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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

A really interesting article about Otos (link)

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27 May 2011 13:10 #1 by JohnH (John)
There's plenty of good info on them here, well done PFK (for once...)

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.p...ium&utm_content=html

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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27 May 2011 15:20 #2 by les (les)
Great article john but think he missed why so many die on arrival at home, apparently when they are caught in the wild they use low dosage of (I think its) cyonide. Ottos live in around planted areas so they pore the drug upstream and let it flow across the river beds and catch the fish that float up apparently this does alot of damage to the internal organs and they only last a week or two afterwards.
Have three in my kids 60l tank and there little crackers but very twitchy

les

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27 May 2011 17:39 #3 by christyg (Chris Geraghty)
I love otos but its hard to keep them when the survival rate is so poor, I got four about three months ago but only one has survived, he seems to be doing ok but would be better off with some company.

JohnH do I detect that you're not a fan of PFK ???

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27 May 2011 18:12 #4 by JohnH (John)
Christy:

JohnH do I detect that you're not a fan of PFK ???


Whatever gave you that idea?

and Les,
You are right - and sadly many Corys and L-plecs are caught the same way too...and we wonder why they don't live very long...it's a real tragedy.

The excellent lecture last year on the Saturday before the Show - by Anton Lamboq - highlighted indiscriminate methods of collection for the aquarium trade...not only in Freshwater, but in the Oceans as well. And to think the Natives used to catch the fish in the 'good old days' using little more than cast nets! Not everything changes for the better!

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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27 May 2011 20:32 #5 by murph (Tony Murphy)
If my recollection is correct, the actual magazine article was more in-depth about everything.

FWIW, It's useful to buy Ottos from someone who knows how to care for them when imported. Throwing 200 into a bare-bottomed sterile tank will lead to problems. They need a tank with algal growth and/or plants to graze on. No amount of flake etc will feed them properly till they get over the shock of catching and transportation. (50% daily water changes with tap-water, conditioner added later will also stress them in the shop.)
70% survival rates when gotten home are possible with the right dealer care.
However, it's useful to only expect 50% to survive in the home and consider anything more a bonus.



When they are brought home, a mature planted tank is a must.
The available surface-area available for bio-film (awsfuch? spelling????) tends to determine how many will last in a particular tank. (Along with the amount and SIZE if other grazers!)
I've got an 80l with lots of wood, enough plants and it sustains 7 ottos with 2 farlowellas. When an otto dies, it's place is magically taken a few months later by a new adult looking one the next time I bother counting them.
The 180l, despite being a veritable jungle, only seems to support 4-6 of them. However, 3 breeding sturisoma and 10 ammano shrimp seem to be sufficient competition for food to keep the population this size.


P.s. Any sponsors getting in REAL zebras???

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27 May 2011 21:16 #6 by JohnH (John)
My 'solution', for what it's worth, is to wait for a week, possibly more, after the Otos come into the shops and only then choose from the survivors - bit of a problem when someone is, like me, over two hours' drive away from Dublin - but we all have to make sacrifices for our hobby, don't we?

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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28 May 2011 08:45 #7 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Cork get them in sometimes also JohnH.
In terms of the Ottos, the article was indeed a bit longer,I must dig it out over the weekend. The key to even giving these fish a chance of survival is having a mature tank. The tank in my opinion needs to be running for about 6 months minimum to take these fish and provide it with a chance. They are nice fish and often overlooked.
Gavin

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28 May 2011 12:48 #8 by JohnH (John)
Would really like to see the article complete then - thanks lads for letting me know there was 'more'...

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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28 May 2011 15:23 #9 by derek (Derek Doyle)
an interesting topic with some very good replies. the only thing i would add is that in the past (1980s) when i kept these type of fish they were not so delicate but recently they are a disaster.
the key as already mentioned is to source out healthy stock (not easy) and only add to a mature planted tank.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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