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
"improving the nature"
Apart from the fact of the money it cost and the harm it causes to the fish why would anyone want to try and improve on the beauty of nature with all of the naturally occuring specimens available.
Just my humble 2 cents worth
Please Log in to join the conversation.
Mick...
Follow me up to Carlow
Please Log in to join the conversation.
However i would think that allot of people buying fish with these type of mutations and abnormalities probably are new to fishkeeping and don't know what they are buying. I remember being a kid and buying fancy guppies without any idea that they were far from the natural form and linebreed for their fins/colour, was I an idiot too? I could see the same happening with allot of the fish on the list with far worse conditions than any guppy.
Anyone buying an animal should obviously do research on them first but I would argue that someone asking the pet store how to best tender for a specific species needs has done more than most, after all are not the pet store's supposed to be the experts?. Who would as a first time buyer ever dream of that the fish has been handled and injected with ink?
I would also guess that allot of people don't even see fish as having a "pet animal status" compared to dogs/cats etc. and look at them more like decorations, object that can be discarded at will. Maybe a change is needed in how fish are looked upon in general?
Another subject is how far is too much. Are we condemning all non natural forms like albino/colour forms, fancy guppies/bettas, dogs, cattle etc. or is the point drawn when an animal is in pain or when it is hindered by the abnormality(which most of them probably are)?
I hade a woman, (in her 40's with a third lvl degree) visiting the office here awhile back, she had a look at the fish tank and asked what type of mamals they were. I don't know what that has to do with this topic but atleast it shows how little some people know sbout these animals. I don't think she would have had a look at the dog and asked what type of reptile it was.
Sorry for the rambeling I just think it's a very interesting subject worth discussing.
Melander
Please Log in to join the conversation.