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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

RAMS

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19 Aug 2010 15:57 #1 by daveyw (david whitham)
RAMS was created by daveyw (david whitham)
Can people give me there experiences with rams .
Info such as what is best to feed them to entice spawning , what plants is best to use for them
how many hiding places ,
Have you ever breed any to adulthood temps water ect.

I want to get a full spectrum of peoples experiences and what worked well for you but may not have worked well for others

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19 Aug 2010 16:33 - 19 Aug 2010 16:41 #2 by Gavin (Gavin)
Replied by Gavin (Gavin) on topic Re:RAMS
I bred rams with some effect about ten years ago, firstly you have to obtain a good pair.(duh right?)make sure they have paired off.plants are really a must they seem to spawn much more readily, i used smashed up clay pots but some time they would spawn on a leaf. Subduded lighting helps too..blaring lights just don't get em in the mood.floating plants help with this, and tannins. as they are a soft water fish mine went off at about 5.2 ph temp between 29/30.My tip is when have a deffo pair, remove the female and condition the hell out of her with live/frozen food.when she goes pink in the belly are and looks a bit on the fat side she should be ready to be reintroduced to the male,this always worked well, keeping the pair together didn't for some reason..I'm guessing absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.I put em together and leave the food out for a couple of days..this seems to focus their attention.When you get the eggs remove the clay pot/ leaf to a raisng tank.Should hatch in 2 3 days.Hope this helps a bit. I know a few people who have even bred em in hard water.Hope this helps you.
In addition I might add that the quality of rams is just not what it was..they are terribly line bred and i have reports from some breeders that there is a significant cull with the fry.
plants wise echinodorus sp. are good, some of the dwarf species,anubias for laying on.

dont make me come over there.
Last edit: 19 Aug 2010 16:41 by Gavin (Gavin).

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20 Aug 2010 08:30 #3 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Thank gavin , I will go looking for those species of plants this weekend.
My female is pink bellied at the moment.

I can not tell if they have definatley paired off though.

When the female first went in she was fighting with the male and chasing him around ( she is defo the more dominante of the pair) That stoped for a while and they were then side by side some times they are together and sometimes doing there own thing .But ever now and then the female will be aggresive towards the male and chase and nip at him.

I have introduced some flat smooth stones . But I will keep my eye out for the clay pots ( its nearly a plastic now). The male and female I purchased were from 2 different shop and look very different


Finally did you use almond leaves or capputa leaves ?

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20 Aug 2010 13:58 #4 by Gavin (Gavin)
Replied by Gavin (Gavin) on topic Re:RAMS
cappata leaves are great for tanning water (which again they love),just be carefull how you use them.You don't want a sudden change in ph. etc. etc.

dont make me come over there.

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25 Aug 2010 08:31 #5 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Joy ,

I came home last night and my female was putting the finishing touches to a pit she had dug in the corner of the tank.An then the pair continued to clean and dig another pit about 15cm away .
The 2 of them are gaurding the second pit now but they still seem to be cleaning .
So they seem to be paired not to bothed if this spawning is not sucessful as its there first bash at it . I have read it can take a couple of attempts to perfect their peranting skills.

Can't wait to go home and see if there are any eggs

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25 Aug 2010 08:37 #6 by mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
Replied by mickdeja (Mick Whelan) on topic Re:RAMS
you will be pacing up and down all day in work now, expectant daddy and all that..thats great news man, keep us posted now......:)

Follow me up to Carlow

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25 Aug 2010 08:54 #7 by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell)
Replied by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell) on topic Re:RAMS
Congrats Davey.

Hope all goes well.

Pete Maxwell

ITFS Member

Location: Ashbourne

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25 Aug 2010 10:01 #8 by Gavin (Gavin)
Replied by Gavin (Gavin) on topic Re:RAMS
cigars on standby.

dont make me come over there.

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25 Aug 2010 12:33 #9 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Just spoke to herself and she was at home for luNch and we have eggs about 100-150
in a clutch a couple of inchs in diameter.

I have some cardinals in that tank should I try to segregate them ?As they are very curious but the Rams have gone into protection mode


I was going to leave the eggs with the male and female to hone there breeding skills for future spawning .

All excited now can't wait to get home

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25 Aug 2010 12:40 #10 by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell)
Replied by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell) on topic Re:RAMS
daveyw wrote:

Just spoke to herself and she was at home for luNch and we have eggs about 100-150
in a clutch a couple of inchs in diameter.

I have some cardinals in that tank should I try to segregate them ?As they are very curious but the Rams have gone into protection mode


I was going to leave the eggs with the male and female to hone there breeding skills for future spawning .

All excited now can't wait to get home


Thats brill.

How many eggs usually hatch from such a big clutch?

Pete Maxwell

ITFS Member

Location: Ashbourne

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25 Aug 2010 13:21 #11 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Don't really know as this is my first but through reading virious articles probable about 1/3

But I have a cluctch of electric blue with way over 100 survived in another member set up and they were all about 6 weeks old

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25 Aug 2010 14:04 #12 by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell)
Replied by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell) on topic Re:RAMS
Thats amazing for so many to survive.

