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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

Why is it so hard to get nice African Cichlids?

  • 2poc (2poc)
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01 Jan 2008 16:06 - 01 Jan 2008 18:41 #1 by 2poc (2poc)
I visit pretty much all of the sponsors regularly & I find it so hard to find good African cichlids - I just don't understand why...

You'd think that they would be more readily available given that they're popular, hardy, easy to breed & generally go for €15+ each so there's obviously a few quid to be made in them.

Shouldn't every petshop have at least a good selection of adult size Tropheus, Mmbuna, Haps & Peacocks?

Whenever a particular shop gets a good delivery in it sells out lightning fast. All that is left are the 'assorted cichlids' which are usually a mixture of brown/grey and albino fish that just aint pretty enough to sell themselves or fish that are very small but still full price & would just end up as snacks in most African cichlid tanks..

This is not intended as a rant, it just seems that there is an obvious space in the market for a reliable supplier of good African cichlids that is not really being filled & I'm just curious whether there is a reason that shops tend not to maintain a decent selection of African cichlids all of the time?

Cheers,
Patrick
Last edit: 01 Jan 2008 18:41 by 2poc (2poc).

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01 Jan 2008 17:47 #2 by derek (Derek Doyle)
2poc
It is supply and demand, the shops stock more young fish as most customers opt for these because they are cheaper. If not sold quickly they are less likely to fight in the shops stock tanks and take up less space.
Other reasons for the neccessary much higher cost and relative scarcity of larger fish is shipping costs and higher mortality (20 or more small fish can travel in the same size bag as 1 large fish).
Even local breeders with limited tank space try to sell surplus fish before they get too big for the above reasons.
Having said all that, there are usually some large Africans available in one or other of the shops and they will get anything to order. Fintastics in Dun laoire had nice malawis when i was there last and Wackers had rare Petrochrmis and Buchochromis last week.
Hope this is of some help
Derek

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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  • ChrisM (ChrisM)
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01 Jan 2008 18:11 #3 by ChrisM (ChrisM)
Replied by ChrisM (ChrisM) on topic Re:Why is it so hard to get nice African Cichlids?
I have to say I agree with you 100% Patrick.In my honest opinion there just isnt enough interest from the LFS side of things.Whether this is due to the factors Derek correctly mentioned or other reasons it will not change.The risk isnt worth it in the long run for the LFS.

I do think shops will order them if you give a deposit.It is a tricky area and I have had it happen to me where I ordered large fish and they arrived in really bad shape.You still have to pay though.The guys who work in LFS usually being good guys feel bad taking money off you but business is business.This is why I think they dont like to order many big fish.

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01 Jan 2008 18:41 #4 by 2poc (2poc)
Replied by 2poc (2poc) on topic Re:Why is it so hard to get nice African Cichlids?
Cheers for shedding some light guys.

I've not been to fintastic so must pop out to take a look.
I've picked up some nice fish in Whackers in the past but again they are not reliable enough - I've been to both Whackers shops in the past month & saw nothing of interest. I did see some nice Tropheus Dubosi fry for sale but at 20 quid each I don't think so...

Re: ordering fish in - for the reasons Chris mentions I am always wary of this.. Its not even that I would want anything particularly rare but I do like to pick the fish myself as I've not got a quarantine area..

I guess this is one area where we are behind the UK. Maybe this is down to a lack of local breeders which would alleviate the shipping costs & some of the mortality factors...

Cheers,
Patrick.

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01 Jan 2008 18:55 #5 by ChrisM (ChrisM)
Replied by ChrisM (ChrisM) on topic Re:Why is it so hard to get nice African Cichlids?
Precisely Patrick,there is more scope now for local breeders more than ever.I have had loads of people ask why do I go through all the trouble to keep cichlids.For some reason there is a difficulty stigma related to them,especially Africans.

I keep explaining to people that the real struggle is with community fish,most if not all are not suited to Irish tap water (in Hard areas which I think are most prevalent),whereas Malawi Cichlids are.This creates more space for a person to get into their fish even more as it becomes somewhat easier and hence more interesting.This is based on feedback.

You also hit on another point that Malawis sell out so fast which shows how much demand there really is.

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02 Jan 2008 14:19 #6 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re:Why is it so hard to get nice African Cichlids?
For me, Wackers has been the best stockist of African cichlids for the past two years.
I cannot comment any further back then that because thats when I rejoined the hobby after a looong hiatus.
Now I'm a real 'lets go to a petshop' guy. I love going to see whats in and usually leave with something in a bag. Foolishly.
So I've been to most of the shops around the dublin area and I have to say consistently, where Gavin is, Cichlids is.
Aquatic Village is a close second, but for most shops, Africans are an afterthought, where IMO they really should be a bread and butter stock item.
I've only been to Petstop once, and that was not a good day for fish of any kind, delighted to hear things have changed for the better.

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03 Jan 2008 01:57 #7 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
Wackers are generally good, but not much at the moment. Petstop has shown a major improvement and have had fantastic Africans in the last couple of months.

Aquatic Village have also had great Africans recently. I got some great Peacocks and Haps from them recently that are hard to beat. Work out around €12 each with our discount which isn't bad. I'm on the lookout for some Livingstonii.

I think they're getting a new batch of Africans in shortly.

Regards,

Ken.

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