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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

Is my pleco too big

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13 Jun 2008 12:51 #1 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
Is my pleco too big was created by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
Hi everyone,i've just bought myself a second hand 4ft 180l bowfront tank,the guy i bought it off asked me if i wanted to take his pleco and catfish aswell as he's changing to marine,i was only too happy as i was going to get another pleco anyway,the thing is the pleco is about nine inches long and the catfish about 7 or 8 inches,they're fine in the tank,plenty of room and everything,i keep finding the catfish swimming around upside down when i come in at night and turn the lights on,the problem is i've just stocked the tank with the occupants from my rekord 70,platys,mollies,glowlights and zebra danios,two apisto's i bought last week and my pleco i got three months ago(about 2-3 inches),the pleco and catfish dont seem to bother with the rest but they're monstrous compared to the rest of my fish,
My question is,will the rest of my fish be safe with the two monsters or will they get stressed out,i know my own pleco never bothered with them but hes probably smaller than the barbles on the catfish,i'm not awfully bothered at the minute,just a little nervous,i keep checking and counting the fish,and having mini heart attacks when one's hiding

Thanks

Paul

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13 Jun 2008 14:52 #2 by tonycfc (Tony O Connor)
Replied by tonycfc (Tony O Connor) on topic Re:Is my pleco too big
to start with the pleco is ok and will not bother the smaller fish as they will stay out of his way,ive got a common pleco
roughly 16 inces and he only occasionaly fights with my two
clown knife fish which are the same size or bigger they fight for the best hiding spots in the tank even though theres plenty to go round

the catfish sounds like an upside down cat,not to sure of the proper name but this behaviour is totally normal,youll find in time hell do it during the daytime if the light is very low
as night is when they feel most comfortable,

check on the net to see if its the same cat and have a read on it but i dont think youv much to worry about

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13 Jun 2008 15:07 #3 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
Replied by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE) on topic Re:Is my pleco too big
cheers tonycfc,i think its a sailfin catfish,its the only one i seen that looks like it

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13 Jun 2008 15:34 #4 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:Is my pleco too big
Yes,
It certainly sounds very much like some sort of Synodontis catfish, Either, as Tony says an Upside Down Cat or, if your identification is right then it might be the S. Euruptus, Featherfin Cat. I have four of these and they often swim 'upside down' too.
Either of these is pretty placid and shouldn't molest even your smaller fish but never say never!

You will find both this and your new Pleco will greatly increase the 'workload' of your filtration for a while as they both excrete fairly large amounts of...well, excretion...so try to keep the extra water changes regime up to scratch for a few weeks at least, until the bacteria increases sufficiently to cope.

A larger Pleco will greatly appreciate some greenstuff, especially favoured is a slice of Cucumber (cut off the skin to be on the safe side). You will need to 'anchor' this as otherwise it will just float around the tank, I use a small lead strip to pierce the Cucumber and then wrap it around a bit to stop it slipping off the lead. I just tie in a length of fishing line to hold it in place then - I hope this makes sense, it's a lot easier to do than try to describe!

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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13 Jun 2008 15:57 #5 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
Replied by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE) on topic Re:Is my pleco too big
cheers john,i'll try it,i'm hoping filtration system will be ok,these were in the tank before with about 12 or 15 cichlids,the filter was only switched off for a couple of hours while i drove home,i'll be doing weekly water changes anyway,i do them religiously every sunday(instead of mass)

Thanks for the advice

Paul

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