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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

need advice with tank

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30 Mar 2009 20:01 #1 by chollcham (Mich Man)
hello all,

this is my first post. i bought a tropical aquarium at the start of october. its a jewel with a a capacity of 125 litres. at the moment, i have a frontosa (3 inches), an oscar (4 1/2 inches), a small yellow cichlid, another similar sized redish coloured one with blue spots and a blue zebra cichlid(2 inchs), oh and a one of them boring fish that just sticks to the glass. i have had all these fish since the begining with the exception of another blue one which died in december (it was getting a hard time off the other blue one). they all appear to be very healthy and eating well with the exception of the frontosa.

my questions are:
1) is the tank big enough? i only recently read that an oscar needs 200litres minimum!!!!!
2) with the exception of the oscar who was small when i got him and now big, i have saw no growth with the others, is this normal or am i doing something wrong?
3) i feed them floating cichlid sticks, sinking cichlid food and sometimes bits of salmon and prawns to the oscar and frontosa, is this a balanced diet? the frontosa doesnt eat half as much as i think it should.

sorry for all the questions, but if anyone can provide some insight and tips, it would be great.

thanks

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30 Mar 2009 20:55 #2 by mrsFishpatrick (Astrid Fitzpatrick)
Does your red and blue spotted cichlid look anything like this


Your tank will definately be too small for the oscar, the others I cannot comment on other than,

The frontosa is from lake tanganyika
The zebra and your yellow cichlid(yellow lab?) are mbuna
The oscar is from south america
and if the fish in the picture is the same as yours, that is a jewel cichlid (hemichromis bimaculatus) and they come from african rivers.

I haven't met anybody who stuck all these fish from diffirent parts of the world in the same tank

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30 Mar 2009 21:30 #3 by pkearney (Phil Kearney)
the fish you have are not compatable as they require different water conditions and different food.the oscar is going to get the lions share of the food and i fear for the the frontosa in the long run.i suggest you go to one of the shops sponsoring the forum and try to do some swaps and get advice.
phil

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30 Mar 2009 23:36 #4 by Zoom (Zoom)
yes your tank is far too small, i reckon there is not much growth due to your water quality,also the fact the oscar will probably eating more than his share, if your feeding salmon and prawns this can also foul the water very quick, if any uneaten food isnt taken out, especially considering how sloppy oscars are. a very strange mix of fish too. i agree with the last post see can you exchange for more suitable fish.

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31 Mar 2009 18:35 #5 by chollcham (Mich Man)
thanks for quick response guys, the red fish i was describing is exactly like the one in the picture mrs fishpatrick, thanks. so what should i do now, i really like the oscar because its the most personable, always wants food and shows you so. i didnt know you couldnt mix, i was told at the time to keep cichlids roughly, thats what i did? are they not all cichlids??? i will put pictures up tomorrow and maybe yous can decide what i should keep and what must go.

thanks again everyone

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31 Mar 2009 18:58 #6 by mrsFishpatrick (Astrid Fitzpatrick)
If you want to keep the oscar I suggest at least a 4ft tank minimum for one 6ft if you want to keep 2.

They are indeed all cichlids but from diffirent parts of the world and they are not compatible

keep mbuna's with mbuna's
tanganyikans with tanganyika's
the jewel cichlids are b*st*rds and are best kept in a species tank (I have 3 of them, do you want one female???:) ) with maybe a plecco.
And the oscar as described above.

hth

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