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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

New Tank

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20 Oct 2011 10:43 #1 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
I couldn't resist, the tank I have at the moment is have and all but its just too small. So last night I picked up a 140L tank :laugh:

When I'm setting up this tank ill have lots of plants in it, and maybe few ornaments or wood.

I would like to keep ciclids in the tank but im a little worried about keeping them as im such a newbie, would you recommend that I populate the tank with livebarers or will I be ok just putting the cichlids in the tank??

Joe

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20 Oct 2011 10:59 #2 by minnion (jimmy white)
Replied by minnion (jimmy white) on topic Re: New Tank
you should be fine chiclids such as yellow labs and blue dolphins are good hardy starter but will dig up plants plenty of rocks and fine sand would be good
best of look :S :cool:

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20 Oct 2011 12:41 #3 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
what sort of cichlids are you thinking of keeping?

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20 Oct 2011 20:29 #4 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
I'd like some convict ciclids, but I'm two minds between weather I should just fill it with live bearers or not as they seem easier to keep. Here's a pic of the tank.



How much sand/stone will it take to fill the base of the tank?? Tank is 3ft x 1ft 3"

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20 Oct 2011 21:28 #5 by dyco619 (steve carmody)
you could get a pair of convicts or fire mouths or blue acaras and breed them, maybe add a nice pleco and catfish,

any of them fish would work and will be way easier to keep than live bearers,

as for sand you can get a 10kg bag of silver sand in home base for about 5euro. will work just fine
a few plants some bog wood and a few rocks and you will have a nice set up.

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11 Nov 2011 17:59 #6 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Looking for a bit of info as to what else I should add to the tank.

At the moment the tank has the following:

3 Columbian shark catfish
2 convict cichlids
2 yellow labs
1 peacock cichlids
8 malawi cichlids

Should I add in a pleco or anything to clean the bottom of the tank?

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12 Nov 2011 01:38 #7 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
the columbian shark catfish are essentially a brackish water fish and may not fair well in a truely freshwater setup when mature, also they can grow to 24" long even though 12" is more common, which makes 1 of them way too big for your tank not to mind 3, as for the convicts they will do best in a ph of 7 although they do tolerate a wide range as for your peacock, yellow labs and other malawis a ph of 7.5-8.5 is best for them, personally speaking i think you need to definately get rid of the sharks, and if your ph is high keep the labs, peacocks and other malawis, or if it is low keep the convicts and lose the malawis... also if you are thinking of plecos go for the smaller species rather than the common pleco which can also reach 24" long, way to big for your current setup but again check your ph most small plecos do better in neutral to slightly acidic water not the alkaline water of malawis and rift fish, if it is high ph maybe some syno multifasciatus or syno petricolor would be a better choice
... just my opinion as its your tank

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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13 Nov 2011 12:59 #8 by discobizkit38 (Alan)
Replied by discobizkit38 (Alan) on topic Re: New Tank
Im relatively new to keeping cichlids but would agree with the user Minnion.
I have two blue dolphins and 1 yellow lab (amongst other fish) and they r lovely fish.
I just bought a frontosa yesterday,well pleased with him.
My tank is the same size as yours which is grand for the mo but the dolphins and frontosa
will grow big so I have plans to upgrade in a year or so.
You will benefit from regular water changes and a good diet for them.
Im no expert but hope this helps

Alan

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15 Nov 2011 17:47 #9 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Here's a video of the tank



I done a water test and the ph levels are 7.5. If the fish get too big for the tank ill be sending them to my girlfriends brothers tank, which is 3ft x 3ft x 3ft so it should be big enough ;) Cheers for the advice tho :)

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15 Nov 2011 17:56 #10 by Arcadian (Stephen)
Replied by Arcadian (Stephen) on topic Re: New Tank
What pumps are you using, you seem to have quite a flow going?

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15 Nov 2011 18:01 #11 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)

What pumps are you using, you seem to have quite a flow going?


Iv no idea??? Im not sure i can slow down the flow rate of the pump. Im moving the tank at the weekend so ill try and sort something with the pump then.

Also does anyone know should the clear pipe sticking out of the pump be inside or outside the pump?

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