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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

Newborn mollies HELP ASAP

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03 May 2008 14:31 #1 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Well my previous post advised that my black mollie was undergoing mating all morning, well Ive just discovered why and Im excited but nervous...let me explain...I was watching the fish chase the black mollies when for some reason I had a look at the filter and realised that there was noticeable large black specs and possible food floating around the inside of the chamber on the filter, I went to inspect it further and realised that they are baby fish...Now Im concerned as I dont know what to do next, they are between the sponge filter and the green container so v v little space for them...I can see them in there moving but really need to move them out or I fear they will die....I think they are too small to release back into the tank as the mollies will eat them and the guppies may fancy them also...Help!! I only have one tank so cant isolate them to another tank by the looks of it...what should I do please help!

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03 May 2008 14:35 - 03 May 2008 15:09 #2 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Sorry for the rushed pic. Here is a pic of the filter box. The little fishies are inside of it...so me of the black ones look quite big so guessing they may be there a while but Im guessing about 4 of them at least in there...Please help!

Ive gone up to the fish shop and bought fish hatchery. The v difficult part will be to take it out of the filter box and put it into the hatchery. Not going to be easy though..My first tropicals that have given birth so hence the excitment!

Last edit: 03 May 2008 15:09 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner).

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03 May 2008 17:06 #3 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
Once you get them in to the fish hatchery they will be fine
Just be as careful as possible taking apart the filter
There are probably more of them around the tank
Watch your fish if you see them darting towards an area of the tank there probably chasing babies
The babies will also try to hide amongst the gravel and in plants
Just sit in front of the tank for a few hours and watch for movement
Have a net at the ready
And good luck with them

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03 May 2008 18:08 #4 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Thanks, well Ive managed to remove them from the filter. In all there was 7 of them but 2 were dead. So I now have 4 black mollies and 1 (yellowish almost see through) also which actually resembles a mollie and is considerably smaller than the others and have a longer back like a female guppy almost. It could be a guppy I feel! The other mollies are much bigger than this one. ....So what do I feed them now is the question. I havve them in the hatchery. They have prob been feeding off the filter as they are doing some popping! The hatchery floor is alittle dirty now since I caught the fish. How do i clean this without causing too much distrubence?

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03 May 2008 20:30 #5 by oog1111 (Orlagh O Grady)
Congradulations!!!
Don't know about molly babies, but guppy babies will take finely ground up flake food, so thinking mollies would eat it too. In another few weeks they can eat froozen daphina (thawed). There is other foods too, but I forget, you might find more info under the livebearers section.

Easiest to mush up the flake food if you put it in a sandwich bag and bash it. They only need a tiny tiny amount of this at the moment.

I personally wouldn't worry about the poo until another day or two...they might get a bit stressed getting moved again. (think you just caught them today??)

Good luck with them,
Orla.

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03 May 2008 20:50 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
well done watch the tank over the next few days for any fry you may have missed, feeding them is relatively easy just finely grind up flake food and drop in tiny amounts.. little bits and often up to six feeds a day and do a little clean of the net after about five mins of feeding, to clean the breeding net all i would do is use a filter air line tube like a syphon hose and suck it out but remember to mind the fry. remember tiny amounts of food and often...best of luck
Seamus

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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03 May 2008 20:52 #7 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Thanks Orla,yeah its great as its my first lot of newborns! Im only new to Tropical fish (I previously did goldfish but always wanted tropical fish).I just spotted another black molly in the main tank while ago and thankfully managed to catch it and place it in the hatchery. So I have 5 mollies now in there and Im pretty sure the other fry is a guppy. All seem to be going well and yeah Im delighted Ive managed it but was still totally unsure of what to do next!

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03 May 2008 22:36 #8 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
plenty of god advice there if you have a salt or pepper grinder but the flake in that and one twist between two and six times a day. liquid fry No2 for livebearers is quite good.

if you still have fry in the tank a small tuberware container 3x2x2 and some netting from onions or garlic and a rubber band is all you need to make a fry trap. stretch the netting over mouth of container and use rubber band to hold in place float in tank but insure some air is trapped in side to avoid it sticking to sides.
Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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03 May 2008 23:27 #9 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
If you’re feeding finely ground up flake food
A good way is to wet the end of a match and pick up the granules with it
This way you don’t have to worry about too much waste
Is it a plastic or net breeder?

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04 May 2008 10:37 #10 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Its a plastic hatchery box. There seems to be enough room in it for the fry at present. My only concern it that the female molly is being chased alot by the other 2 male mollies (I know I shouldnt of gotten 2 males but the LFS gave me them when I was new to it and I didnt know the difference at the time.).The chases are quick and can get rowdy and Im afraid they are gonna bump the hatchery box (Ive taken out the drop box part and the partion) and that the fry will escape ? I think Ive found all the fry now, not many place for them to hide in my tank now. I found 1 y/day evening and thankfully saved it it also.

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04 May 2008 12:41 #11 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
The hatchery box should be ok if bumped against
Is it secured onto the side of the tank?
Have you started feeding yet?

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04 May 2008 12:51 #12 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Its a free floating unit, it generally gets pushed to the corner and remains there then. Ive started feeding them powdered flake food,they do pick at it alright but there is abit of it on the floor of the hatchery box now that I feel I need to clean out. They seem happy enough in the tank at present. Is there anything else I can do for them?

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04 May 2008 13:03 #13 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)

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04 May 2008 13:05 #14 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)

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04 May 2008 13:06 #15 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)

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04 May 2008 16:07 #16 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
It looks like there are slots in the side of the box?
If so you can take a jug of tank water and gently pore it into the box to remove extra food
But I would not worry about this too much as there should be enough circulation going through the box to keep the water fresh

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09 May 2008 15:15 #17 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
How long should I leave the fry in the hatchery tank, all are doing well and picking away at food also. Most of the fry are about 1cm long now, I still think they would be food for the existing fish if I put them into the main tank now. How long should one wait to introduce them into the main community tank. I only have them in the hatchery box now at present (7 of them) as I have no other tank to use,are they in danger of been confined in here? Also do most local fish shop take them when they are alittle older as my existing tank wont take 7 more fish when they start to grow abit more.(next time Im putting a pair of tights over the filter so they cant escape from the larger fish!). Im gonna keep the Guppy fry seeing as he was the only guppy fry to make it. The other 6 are mollies. All advise welcomed.

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09 May 2008 20:05 - 09 May 2008 20:07 #18 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
It will take a few weeks before they will be big enough for the main tank
They need to be big enough that the other fish can’t eat them
The LFS should take them off you but it depends on who your are dealing with also the color and quality is important
If you don’t want to keep them you could just release then into the main tank and let nature take its course
Last edit: 09 May 2008 20:07 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran).

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