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
Sick cockatoo cichlid
- Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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But yesterday my cockatoo cichlid started hanging around the bottom more than usual and since then has taken on the dark stressed colouration. He's staying in the back in the foliage on the ground, and seems to be having trouble with his swimbladder as when he does come up to feed he seems to be working harder to stay up. Is this an effect of the temp drop? Could it go away without treatment if it was caused by stress or does he need medicine?
Unfortunately I can't use my quarantine tank to medicate him as I am using the spare heater in the main tank, so any suggestions of something I can put in the main tank which won't harm the other fish but could be beneficial to him? I put in a small dosage of melafix in case it was bacterial, the only other meds I have that could be helpful is an oldish bottle of aquarium solutions swimbladder medicine but since its old i'm hesitant to use it. The lfs only sells aquarium solutions meds so if it is an ok medicine I could go out and get a new bottle.
Cheers for any advice, Penny
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- JohnH (John)
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If it is swimbladder trouble it could be a case of the fish remaining like it for the rest of its life.
I have had a very limited success in correcting this by a seven or eight degree raise in temperature for 48 hours but I have to stress this was only 'limited' success - you could try it, but in doing so you might put your other fish at risk from the increased temperature too. It's a pity you don't have your spare heater to use in the Hospital/Quarantine tank, I'm wondering if anyone local to you might have a spare they could loan you for a few days?
John
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N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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I am off to the other side of the country tonight for college so unfortunately even if someone could lend me a heater it would still be friday before I'm home and able to set up a q tank. Thankfully there's only a couple of more weeks left of zipping to and from counties.
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- Turner85 (David Turner)
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- JohnH (John)
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Hi John, do you think he'd be ok untreated until the weekend? I can get a new heater on friday, (will need a new back-up heater anyways) im broke until then but if he'd be ok until then I can have the q tank ready and try raising the temp for 48hrs.
I am off to the other side of the country tonight for college so unfortunately even if someone could lend me a heater it would still be friday before I'm home and able to set up a q tank. Thankfully there's only a couple of more weeks left of zipping to and from counties.
Penny,
I fear I may be giving you 'false hope' because, as I said, this was only limited success.
Thinking about it I only kept around 3" water depth - this was the recommendation back then - and I always moved 'Swim-Bladder patients' as soon as I saw them.
If you cannot be 'on hand' today then by all means try it upon your return - just don't hold out too much hope is what I'm saying.
Turner,
I hope Penny or somebody can take your fish too, Hole in Head is mainly caused from either not-perfect water conditions or extreme stress (or both), although I haven't ever witnessed it on Apistos (not to say, of course, it doesn't happen) although I once had some wild Ap. Njsenni which developed what I assumed was an associated malady where portions of flesh down the sides of the fish just started wasting away...not even Antibiotics helped that and sadly the whole batch had to be destroyed in order to put them out of their misery.
Best of luck to both of you.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- Turner85 (David Turner)
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- Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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Turner, sorry, I don't live close to Dublin but best of luck with your guy. I think I recall reading that vitamins can sometimes help with hole in the head but i'm not sure, i've never dealt with it myself.
If there is a medicine for hole in the head maybe you could give him 'baths' in small doses of meds? Was mulling over trying to do the same with my one but my sister insisted she'd never be able to catch him behind all the plants. I don't think she likes getting her arms wet!

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- JohnH (John)
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I don't like to tell you this, but at two years of age most Apistos are reaching their limit of life - I hate it when Apistos reach this stage as almost overnight they start to go into decline and age very rapidly.
I hadn't realised your Cac was this old...perhaps you should be prepared for the worst.
(Trying to be diplomatic here).
and -
Turner,
Your fish might be able to get over its malady if you've sorted out the water issue - as long as it's feeding OK and isn't getting stressed things might repair themselves.
John
Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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- JohnH (John)
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I'm sorry for your loss - it's even worse when you have to administer the coup de grace yourself.
But in all fairness from your description you actually did him a kindness - even though it doesn't seem that way right now.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
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Follow me up to Carlow
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- Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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