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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

Sick cockatoo cichlid

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12 Apr 2010 13:42 #1 by Penny (Aedh Byrne)
Hey, my heater stopped working for some reason 2 days ago, and when I realised it, the tank temperature was down to 72F. I quickly put in the spare heater and everyone seemed grand.
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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12 Apr 2010 13:55 - 12 Apr 2010 13:56 #2 by JohnH (John)
Penny,
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

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.
Last edit: 12 Apr 2010 13:56 by JohnH (John). Reason: modification

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12 Apr 2010 14:31 #3 by Penny (Aedh Byrne)
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.

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12 Apr 2010 14:37 - 12 Apr 2010 14:38 #4 by Turner85 (David Turner)
Sorry to hijack ur thread. I also have a sick cockatoo cichlid, he has hole in the head. Dont really wanna put any meds in my tank because other fish are healthy. If u get ur quarantine tank up and running and are close by and felt like u could treat my one to, you'd be more than welcome to take him and keep him. He is still swimming and eating as normal.Im in loughlinstown,Co Dublin
Last edit: 12 Apr 2010 14:38 by Turner85 (David Turner).

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12 Apr 2010 14:52 #5 by JohnH (John)
Penny wrote:

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.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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12 Apr 2010 15:27 #6 by Turner85 (David Turner)
Yea john i think you are right about it being from bad water,Nitrates where high in my water because i had my sump set up wrong but ive fixed the problem and the nitrates are a lot lower now. Quarantine tank is something i must look into next.If i had one i would treat this fish myself, i was just hoping with the cleaner water and that he is still eating away and swimming as normal that maybe he would heal naturally. It hasnt got any worse anyway.

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13 Apr 2010 22:26 #7 by Penny (Aedh Byrne)
Hi John, well he was still looking pretty miserable when I left, my sister texted to say he didn't come up for food this morning so she dropped a few cichlid granules in front of him and he ate them up then. She also said he was gulping a fair bit, but i'm not sure what that indicates? I'm keeping my fingers crossed he won't have worsened by the weekend, i've had him a couple of years and am very fond of him.

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! :unsure:

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14 Apr 2010 00:30 #8 by JohnH (John)
Penny,
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:
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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24 Apr 2010 00:33 #9 by Penny (Aedh Byrne)
Hi john, I just thought i'd update. I tried raising the temp to about 84f for a couple of days but there was no improvement, and he looked dark and miserable in the q tank so I figured if he wasn't going to get better he could at least feel comfortable for the last few days resting in the main tank. He looked brighter and lost the dark patchiness but was still down on the bottom. Last night I found him lying on his side in the open and his scales had started to raise slightly. I've read that once scales start raising it means fluid is building up and it isn't pleasant at all for the fish, so I decided to euthanise him with clove oil so he wouldn't suffer. i'm absolutely gutted, tank feels empty without him. Feel silly for saying it but i'll really miss him. RIP Sparta.

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24 Apr 2010 01:35 #10 by JohnH (John)
Thanks, Penny, for the update.
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.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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24 Apr 2010 07:36 #11 by mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
Sorry for yer loss, dont feel silly for sayin you miss yer fish because like us all here we put a lot of time an effort in lookin after our fish and when we lose them its like losin a bit of ourselves.

Follow me up to Carlow

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27 Apr 2010 16:22 #12 by Penny (Aedh Byrne)
Thanks guys, yeah I think it was for the best, he was on the way out and I was pretty sure that once I turned the lights off for the night the other fish would start nibbling at him since he was so vulnerable. At least clove oil is very quick and hopefully painless.

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