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
96L Community Stock Check. Advice Needed
- Darren (Darren)
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12 Cardinal Tetras
1 Dwarf Gourami
2 Rams (Bolivian, Blue or Gold)
2 Guppies
Is this too much for a 96 litre tank? What about the mixture of fish? I want a peaceful tank. Any and all comments are most welcome
Thanks<br><br>Post edited by: Darren, at: 2007/07/21 17:57
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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IME dwarf Gourami do better in groups of three or more, but I know everyone will say thats a no-no.
IME they do great, never did I have a loss due to (obvious) aggression with any of my gourami over the years.
Also I'd only put in the teras or the gourami and guppys for a couple of weeks first.
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- Darren (Darren)
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Even with some nice dirty filter medium to kick start it I reckon its a big risk.
IME tetras like that don't do well in a cycling tank, whereas Gourami are very hardy.
Don't know anything about Rams, but I read somewhere they are weak.
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- Darren (Darren)
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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The fish you list would be fine except for the guppys which like the water alkaline. If you go for the ramerizi
ram be sure to buy smallish young fish, as they are very short lived. The bolivian or altispinosa ram lives a lot longer and grows much larger but are quite gentle. You could also plant the tank and add a small cory shoal or small ancistris/otocinclus.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Adding any more than one gourami will also lead to agression. IMO, your tank is two small for two gouramis to establish terretories which will lead to problems.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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- Darren (Darren)
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I'd be inclined to steer clear of the dwarf gourami (I'm asuming your thinking of colisa lalia). It's very hard to get good ones as they have been badly impacted by an iridovirus. Most of the fish i see in the shops are half dead already and in poor condition. The only place I've seen decent ones recently is Brittas.
Adding any more than one gourami will also lead to agression. IMO, your tank is two small for two gouramis to establish terretories which will lead to problems.
I don't want any more than 1 gourami and I buy all my fish in AV in Brittas

I've heard rams are very peaceful fish. I'll look a bit more into it
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Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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if you are lucky enough to be able to buy wild caught they are superior to the normal found in shops due to inbreeding that is what i have found locally i find most people drawn to snakeskin or mosaic varieties
Wild caught guppies? They are little beige fish and nothing to look at. Besides I have never seen them for sale in this country. Have a look at these:
images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://h...-19,GGLR:en%26sa%3DN
And they do occur in brackish water sometimes but are happier in freshwater. I used to breed guppies. It's a seriously psace consuming affair if you want to maintain a strain. The first problem is to get a couple of fish that will breed true. Only available from a dedicated breeder and they ain't cheap.
Back to your 96l tank.
Go with the rams and cardinals. Some corydoras would go nicely with them. Which species is basically limited by what's available and how much you want to spend on them. I'd go for one of the smaller species like habrosus or pygmeus.
3-4 octocinclus to eat any algae would also be OK. To replace the guppies on your list I would go for Endlers. Nice, colourful fish that are OK with softish water and don't show any of the problems with guppies these days, like inbreeding.
And get half a dozen or so
Holger
Post edited by: apistodiscus, at: 2007/07/23 10:59<br><br>Post edited by: apistodiscus, at: 2007/07/23 11:20
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- Darren (Darren)
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- Trillian (Mary Russell)
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- koinonia (koinonia)
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i got 2 moonlight gouramis on sunday from the new shop but will have to bring them back. apart from not realising they grew so big(impulse buy- nice colour) one is bullying the other and the other inmates:angry:
anyone know a good fish psychologist;)
it would be useful if gavin and AV had a fact card on the fish they are selling. i know andy in aquarium solutions has them which are useful for helping people avoid nice coloured fishies:blink:
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- Trillian (Mary Russell)
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it would be useful if gavin and AV had a fact card on the fish they are selling. i know andy in aquarium solutions has them which are useful for helping people avoid nice coloured fishies
Just for you, I'll draft \"The Idiots Guide To Fishkeeping\"...

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- koinonia (koinonia)
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