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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

Pleco's eating my cichlids and others!help!

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12 Feb 2011 20:19 #1 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
Hi All,

Can ye offer me some advice.... I have a red terror, jack dempsey, 3 clown loaches 2 synodontis and a bristle nose. about two months ago I got two sailfin pleco's and a common plec. since I've got these they have eaten holes in 4 fish- two have died. I think it is prob one of the sailfins as the common is the least dominent. I'm thinking the only way to get round this is to move the sailfin's. Is there anything I can do other than this??

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13 Feb 2011 01:13 - 13 Feb 2011 01:19 #2 by derek (Derek Doyle)
its most unlikely that the plecs are killing the other fish. they will certainly feast on carrion (dead fish) and if starving might tackle fish on the verge of dying, but i have never heard of these guys actually actively predating on healthy fish.
big plecs will sometimes clamp onto flat bodied fish such as angels and discus as these fish produce slime which attracts the catfish but was not aware of them attacking the more active species such as terrors etc.
still you would be best to move them if they persist in this somewhat unusual behavior.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
Last edit: 13 Feb 2011 01:19 by derek (Derek Doyle). Reason: add script.

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13 Feb 2011 10:41 #3 by Alex (Alex)
Replied by Alex (Alex) on topic Re: Pleco's eating my cichlids and others!help!
Maybe you introduced a disease when you introduced the pleco's to the tank. I find it hard to believe the pleco's would do that... The 3 big pleco's will probably attack each other... usually its best to stick with one per tank.

Have you actually seen them attack the other fish? a Picture of the holes would help. To be honest its better to move the two sailfins anyways even if they aren't guilty...

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14 Feb 2011 12:00 #4 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
defo not a disease. you can see where the plec has sucked the protective slim off in areas and then where they've eaten a few scales and then in a few places where they've eaten into flesh, all in sucker mouth shapes!!shapes were particulary distinctive on the syno.didn't see them suck to a fish, they seem to do it at night. did see the dominent sailfin chasing the other sailfin and plec and some of the smaller cichlids It is not hole in the head or anything like that....

Guess it's time to move them to smaller tank once the syno gets better.

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14 Feb 2011 12:13 #5 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Id agree,it can and does happen,mostly at night when the fish are at rest and the plecos are active.Id move the Pleco's on,or at least the offending ones. You shouldnt have a problem moving a sailfin on anyhow.

Gavin

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14 Feb 2011 12:19 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
tend to agree here, plecos will feast as Derek rightly said on the sides of some flat fish, but i have had expierences when it has happen during the night that plecos have done damage to somes fish by grazing on them as they slept, couldnt figure out what was happening for a while till one night i caught the bugger at it, was almost blamiing other innocent fish for it, this is as Derek has stated they sometimes are attracted to the slimecoat as food some of which as in the case of discus helps to feed young fry.. best remove them for safety i have found larger plecos quite territorial as they get bigger and this may also be a cause the get off my patch effect, hope this helps

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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