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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

Which Discus?

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22 Aug 2012 11:44 #1 by doreilly (Donal O Reilly)
Hi,

I'm starting up a 180litre tank in the coming weeks.

I'm 5+ years in fishkeeping and always thought I'd like some Discus one day.

I've seen some Wilds and know I'm not ready to go down that route and then when you look back at Domestic Discus it's hard to find some as nice :-((

Anyway I was just wondering how many Discus could I keep in a 180 (running Eheim external filter) and which strains would be best for beginners? I guess strains which would tolerate harder water conditions would suit me best.

Cheers

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22 Aug 2012 16:09 #2 by Xaribdis (Lorcan O' Brien)
Any discus would be inappropriate in a tank that size for very long. You really need to keep 6-7 in a group and beyond grow-out that tank just ain't big enough for wilds or domestics. I only recently upgraded my discus tank from a Vision 180L to a 450 litre tank and there is still some aggressive behaviour. Also, they are quite messy fish, so you would need very good filtration on a small tank like that.

However, on the plus side, it is a grand size to grow out juveniles, but you would need to commit to upgrading your tank before too long. As for strains, it doesn't really matter. If going domestic, try get fish from a good quality breeder, like Stendker. There are usually some nice ones in Seahorse. They will often get in juveniles, so if you talk to John he might be able to sort you out. John also breeds some himself. Not sure if he has any right now though.

Hope this helps.

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22 Aug 2012 17:27 #3 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
I'd recommend going for some captive bred discus to start.......but don't nail you feet to the ground with a lot of rubbishy disease-prone runts that you often see in captive bred fish (that may sound harsh....but it is true).

I would also recommend that you start off in Discus with the potential to get some wild caught in the future: hence why my saying don't just get stuck with 'any-old' first purchase.

One of the keys to successful discus keeping is getting good fish in the first place......they do not need to be the worlds best specimens nor the most expensive but simply good fish.

Be selective and be picky. If the fish looks 'off' in a shop then I would give caution about hoping it would pep itself up (especially if these are your first discus).

As for size, do not buy too too small or too big as first discus.

In my opinion, water changes and water changes and good feeding regimens are much more important than dimensionlised tank sizes. I rarely say what the minimum size tank is for discus because it will be soon obvious if the tank is not suitable.

In my experience, the best discus are not necessarily ones that are kept in monster tanks but are ones kept with regular water changes and good feeding regimens (and if that happens to be in a monster tank then even merrier :))

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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23 Aug 2012 08:50 #4 by doreilly (Donal O Reilly)
Hi Ian,

Thanks a lot for the helpful response :)

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23 Aug 2012 17:41 #5 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
Replied by BlueRam (Sean Crowe) on topic Which Discus?
I think Ian said it all in one there mate

But has many on the site i see would have 100L for each discus if you wanted to get them full growth

But as Ian said it would be more down to very good filtration water changes and a very good diet

Sean

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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