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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

Snails (pests)

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26 Aug 2008 09:56 #1 by Brendan Keogh (Brendan Keogh)
Hi,

I am having problems with small brown snails in a lake malawi set up. I have since sold off the cichlids and emptied the tank to try get rid of them but they are still a couple there.

I want to get my tank back up and running and didn't think it would take this long to try get rid of them. They do breed at an alarming rate and cause problems with the filter.

Is their any fish that would feed on them or something i can do to get rid of them. I don't want to have to repeat the process of emptying it again.


Cheers
Brendan

Regards
Brendan

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26 Aug 2008 11:08 #2 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Clown Loaches will sort them out.

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26 Aug 2008 13:04 #3 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Common snail-eating fish include varieties of Cichlids, Catfish, Gourami and Bettas. Some fish species are better at eating aquarium snails than others, and each may have their won preference for different species of snail.

How far the aquarium snails population declines will depend on the types of fish you decide to use, their feeding patterns, how much food the fish are provided with the types of snails inhabiting your aquarium.

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26 Aug 2008 13:10 #4 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
How big is the tank and what is in it? clowns would be good but when fully grown they are quite big there is also the fact they should be in a group of at very least 3 but five or six is better. And with all fish that can be used there must be no other easy option of food. like all creatures they will take the easy option every time.

the other problem is that snails can get everywhere in a tank even places we can not and some fish can not, they get in to filters and eggs can survive and adults can survive with out ever leaving them.

thus when they have reached this stage and the tank is compromised i would use a chemical option not my first choice but at this stage one worth thinking of!

remove any carbon or zeolites or any other filter medium that will remove chemicals and a good copper based treatment should do the trick. allow about a week for treatment to work and before running the tank and cycling.

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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26 Aug 2008 13:21 #5 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Was going to suggest Chemical options also but Mickey beat me to it! Remember to remove Carbon and make sure you dont have any shell fish / shrimps in the tank as the copper based chemicals will kill them off also.
Gavin

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27 Aug 2008 10:08 #6 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
The clowns should do a good job of them but will probably never get rid of them altogether I only started seeing snails in my tank in the past few months I cleaned my filter yesterday and found about 30 snails that I could see in there. So far I have not seen 1 snail inside my tank except for my 3 golden apples

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27 Aug 2008 11:58 #7 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
while i would never dispute the use fullness of clown loaches against snails they have limitation in their size as they grow their ability to reach area is reduced my choice is always yo yo loaches were as my clown loache are no longer able to get behind my fluval 2+ yos yos do removing shail eggs and snails.

while you can't have both together as the bigger clown will bully

both are an excelent choice but i find the yo yos have more personality and are out and about more often my clowns are another story they are hard to see and i have to go looking for them to give them their regular once over


my yo yo regulary trawl the plants stones etc for snails and any eggs fry but this vigilance has all but destroyed my snail problem


there are other options
snail traps
and puffers
but this would be like all choices some thing to consider in relation to what you will have in the tank.

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 Aug 2008 12:10 #8 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
If you have no fish in it at present then just go the chemical route,either that or empty the tank and give it a big big clean out, consider getting new substrate also if its a concern but I think the chemical option will see off any remaining snails in it.
Gavin

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27 Aug 2008 12:15 #9 by Brendan Keogh (Brendan Keogh)
Hi,

Thank you all for your input. I want to plant this aquarium so i will go with the chemical option.

Most of them seem to be gone so fingers crossed. When i do have it planted and if i start to see them again i will use the clowns.

Thanks for you help

Regards
Brendan

Regards
Brendan

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27 Aug 2008 14:10 #10 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
cant wait to see the pictures when all is done
Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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