Good luck with them anyway and keep us all updated :)

Pete Maxwell

ITFS Member

Location: Ashbourne

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25 Aug 2010 16:39 #13 by tina.d (Tina Doyle)
Replied by tina.d (Tina Doyle) on topic Re:RAMS
hi, have bread rams meself with silica sand, clay pot and flat stone at the time i was also useing blackwater extract when waterchanging.i had six yellow rams and two just went claimed the stone for their own and fell in love :laugh: so anyway i removed the other four and just left them too it they were great parents and all went well few dats later i had bout eighty baby rams swimming around fed everybody newely hatched brine shrimp whitch is also what i used to bring the parents into season along with bloodworms and a good quality flake. it was wonderful a experience and you will enjoy it completely just remember small frequent water changes and very gently otherwise mammy and daddy might get annoyed. so thats my story hope it helps, good luck and enjoy geing a grandad.:laugh:
tina

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26 Aug 2010 08:17 #14 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
thanks tina .
Unfortunaly the pair ate most of the eggs last night, but there is still about 50-60 left .

I supose they are only getting the hang of it as it is there first spawn.
I managed to save some of the eggs ( only about 10) Had to put them in a breeding tank , but lack of oxygen maybe a problem as I have read that the parents fan the eggs to oxygenate them . Will see how it goes though. See how many are left when I get home . Although this morning I notice a couple of tetras nippin in and trying to grab a couple of eggs .

By the way mine dug a pit in sand and rolled in a few sooth pieces of gravel in a cleaned them then layed the eggs on them . Pretty amazing really . My daughter was jumping up and down with excitment . Had to explain to her this morningg why they ate the eggs .

I have smooth larger stone in there but there prefered to dig a pit .
I will try to introduce a piece of slate rock before the next spawn as I have seen a video of a guy using this and it is very easy to remove

Will keep you all posted and let you know how the extracted eggs get on also

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27 Aug 2010 08:19 #15 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Greedy lots s**TES ate all the eggs , I had a feeling they would but it is only their first spawn so waiting till their next now . I have read once they start it is a regular occurance and they get better as perents as they go.

I did save a few eggs but I fear they have not been oxygenated enough to hatch.
I will perciver and get there though.

I was thinking about getting a small pleco at the weekend one of the smaller varieties mabye a brisltenose. But do you think they would gooble up the eggs as well.

Also I was thinking on the next to try to use a tank divider ?

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27 Aug 2010 08:38 #16 by Gavin (Gavin)
Replied by Gavin (Gavin) on topic Re:RAMS
dont put a plec in..gooble gooble.

dont make me come over there.

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27 Aug 2010 10:03 #17 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
need to get some algae eaters in there what would recoment that will not interfer with the eggs ?

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27 Aug 2010 10:14 #18 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:RAMS
you don't need algae eaters, you need to get to wats causing the algae, is the tank in direct sun light? if so putting it somewhere else might solve this

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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27 Aug 2010 10:28 #19 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
No no direct sunlight ,
I have noticed a small brownish mark on the glass but it is very small about 1/4 inch diameter. Will do a test and see if anything is out of the ordinary . Due a w/c the weekend so i normally test before a change and then a day or 2 after .
But all this fish seem very happy and spawned . Water is clear .

I did treat for ich a couple of weeks ago and its all cleared up

Was more so looking for an effective clean up crew but some thing that anit going to gobble up eggs

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27 Aug 2010 10:36 #20 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
In reading I think the problem was the lighting .

I changed the lighting cycle to promote spawning . I think this may have created the problem .

I am getting some new plants next week hopefull just waitin to get payed ,
So this should also help .

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27 Aug 2010 10:39 #21 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:RAMS
i think clean up crews are over rated, great to watch but cleaning starts and stops with you.

here's a thread Kev started www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...id,8/id,76021/#76074 you might find the answer in here

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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27 Aug 2010 11:09 #22 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Thanks dar thats a handy link to have .
By the way the java and balls you gave me are flying cheers

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27 Aug 2010 11:16 #23 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:RAMS
i wish mine would, i suppose i gave two lots away. the marimo ball is no longer ball it's just marimo and looks like moss. my tank is to big and my filter is to sucky to create decent flow

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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30 Aug 2010 14:57 #24 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
Hi could you please tell me Gavin / Tina . When you bred the rams how far apart is it between spawning ?

I have put a nice piece of bogwood in with some nice brood leaves planted on it and the seem to absolutley love it . Just want every thing read rfor the next spawn

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15 Sep 2010 09:39 #25 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
second spawn last night , hopefully this time they wont gobble up the eggs
see how it goes.
I did notice that this time they we taking shifts in guarding the eggs where as last time they would guard and then get side tracked foraging for food.
Even at breakie time this morning the male atayed gauding while the female feed
I have a good pic of the male gaurding took this morning will try to get it up

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15 Sep 2010 10:05 #26 by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell)
Replied by Peteemax (Pete Maxwell) on topic Re:RAMS
Well Done Dave

Pete Maxwell

ITFS Member

Location: Ashbourne

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15 Sep 2010 10:19 #27 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
When I do get the fry hatched and bring them on a bit I will sort you out with a few Pete

My golds are very interested in whats going on but have not hit maturity yet they are about 2 months away .

But the combination the male is a long fina nd the female standard , so both the blues and golds should give a nice mixture

I will post some pics up on the male blue long fin ( daddy ) he is fab

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16 Sep 2010 13:26 #28 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
once again the rams hae gobbled the eggs but it took them longer this time heres a pic of the longfinned male

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16 Sep 2010 13:30 #29 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:RAMS
probblem resizing pics

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04 Mar 2011 13:25 #30 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Replied by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner) on topic Re:RAMS
any update on this ? Did you get them to breed and raise the fry?

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