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
Top Tips for Tricky Fish
So, I'll kick off.
1. Handling Arowana that jumps out of tank.
This may seem like an obvious one, but the bigger them come the bigger they fall.
This also applies to many other large fish that succumb to an out-of-tank experience.
a) get your fish off the floor.
b) gently place the fish in the tank but held near the surface with a holding net.
c) switch off tank lights.
d) hold the fish upright in the net near the surface of the water without causing un-due stress.
e) when the fish can clearly keep its own balance, then gently let it go.
f) watch the fish, if it starts to keel then gently scoop up in the net and hold at surface of water until you feel it can keep its own balance.
g) repeat d) if necessary.
h) add a good conditioner such as Tetra AquaSafe (and not just a dechlorinator): the vitamin B1 and the mucus protecting agents will help wonders.
i) add an anti-bacterial agent.
do not worry about cloudy eyes in themselves, and do not expect the fish to eat. They, in themselves alone, are things to worry about for the next day or 2.
2. Bagging large fish easily stressed fish (especially Arowana).
These are best bagged under water by sinking a suitably large bag and then gently nudging the fish into it with a net.
3. Maintaining tanks with fish not too friendly to humans.
Fish that are not always too friendly to humans are ones that if they decided to have a go at you can inflict some damage.
Such fish include Lungfish and large characoids (eg pirahna, tiger fish, or wolf fish)
a) design your tank to allow easy maintenance (you don't have to, but it does make maintenance easy
)b) have a piece of perspex with some decent sized holes drilled in it. Make sure the perspex would be neat fit against the front and back of the tank.
c) place the perspex in the water and gently herd the fish to one side of the tank; the holes in the perspex will mean that you won't get much drag in the water.
d) work away on the empty side; then do the same on the other.
(a large net could suffice).
We often find that pirahna are not always too bad, but some fish (especially lungfish and wolf fish) are unpredictable and have little fear of humans: damage from a large fish would be no laughing matter.
Over to the next person....(and the skills of good anglers may come in handy here as well).
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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