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
Howdy
- maastiff (Ronan)
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I have a 60 litre tank for about a year now with the following in it,
1 x Pleco
1 x Bronze Cory
2 x leopard cory
1 x clown loach
4 x neon tetras
5 x serpae tetras
5 x silvertip tetras
2 x harlequin rasboras
looking to upgrade to a larger tank now
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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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welcome to the forum
Sounds like a good mixture of fish
good idea to upgrade to a bigger tank any excuse to get a new tank is a good excuse

Craig
at the end of the day it becomes nite
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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when you get ure bigger tank get another few clown loaches
they do great in a group of 5 or more
best of luck with ure new venture
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- mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
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- mech1 (pat bell)
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Welcome to the forum, I'm new enough here too even though i've been a silent member for years.
Put up a pic of your tank if you can.
Mech1.
Knocklyon 2 min from J12 M50
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- m4r10 (m4r10)
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Depending on the size of the new tank, I would think twice about adding more clown loaches as the adults can reach over a foot, and as mossy said, they do better in groups, so imagine 5 one foot clown loaches being cramped in a 3 foot tank!
Other than that, a few pics are always welcome.
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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Welcome to the forum.
Depending on the size of the new tank, I would think twice about adding more clown loaches as the adults can reach over a foot, and as mossy said, they do better in groups, so imagine 5 one foot clown loaches being cramped in a 3 foot tank!
Other than that, a few pics are always welcome.
when they get to a foot long i will take them of ure hands


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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- m4r10 (m4r10)
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when they get to a foot long i will take them of ure hands
![]()
Check out the info and pics on this link

www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loac...mobotia-macracanthus
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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never seen a 12"-16" in the flesh
when they get to a foot long i will take them of ure hands
![]()
Check out the info and pics on this link
www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loac...mobotia-macracanthus
they very seldom get to that big size
i have 36 clown loaches
i have a 10ft and 12ft tank with loaches from 1.5 to 7"
they take years to get to 7"
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- tsheehan (Tony Sheehan)
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- BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
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sean
Sean Crowe
ITFS Member
Location: Navan
Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving
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- keitho (keith o reilly)
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- maastiff (Ronan)
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photos added
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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cheers for the welcomes everyone. I'll get some photos uploaded soon. Is there a special photo section? They didn't tell me how big the clown loaches could get when they sold them to me but he is growing slowly enough so im not too worried about him yet. It's the pleco thats getting out of hand. I got him about a year ago when he was just 2 inches long, he's now over 6 inches and so needs a bit more room. I intend on keeping the new tank as as a community tank with relatively small fish. I'm not sure if I will keep the smaller tank on the go or just transfer all the fish to the new setup yet. my current tank seems to be well balanced now, I havent lost any fish in the last 9 months and they all seem to be really healthy and active. I didn't even lose any when I moved house 6 months ago so all is good for now.
photos added
jaysus he's a bruiser alright and he's defo too big for that tank mate........and apart from that,it looks like the tank is very open and not many hiding places for him(well none he could fit in lol) so i think the sooner the new bigger tank is up and running the better!! oh and nice pics
Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- maastiff (Ronan)
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Well the new tank is on hold for the moment, so I gave my pleco to a friend who has a 350lt setup and hes happy in his new home. Hes only gone a couple of days but its funny to see how the dynamics have changed in my tank. Now my 3 inch clown loach is the big dog and he's letting everyone know it, he used to only come out in the mornings for a feed and then hide in his rock all day but now he is much more active. So are the rest of the fish. I've put back in a couple of plastic plants that I had removed to make more room previously and they are loving them. Off to get a few more small fish now! thinking some zebra dainios, a couple more harlequins and maybe a siamese fighting fish... decisions decisions..... will definitely be going for a bigger setup in the future though!
Hope your all keeping well
P.S. Sorry to hear about your loaches mossy, thats devastating, very unfortunate
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
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Lorcan
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- maastiff (Ronan)
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I just bought a second hand Jewel 240 at the weekend and have been setting it up during the week. Have the water in now and some additives to speed up the cycling process.
I'm really looking forward to getting back into it as I have been without fish for 2 years and am like a child on Christmas eve since I got the tank!!
I'm going to keep the setup simple enough for the moment with just a few rocks and some plastic plants, maybe a nice piece of bogwood.
It will be a community setup with lots of smaller fish/ So far ive decided to get
Neon Tetras
Serpae Tetras
Harlequin Rasboras
Corydoras
Ottos
also considering hatchet fish/zebra danios for the top and maybe some Blue Rams
Any thoughts on compatability issue or conditions appreciated!
looking forward to scrolling through the forum.
Ill put up some photos when I have fish in it
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- Aroshni (Lydia Olivera)
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Have you consider celestial pearl danios instead of zebras? I think they are a pretty fish.
Lydia
Lowtech Shrimps nano 30l
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...-lowtech-nano-shrimp
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www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...-lowtech-vision-180l
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- nelsondls (david)
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- Esoxluciouss (denis goulding)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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