left from the 8 now and they
Seem to be doing well so I hope they survive!
Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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